The effectiveness of "typical-user" testimonial advertisements on black and white browsers' evaluations of products on commercial websites: Do they really work?

This study tests the effectiveness of testimonial advertisements on black and white browsers' evaluations of a high-end product on a commercial website. The results demonstrate that, although white browsers in general respond no differently to a commercial site whether it features a black character testimonial advertisement, white character testimonial advertisement, or no testimonial advertisement, black browsers do respond differently to commercial sites based on the race of the character used in the testimonial advertisements. Specifically, the findings indicate that black browsers identified more strongly with black character testimonials, were more likely to believe a site was targeting them when the site contained black testimonials, and recalled more product information from a site that featured black character testimonials vis-a-vis a site with either white character testimonials or no testimonials. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.