Social Context and Advertising Memory

This article examines the influence of the presence of others on advertising memory. The authors take an intrapsychic perspective on social desirability and propose that the presence of others––in the absence of direct interaction––leads to the automatic activation of a concern with the impression others are forming. They find that words applicable to social desirability are accessed faster when respondents are in the presence of another person than when they are alone. Across three experiments, semantic (but not perceptual) memory for words and advertisements applicable to social desirability is greater than that for neutral cues after respondents are exposed to these in the actual or imagined presence of others than when they are alone. Respondents' chronic impression management tendencies (self-monitoring) moderate the effects, suggesting that the effects are, at least in part, determined by motivational factors. This novel theoretical framework provides direct implications for advertisers and marketing researchers who rely on recall memory as one of the most common measures of advertising effectiveness.