Two competing hypotheses relative to the formation of attitude toward the ad (A,! provide the basis for an experiment. The peripheral-cue hypothesis views A, as an outcome of consumer response to executional elements of an ad while the combined-influence hypothesis anticipates a joint effect of central message arguments and peripheral cues in A, formation. Results supported the combined-influence hypothesis across varying levels of processing motivation and opportunity with differences in the relative magnitude of argument and cue effects consistent with The Elaboration Likelihood Model.