ADVERTISING AND THE CONSTITUTION: REGULATION AND RIGHTS IN FLUX (1991, RC-2--RC-3)
Roxanne Hovland, Dwight L. Teeter, and Gary B. Wilcox

For more than a century and one-half, commercial speech was an unwelcomed stepchild in the splendid edifice of the Constitution. The Supreme Court of the United States did not decide a case on the First Amendment status of advertising until Valentine v. Chrestensen (1942), when it held that "purely commercial advertising" was not protected under the Constitution. That case, dealing with a man passing out handbills, never soared to great heights of principle. But the dismissive treatment given to advertising in that case did not last. Advertising found a strong ally--the law of defamation--in the storied 1964 decision in The New York Times v. Sullivan.... Given the Posadas decision, the outcome of the battle over tobacco advertising is an extremely tough one to predict, as are most of the other battles in which advertisers are embroiled. In the wake of Posadas, all that seems certain is the unpredictability of advertising regulations and rights.

This paper proposes a macro-theoretical model for unifying existing theory and research in advertising, as well as suggesting areas of this field which may not have received appropriate consideration to date. The attempt has been made to incorporate the widest view of the field, using the levels of observation concept from General Systems Theory. Unlike GST, this model does not propose to organize the field by describing systems, sub-systems, and super-systems. Rather a map is created which contains topic areas which can be addressed separately or in combination. The model presented here is an integration of two systems of categorization. First, the field is segmented by levels of observation using the individual unit, i.e., human, advertisement, brand, as an index level. From that point macro and micro levels are identified. The second categorization system is derived from the standard communication model of Source, Medium, Message, Receiver. By combining these two category sets, a grid is created which provides a comprehensive view of the field of advertising.

This study describes the data and analytical tools that are available to media planners and researchers for developing and evaluating comprehensive newspaper advertising schedules and planning models. Using 1983 Scarborough adult newspaper readership data, the study quantifies strong relations within and between newspapers, across 51 areas of dominant influence (ADIs), split by market size and daily versus Sunday editions. Implications are drawn for national and local media planning, model building, and future research, which are likely to be especially productive.

The purpose of this article is to outline some of the problems facing media planners who wish to analyze the likely impact of several advertising media categories taken together. Through a combination of previously published evidence and new procedures offered here, the authors show how such difficulties can be easily overcome. Magazine and television cross-pair audience data, provided by Mediamark Research, Inc., are used for this purpose, as well as media quintile and dual audience ratings provided by Simmons Market Research Bureau, leading to the conclusion that media planners can, with small effort, better predict the impact of multiple media categories. The implications of this can then, in turn, be communicated to other advertising decision makers.

MediaWIZ is a package of electronic spreadsheets designed to help students better evaluate and present advertising media plans. MediaWIZ incorporates the beta binomial distribution for reach and frequency estimation and the Zielske and Henry model for unaided recall estimation. MediaWIZ is designed to be used with Lotus 1-2-3 (release 2.01) on an IBM PC or compatible with 256K memory or higher.

With the abandonment of the NAB Advertising Code in 1982, the commercial television networks have the opportunity to reposition their advertising market by varying the quantity of advertising as well as the standard length of commercials. This study examines the financial implications of such actions in the context of the new competitive atmosphere which the networks no longer totally control

The discipline of advertising has traditionally borrowed heavily from other fields, and the topic of design is no exception. This paper examines several outcomes of current design studies from a variety of design-oriented fields, such as commercial design, urban planning and architecture, in both visual and sensory areas. These design studies are explored for their relevance to advertising design principles and as possible approaches for improving the efficacy of advertising design. The outcome is the examination of several design principles that have not previously been applied to advertising situations. Some behavioral and various reactive results are also included.

While artificial intelligence is far from intelligent, it can still provide a useful tool for developing creative strategy. This paper discusses a computer-based system for creative strategy development.

The concepts of "features and benefits" are commonly presented in textbooks as basic components of advertising strategy. Similarly, both are frequently used as variables in advertising research. However, rather than presenting conceptual definitions of the terms, most authors simply provide examples or operational definitions. In view of this lack of conceptual definitions, this article presents a review of relevant literature to illustrate the lack of conceptual definitions and proposes a conceptual model which differentiates product features, product performance and consumer benefits.

