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The present study aims to further examine the persuasive effect of pictures in a print ad according to the recipient’s ability to process the information and to observe to what extent the presence of a picture could negatively influence recipients’ attitude toward the ad’s verbal claim.

Two studies were designed to manipulate the presence vs absence of an attractive/unattractive picture, the kind of verbal claims (affectively based vs rationally based) and the recipient’s ability to process the ad (cognitive load vs no cognitive load).

Main findings showed that the presence of an attractive picture elicited an unfavorable attitude toward the functional verbal claim when recipients were not cognitively charged. Furthermore, it proved to be a mediator of the influence of pictures on attitude toward the ad. The positive influence of an attractive picture on product evaluation and purchase intention was greater under a cognitive load but showed contrasting results for price perceptions. For the unattractive picture, cognitive load was found to be a moderator only when recipients had to infer the product price.

The present research emphasized the negative influence of attractive pictures on functional verbal claims and the moderating role of cognitive load on pictorial stimuli either acting as peripheral or central cues in the persuasive process.

Practitioners may want to consider that an attractive picture in advertising is not always the best route for persuasion, especially when the verbal ad content emphasizes the product’s properties.

The present study provides new insights regarding the role of pictures in advertising persuasive effectiveness. Until now, no research had addressed the extent to which the presence of a picture could affect processing of an ad’s verbal claims. Additionally, the present study expands research on persuasive communication and affirms the necessity of more intensively investigating the role of pictures in advertising under the rubric of information processing level.

This study aims to examine the influence of a visual alteration in print advertising on viewers’ responses according to the different textual and pictorial information contained in the ad.

Through an experimental design, the presence or not of a human face and the kind of verbal claims (self-centered vs product-centered) were manipulated, as well as visual fluency manipulated by varying the clarity of the ads.

As expected, the presence of a human face, as opposed to just a product picture, has led to stronger negative effects on attitudes and purchase intention when the ad was visually altered. In addition, ad’s claim directed toward the self yielded lower purchase intentions compared to arguments directed toward product characteristics. Findings supported our main expectations, but also demonstrated contrasted effect, plausibly due to a bias correction.

To comfort these findings, further research should be realized on other advertising varying the kind of human face stimuli (e.g. woman/man; smiling/neutral; beautiful/average).

In terms of practical implications, it highlights the significance of considering the medium of communication used for print ads with caution. The pictorial use of a human face can be particularly harmful in the persuasive process if there is a risk that the ad could be visually altered.

Currently, little is known about how sub-optimal visual exposition changes attitudes and behaviors depending on the content of an ad. The present study expands research on processing fluency effects and the use of models in advertisements.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of highlighting the geographical area in question – through either pictorial or pictorial-textual formats – in print-advertising messages for European Union geographical indication (GI) quality-labelled products.

A 2×3 between subjects factorial design was used to manipulate the type of GI, namely, protected designation of origin vs protected geographical indication, and the region of origin presentation in the advertisement (absent vs pictorial vs pictorial-textual), while measuring participant brand attitude and intention to buy (dependent variables).

Results show a significant main effect of the region of origin presentation on brand attitude and purchase intention. Communicating the region of origin through pictorial cues leads to more favourable responses than when there is no reference to it in the advertisement. The presentation of the region of origin through pictorial-textual cues leads to more positive responses than communication based just on pictorial cues. No interaction effect between the type of GI and the region of origin presentation is found.

The study makes a new contribution in the field of communication about typical food products, since the ability of the geographical area to increase consumers’ purchase intention has not been systematically tested in an advertising context. To date, there is no strong evidence on how effective it is to convey the values of the geographical area through its picture and/or name. On a practical level, the study supports new communication strategies for typical food products in a context where messages tend to use intrinsic advertising cues that emphasize physical product attributes, rather than extrinsic advertising cues that leverage intangible product values.

The purpose of this research is to demonstrate the effectiveness of pictorial warning labels that leverage the risk of obesity as a deterrent against alcohol abuse. It evaluates the impact of three different kinds of warning labels that can potentially discourage alcoholic drinking: (1) a claim, in text format, that cautions consumers about the product (i.e. a responsibility warning statement); (2) a textual warning label, text-format information on the content of the product or the consequences of excessive consumption (i.e. a synthetic nutritional table); (3) a pictorial warning label, an image depicting a food product with a caloric content equivalent to that of an alcoholic beverage.

In Study 1, a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design is used to evaluate the intention to buy different alcoholic cocktails. The stimuli comprised two cocktails that are similar in alcoholic volume, but different in their caloric content. The images of the products were presented across eight warning label conditions and shown to 480 randomly selected Italian respondents who quantified their intention to buy the product. In Study 2, a different sample of 34 Italian respondents was solicited with the same stimuli considered in Study 1, and neuropsychological measurements through Electroencephalography (EEG) were registered. A post hoc least significance difference (LSD) test is used to analyse data.

The results show that only the presence of an image representing an alcoholic beverage's caloric content causes a significant reduction in consumers' purchase intentions. This effect is due to the increase in negative emotions caused by pictorial warning labels.

The findings provide interesting insights on pictorial warning labels, which can influence the intention to purchase alcoholic beverages. They confirmed that the use of images in the warning labels has a greater impact than text, and that the risk of obesity is an effective deterrent in encouraging consumers to make healthier choices.

