The moderating influence of ad framing for ad-self-congruency effects

Prior research indicates that ad-self-congruency effects are significant only when participants are not motivated to process ad messages, as when they are in a positive rather than negative affective state (Chang, 2002a). In line with this reasoning, it was expected that ad tactics such as ad framing that can evoke emotional responses would determine reliance on ad-self-congruency for making judgments. As expected, when positive emotions were evoked by positive ad framing, participants formed brand evaluations based on ad-self-congruency, generating more positive responses to self-congruent ad messages than to self-incongruent messages. In contrast, when negative emotions were elicited by negative ad framing, responses to self-congruent ad messages and self-incongruent messages were not significantly different. (c) 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.