An experiment (n=72) was conducted with pre-schoolers to assess the impact of audio and visual cues' assistance to comprehending a commercial message.... Two factors were selected. First, audio had two versions: 1) a lively originally-composed jingle, and 2) the same content delivered in an absence of music (voiceover). The second factor consisted of 1) presence or 2) absence of key visual assists about brand attribute information.... [T]he jingle [was] rated as significantly more difficult to understand. The results from the test of comprehension resulted in no statistical differences. However, other measures suggested the importance of audio visual considerations.

The back-translation technique was used on a sample of 100 newspaper and magazine advertisements to determine linguistic and managerial lessons for international advertising specialists. The method is described and the implications for global advertising are discussed, especially lessons regarding the translatability of advertising copy for a variety of products in several types of languages. Future needed research directions are specified, and the use of the technique for educational purposes is recommended.

This study represents the partial findings of a continuing empirical analysis of the advertising content of a popular Polish consumer magazine, Kobieta i Zycie, from 1978 through mid-1987. This was a turbulent decade in Polish economic and political history, encompassing the relatively stable period prior to, and early in, the Solidarity movement, the disintegration associated with the period of martial law, and the more recent and only modestly successful attempts at economic recovery. The author suggests that advertising activity in centrally planned socialist states is not immune to economic forces, and indeed may be subject to far more dramatic governmental intervention than in capitalistic economies. During the nearly ten years covered by this study, consumer magazine advertising generally, and advertising in Kobieta I Zycie magazine specifically, have proved to be insightful indicators of the nation's economic situation.

Should we facilitate the submission of accepted competitive conference papers to journals by removing the copyright issue and/or by permitting only abstracts of papers to be included in the proceedings in place of the complete paper? Journal editors indicate double publication is the key issue, not copyright. Deans and department chairs indicate (1) copyrighting doesn't matter at all, (2) AAA proceedings papers do not count for promotion/tenure unless the candidate also has 2 or 3 journal articles, and (3) AAA proceedings papers do count for merit considerations.

The two issues of interest to this study are the divergent perspectives concerning the desired content of undergraduate advertising education and the value of current advertising education programs as perceived by advertising practitioners. This paper reports a study undertaken at Michigan State University during the summer of 1987 concerning the on-campus recruiting practices of advertising agencies and their evaluation of undergraduate advertising education.

The areas of influence contributing to the lack of understanding of the "new media" are explored: lack of practitioner/academician interaction and the failure of academic reviewer to place "new media" research in the context of knowledge discovery vs. theory testing/justification. For the purpose of this article, the "new media" are defined as those typically interactive media which combine communications and computer technologies. A videotex study is used to illustrate the two areas of influence.

Many brands of products do not differ greatly in terms of physical attributes. As a result, advertisers are using commercials to create some unique emotional symbol or tie between the product that associates an emotional response with purchase of the product or product use. This paper considers how these emotion-eliciting ads are presumed to operate and whether the use of emotion-eliciting advertising should be regulated by the FTC as a deceptive or unfair practice. Previous research and related-FTC cases are reviewed to determine if a strong legal case can be made for such regulation. Although evidence exists that suggests a case can be made for regulating emotion-eliciting advertising, this paper concludes that it is equally clear that many difficulties would be encountered.

The present study assesses the relationship between consumer satisfaction and one's intention to initiate word-of-mouth. More specifically it measures subject's level of satisfaction toward a motion picture just seen and their likelihood of transmitting positive or negative comments to others. Zero order correlation and partial correlation analyses performed on data obtained from 170 participants allow for the acceptance of two of the three hypothesized relationships. The results generally support findings from previous studies and point out the need for continuing research on interpersonal communication.

This study investigates one potentially important but generally overlooked emotional advertising appeal, namely guilt appeals. After providing a theoretical explanation of how guilt is experienced, hypotheses are developed which test the relationship of guilt appeals with the emotional response of guilt and intended and actual behavior. The results indicate that an emotional response of guilt leads to a greater incidence of compliant behavior in situations where one perceives a responsibility to take action.

