The effects of cultural appeal, product involvement, and ethnic identity on attitudes and recall in online advertising

The three studies presented here use four distinct samples that were gathered in mainland China, the United States, and Malaysia. We examined the persuasive effects of culturally congruent online advertising. We also explored the effects of interactions between ethnic identity and product category. Our findings showed that advertisements with collectivistic appeal, although they enhanced attitudes toward ads and brands across all samples, tended to diminish advertising recall. Furthermore, our results revealed that the level of ethnic identity and product category interacted with the main effects of culture on attitudes. Specifically, participants with high levels of ethnic identity had particularly strong reactions to culturally congruent advertisements. In addition, the attitudinal and cognitive effects of cultural appeal tended to diminish in high-involvement product advertisements, which may explain the decreased levels of recall observed in our initial inquiries. Our findings are presented in the contexts of global branding and future cross-cultural advertising research.