Up or down? The effect of vertical display on consumers’ attitude toward recycled product advertisements

Recycled products are the products derived from remanufacturing waste materials. This research investigates how the vertical position of recycled products relative to their raw materials changes consumers' evaluation of recycled products advertisement. Across three experimental studies, this research demonstrates that under the metaphorical effect of "recycled products-up, raw materials-down", when the recycled products are displayed above their raw materials instead of below, consumers can perceive higher processing fluency, and thus better attitude toward the recycled products advertisements. However, placing products in a higher vertical position does not always lead to better consumer response. For consumers with low metaphor accessibility of "recycled products-up, raw materials-down", the effect of vertical position on processing fluency attenuates, resulting lower consumer attitude. Our findings advance existing knowledge about the recycled products, and provide enlightening suggestions for how marketers promote their recycled products effectively.