This research examines the interaction between two qualitatively different persuasive message appeals and two levels of audience involvement in influencing an audience to value and to engage in a socially beneficial behavior.... The findings give support to the Elaboration Likelihood Model. The two-way interaction of involvement and message type was significant (p < .05) for attitude and behavior measures. No differences were found in the measures for intention and cognitive responses.

Magazine advertising supplements, commonly referred to as "advertorials," are seemingly one of the fastest growing media trends in the industry today. The emergence of advertorials, "those advertiser paid blocks that combine clearly identifiable advertising with simulated editorial text" as a viable new format in print advertising is readily shown by a simple perusal of current consumer magazines, as well as the attention they have received by the trade press. As a viable print advertising alternative, advertorials have received scant research attention. At present, little is known about who is likely to use this format or how much is likely to be spent on this type of advertising. Studies of the effectiveness of advertorial advertising are lacking in the current literature. In this exploratory study, results of a survey of media personnel are presented which provide information about the current status of the purchase and use of advertorials as well as opinions about the effectiveness of advertorials.

This article reports the results of a survey designed to explore, compare and contrast the attitudes of physicians and consumers to advertising physicians. Results indicate that a gap still exists between the two groups with consumers expressing more positive views.

Previous research on advertising agency-client relations is reviewed, and integrated with relevant services marketing research. Directions for strategically developing service relationships is provided, as well as a number of future research implications.

The past two years have seen dramatic recombinations of the advertising agency business in the form of mergers, and the acquisition of numerous new communications services by large agencies. The advertising trade press has reported extensively on these developments, recording numerous opinions both favoring and opposing the mergers and acquisitions. This paper investigates the issues surrounding agency mergers from the point of view of both agency and advertiser firms, and reports the attitudes of the top 100 advertiser firms based on responses to a mail survey. The study found advertisers to be extremely skeptical of the claimed advantages of agency mergers particularly because of fears about the deterioration of client service. While few statistically significant differences between the attitudes of users and non-users of merged agencies were found, users were consistently more skeptical about the benefits of agency mergers.

Presents a brief overview of current advertising copytesting techniques, and a more in-depth literature review of the relatively new field of psycholinguistics. Proposes that psycholinguistics, even though previously tested usually in interpersonal, laboratory settings, offers theory and empirical results that have strong implications for using psycholinguistics as a conceptual and theoretical basis for the development of future copytesting techniques. Encourages future empirical replication of psycholinguistic studies using mass-media vehicles and field settings.

In a replication and extension of a study by Richmond and Hartman entitled "Sex Appeal in Advertising," this study supports the basic conclusions that sexual appeals can be categorized into distinct types and that sponsor recall varies as a function of the type of appeal employed.

Music can be used to change or develop beliefs, attitudes, and intentions among consumers who view an advertisement. Furthermore, the retention rates of a viewer can be improved and their beliefs, attitudes, and intentions strengthened across time by the use of pleasing audio stimuli in commercials. The findings of this study indicate that considerable influence on a person's beliefs about a product or retailer can be brought to bear through the use of affective advertising approaches, even in high product involvement product categories. The nature and duration of these effects is unclear and requires additional study.

Source credibility has been observed to produce favorable, neutral, and sometimes even unfavorable effects on attitudes in persuasion contexts. These diverse and conflicting findings can only be reconciled if it is first recognized that effects due to variations in source credibility on attitude are likely mediated by multiple distinct mechanisms or processes. In this paper, we isolate several such mediating processes, and discuss the conditions under which each one is likely to operate. We also present empirical evidence supporting the existence of these processes, and explicate the implications of this research for the use of credible sources in advertising.

A content analysis of all empirical articles in the Journal of Advertising, the Journal of Marketing, and Human Communication Research from 1977 through 1986 was conducted to determine the extent of programmatic and predictive research in advertising by substantive topic, over time, and as compared to research in marketing and communication. The results revealed that the more frequently appearing topics manifested the most programmatic and predictive research, and that neither the programmatic nor the predictive nature of advertising research increased consistently over time. By 1985-86, advertising research was substantially less programmatic--but equally predictive--when compared to marketing and communication research.

