Understanding the role of emotion in advertising

This paper argues that understanding the role of emotion in communication is crucial for understanding advertising effectiveness.
  

Understanding the role of emotion in advertising

Larry PercyCopenhagen Business School

Understanding the role of emotion in communication is critical to an understanding of advertising effectiveness, because emotion is an important mediator of how we process information. Unfortunately, the role of emotion is often misunderstood. To begin with, we must be careful not to confuse 'emotion' with positive affect or 'liking.' Emotion, even negative emotion, energizes how we process information. As Rossiter and Percy (1997) have repeatedly pointed out, it is notnecessary to 'like' all advertising for it to be effective. Only when we are...

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