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This paper aims to empirically examine how atmospherics affect word of mouth (WOM) about the brand. The authors focus primarily on uncovering the causal mechanism in which such effect is serially mediated by both perceived positive emotions evoked by atmospherics and attitude toward the brand.

To test the research hypotheses, 314 Greek moviegoers were drafted to participate in a survey. Data were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis (AMOS) and the SPSS macro (PROCESS tool). The model was applied to motion pictures, as they provide a particularly good example of short life-cycle products.

Findings indicate that atmospherics are related to WOM about the brand through perceived emotions evoked by atmospherics and, in turn, attitude toward the brand.

The present study extends the relevant literature by providing both direct and indirect links between atmospherics and WOM about a brand.

The model of the present study could be applied to other short life-cycle products that share key characteristics with motion pictures. Moreover, the present study increases movie producers and exhibitors’ understanding of the effects of theatre atmospherics on WOM about the movie and leads to practical suggestions and implications.

WOM is one of the key variables that can affect the profitability of short life-cycle products. To date, there was no evidence that atmospherics can influence WOM about a short life-cycle product.

The present study aims to discuss the role of Hofstede's cultural dimensions, uncertainty avoidance and individualism/collectivism, on the use of various humor types in print advertising, across culturally diverse countries.

A sample of 12,351 ads (3,828 humorous) from the largest circulated UK and Greek magazines was content‐analyzed in light of Speck's humorous message taxonomy, emphasizing humor types and intentional relatedness.

The results indicate that cultural diversity is reflected in the types of humorous devices that tend to be used in the UK and Greece. British advertisements incorporate not only sentimental but also disparaging humor types such as sentimental humor and full comedy, providing a great deal of pure entertainment. On the contrary, Greek print ads emphasize cognitive humorous appeals, in an attempt to provide credible information to the uncertainty‐avoiding Greek audience.

The findings of this study highlight some key aspects of UK and Greek print advertising that can be extended in other homogeneous cultures. In individualistic countries with low uncertainty avoidance, it seems that consumers prefer humor‐dominant messages. On the contrary, in collectivistic countries with high uncertainty‐aversion attitudes, humor can be used as a Trojan horse to convey the required information to the target group.

The present study points out how advertisers' intentions to entertain or to inform the target audience are expressed in the use of various humor types in advertising, underlining, also, the effect of cultural values on these communication decisions.