دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی یک چشم انداز اخلاقی در مورد تبلیغات Necro: اثر تعدیل کننده ارزش برند - اشپرینگر 2017

Abstract

Necro-advertising refers to the use of deceased celebrities in advertising. This practice offers unique advantages to brands that seek to benefit from positive associations with timeless celebrities at a more affordable cost than celebrity endorsement. Nevertheless, how consumers actually respond to the use of deceased celebrities in advertising remains under-theorized. This research is the first to empirically examine consumers’ ethical judgments about necro-advertising practices. In particular, drawing from the signaling theory, it demonstrates the impact of consumer inferences about the existence of a legal agreement for using deceased celebrities’ images on brand ethicality. The results of two experimental studies show that a low-equity brand is more likely to be perceived as unethical when using necro-advertising since consumers have limited knowledge about these brands. Conversely, our findings confirm how a high level of equity prevents from the aforementioned adverse effects since these brands’ assets send a credible signal about their capability to get approval from a deceased celebrity’s estate for the use of its image. While deepening current knowledge on the perceived ethicality of necro-advertising practices, this research uncovers the moderating effect of equity on consumer inferences about brand ethicality. The results also suggest managerial caveats and guidelines for low-equity brands. In particular, while necro-advertising may have a negative impact on the perceived ethicality of low-equity brands, disclosing a statement about a contractual engagement with the deceased celebrity’s estate can mitigate this negative effect by providing an unequivocal signal that the brand is acting ethically.

Discussion

Lending support to our predictions, Study 2 results indicate that brand equity moderates the impact of agreement cue on brand CPE. While in Study 1 it was found that necroadvertising (vs. celebrity endorsement) had a negative impact on brand CPE in low-equity conditions, Study 2 results shed light on the psychological process at work. The findings confirm that controversy emanates from the inference that low-equity brands did not sign an agreement for using the deleb’s image for advertising purposes. As expected, the statement that low-equity brands paid for using the image prevented controversy and serially resulted in higher ad CPE and brand CPE.