Does Your Ad Have Too Many Pictures?

Mary Ann Hocutt, Reetika Gupta, Dongwook Kim, V Parker Lessig and Surendra N Singh

Are advertisements with more peripheral pictures more memorable than those with fewer pictures? If advertisers' objectives could be accomplished with advertisements containing fewer pictures, significant reductions in advertising-creation and media costs would result.

Does Your Ad Have Too Many Pictures?1

Surendra N. Singh University of KansasV. Parker Lessig University of KansasDongwook Kim Michigan Technological UniversityReetika GuptaBaruch College, CUNYMary Ann Hocutt Samford University

INTRODUCTION

Pictorial Advertisements have always played a dominant role in print advertising (Edell and Staelin, 1983). These days, it is not uncommon to see six-page, eight-page, or even longer magazine advertisements with pictures that take up more than half the advertisement space. Advertisers use pictures for several reasons, including (1) to get attention, on the assumption that audiences examine the artwork...

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