A Tale of Two Social Contexts: Race-Specific Testimonials on Commercial Web Sites

Troy Elias and Osei Appiah

This two-part study examines the effects of race-specific testimonials on both Black and White consumers and on Black majority and Black minority consumers.

A Tale of Two Social Contexts: Race-Specific Testimonials on Commercial Web Sites

Troy Elias

University of Florida

Osei Appiah

Ohio State University

INTRODUCTION

Numerous studies have indicated that the type of spokesperson used in advertising can affect consumer response (Atkin and Block, 1983; Frieden, 1984). Further research exploring the effect of source-viewer similarity on advertising response has shown that mere similarity, however, is not enough if the audience does not make a connection. Viewers need to be aware of the similarity between themselves and the source to induce the positive responses that target marketing is presumed to cause (Appiah, 2004;...

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