The advertisement puts me down, but I like it: Examining an emerging type of audience-targeted negative advertisement

Hongjie Sun, Yong (Eddie) Luo, Feifei Liu, and Ben Lowe

Advertisements often use positive appeals to please consumers. One exception is an emerging device that uses negative messages to target audiences, which the current authors refer to as “audience-targeted negative advertisements.” Through in-depth interviews and two experiments, this research systematically explores the perceptions and feelings of audiences about audience-targeted negative advertisements (Study 1); empirically distinguishes these advertisements from humorous advertisements and other negative advertisements (Study 2); and investigates when audience-targeted negative advertisements are more likely to be effective for advertisers (Study 3).
Sun, Luo, Liu, and Lowe

Management Slant

  • Although negativity is an explicit feature of audience-targeted negative advertisements, they can create positive audience perceptions, including being humorous, realistic, and unique.
  • Audience-targeted negative advertisements can convert negative messages into positive audience responses, such as empathy and perceived realism of the advertisement.
  • Audience-targeted negative advertisements are more effective with a moderate (versus high) degree of negativity and for low-status (versus high-status) products.

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