The Influence of Visual versus Verbal Priming on Affective and Cognitive Response to Emotional Advertising Appeals

The impact of presenting high and low-arousal advertising appeals is examined under different priming conditions. The hypotheses tested here are based findings regarding differential hemispheric functions. Based on these findings, it is predicted that response to appeals that differ in valence (negative or positive) will be a function of whether the prime is visual or verbal. Specifically, when participants are primed with a visual task prior to ad exposure, mean liking for positively-valenced ads is higher than mean liking for negatively-valenced ads. In contrast, when participants are primed with a verbal task prior to ad exposure, mean liking for negatively-valenced ads is higher than liking for positively-valenced ads. Overall these results suggest that the type of task (visual versus verbal) engaged in prior to ad exposure has a significant impact on affective response, and that valence should be considered separately in hypothesizing about the influence of emotional stimuli on such response.