Consumer Responses to Advertising: The Effects of Ad Content, Emotions, and Attitude toward the Ad on Viewing Time

This study develops and tests a hierarchical model of advertising effects on viewing time. The ads studied represent a sample of commercials aired during prime-time broadcasts, and the effects are analyzed across the ads rather than across people. Primary emphasis is placed on the attempt to explain a simulated behavioral measure of attention to television commercials--that of channel switching (zapping) and fast-forwarding through ads on prerecorded programs (zipping). In addition, the study demonstrates a chain of effects from the content of television ads, through emotional reactions and attitude toward the ad, to actual viewing behaviors. Copyright 1991 by the University of Chicago.