This paper describes how a knowledge system can be constructed to make advertising budget decisions. To illustrate the approach, it will describe an actual system developed to make budgeting decisions in a marketing simulation game environment. The system will take a rule based approach, deriving rules from industry practices and past advertising budgeting research.

The purpose of this study is three-fold. Through administration of a popular "Creative Quotient Test" to 212 award winning advertising copywriters, art directors and creative directors, it explores: 1) how top creative talents score on a conventional creativity test; and, 2) common traits among advertising creatives and how these compare with the traditional profile of the creative person; and, 3) differences in personality traits, attitudes, values, interests, motivations, and problem solving skills between copywriters, art directors and creative directors. By profiling individuals in the various creative positions, it is hoped that we can better understand creative advertising persons. And, in turn, such an understanding will allow us to gain insight into, and cultivate, traits related to job success.

Although often maligned, evidence indicates that mail questionnaires may produce the lowest levels of non-sampling error of any survey technique. However, response rate is sometimes a problem with this method. This article reviews ways of reducing nonresponse error in mail surveys and provides an illustration of one recommended method, pre-notification telephone calls. This method is both effective and cost efficient. Guidelines for when it may be most useful are also presented.

This paper reports on an exploratory study on the use of repertory grid technique to assess consumer perceptions as background for advertising decision-making. The study included two phases. The first phase examined the vocabulary with which people think of cultural institutions in the Denver, Colorado area using a repertory grid instrument. This terminology was then used to design a survey questionnaire that was sent of a sample of 1,000 Denver-area residents in the second phase of the study.

Business academics have concluded that there is little utility in investigating subliminal phenomena. This conclusion is suspect in light of the evidence available. This paper, which offers an exhaustive literature review, advocates reconsideration of the typical position expressed.

During the summer of 1987 the authors completed a major analysis of K mart's advertising program with special emphasis on their free standing inserts. The major headings in this paper are the major sections of the 259 page study. We made a five hour presentation of the findings to approximately 50 of the top management at K mart.

This session was developed to explore and define the nature of television viewing. Research presentations focused on theory and methods related to understanding television viewing as a process.... The purpose of this session is to explore questions related to "how people view."

... [T]echnology is fragmenting the television audience, but at the same time is providing more and better data with which to understand it. This is leading to an increasing emphasis on modeling the heterogeneity of viewing behavior and sales response behavior across the viewing population.

This paper reviews the concept of television media context, or the effect that the environment provided by a television media vehicle has on the overall effectiveness of an advertisement. It considers the factors thought to contribute to context effects and the multiplicity of interactions among them. Finally, it suggests a classificational approach for television media vehicles that should prove useful for evaluating context effects for purposes of media planning, notwithstanding the apparent complexity of the problem.

This special topics session consisted of a panel discussion from three panelists who are currently using some type of computer systems in creative classes. The text appearing below is not verbatim from the session, but a synthesis of the comments made by the panel members with some additional information added for clarity.

The direct mail catalog provides a pedagogical beginning point in the copywriting course. The catalog as text invites a review of the copy platform, target audience, the interplay of copy and concept, and strict writing guidelines. Catalog copy must sell, be brief and concise, answer all questions, and be clear. The differences in catalog audiences allows students to write on similar products in a variety of styles.

Outdoor advertising is the ideal way to introduce copywriting because it demands precision in conceptual abilities, language, and logic. Outdoor advertising further provides a sound beginning point in that it distills the essence of a product or service. After the lessons of outdoor have been learned, the class can be more profitably introduced to the special effects of the other media.

Advertising teachers struggle with the choice between teaching theory and practice. Neither of these extremes are satisfactory, yet middle ground often poses its own problems. The teaching of advertising as craft provides a basis for integrating theory and practice in an interesting, theoretically sound and professional useful manner. This paper briefly outlines a rationale for this approach, offering as example the advertising copywriting course at Purdue University.

All teachers of survey courses run the hazard of becoming bored after many repetitions of a course offering. In turn, students to whom the material is fresh may well find class presentations boring as a result of the instructor's ennui. Therefore, it behooves the experienced teacher to seek ways to "freshen" new offerings of his course. This paper presents six ideas on how the worthwhile goal of "newness" can be achieved.