The tobacco industry consistently opposes measures that would limit their marketing, but provides little empirical evidence to support its position. This paper aims to test claims that pictorial health warnings on tobacco products would be no more effective than text‐only warnings.

Three studies used face‐to‐face interviews with smokers and non‐smokers to compare pictorial and text‐only warnings. Two studies used semantic differential scales to estimate cognitive and affective responses to pictorial and text‐only warnings, and the Juster Scale to provide behavioural estimates. The final study used best worst scaling to compare paired pictorial and text‐only warnings.

Images featuring medical and social images elicited stronger affective, cognitive and behavioural responses than a control, text‐only message. Comparisons of refreshed text and pictorial warnings found the latter elicited stronger reactions while the former produced similar results to the control. Updating text warnings did not render these more effective; however, adding an image to an existing text warning made this more effective than the control.

Arguments advanced by the tobacco industry need empirical analysis to assess their validity.

This study provides evidence that pictorial health warnings are more effective than text warnings and suggests that refreshing the text used in warning labels, the alternative promoted by the tobacco industry, would be less effective than introducing pictorial warnings.

This is the first comparison of pictorial and refreshed text warnings; the findings challenge the tobacco industry's position on tobacco warning labels and contradict arguments used to oppose the introduction of pictorial warning labels.

The purpose of this study is to explore how different types of environmental claims may affect the communication effectiveness of environmental advertising. Two two moderating variables include the perceived eco‐friendly image of the originating country and consumer involvement.

The examination involves the analysis of the responses of 1,200 subjects in Shanghai, China, to mock advertisements containing environmental claims using a 2 x 3 factorial design.

Environmental claims enhance the communication effectiveness of advertisements for both high‐ and low‐involvement services. For high‐involvement services, substantive environmental claims generate more favorable attitudinal responses than do associative environmental claims.

This research focused on a single Chinese city and on two service categories with contrasting degrees of involvement. While such a confinement can enhance the internal validity of the findings, their external validity has yet to be established.

These findings suggest that marketers should adopt a situational perspective by taking into account environmental claim type, country disposition, the degree of environmental consciousness of their target consumers, and service type when designing their environmental advertising campaigns.

Although a number of previous studies have focused on the application of environmental claims to advertise products, similar investigation into how these claims may help advertise services is virtually non‐existent. In this respect, the present study can be viewed as the first empirical work devoted to closing this research gap.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the risk arising from technological devices, such as closed circuit television (CCTV) and nuclear power plants and the consequent effect on the rights to privacy and security of individuals.

The paper presents critical and conceptual analyses of CCTV, nuclear power plants and the rights of individuals. It also analyses how communitarianism and liberal individualism would respond to right‐infringements and risk‐imposition. It draws on W.D. Ross's prima facie and actual duties to explain the pre‐eminence of duty when certain duties conflict in a bid to improve technology.

The paper discovers the importance of rights to individuals, particularly the rights to privacy and security. It shows that, in some situations, government's duty to respect the right to the privacy of individuals conflicts with the duty to provide public goods, such as CCTV. The paper, therefore, stresses that one duty has greater moral force than the other. In essence, the more incumbent duty can be employed by government in justifying right‐infringement and risk‐imposition, though this does not disvalue the rights of individuals.

The paper offers insight into ways of addressing questions such as: when is it morally acceptable or justifiable to expose others to risk? When is infringement on people's rights permissible? Also, the paper is relevant to those in the areas of ethics and technology because it offers an ethical analysis of risk‐imposition and right‐infringement by examining how ethical theories, such as communitarianism and liberal individualism, would assess risks resulting from CCTV and nuclear energy. It argues that consent is not enough to justify risk‐imposition and right‐infringement. It concludes by drawing on W.D. Ross's prima facie and actual duties as a means of justifying risk‐imposition and right‐infringement by government.

Argues that, although researchers have studied several aspects of brands which may affect consumer purchasing processes, one significant characteristic of many brands ‐ the origin cues that they contain ‐ has received little or no attention. Reviews current research in the country‐of‐origin area related to branding, as well as the work done by other researchers on brand personality and brand image. Distinguishes brand origin from country of origin, and shows how this concept could be valuable in resolving a methodological problem with some country‐of‐origin studies. Surveys ways in which brand origin is used in practice, both implicitly and explicitly, and discusses the relationship between brand origin and the concept of the global brand. Finally, highlights potential problems associated with the use of brand origin, draws managerial implications relating to its use, and suggests areas where research is needed.

Civil engineering index ‐ The latest major file of trade catalogues in microform to be published is ‘Construction and civil engineering index’ by Technical Indexes Ltd (NLW February 1982). Although some of us are more familiar with the very efficient ti cartridge catalogues, this new index comes on microfiche on a reduction of 24x. The file is updated quarterly, contains over 4000 product references, and is classified by the CI/sfB—that is the widely used construction industry classification imported in the early 'sixties by the Royal Institute of British Architects from Sweden; the ‘sfB’ comes from the Swedish ‘Samar Betskommitten Sör Byggnadsfragor’ which is the name of the committee set up in Sweden in 1947 to produce the scheme. Technical Indexes have published a brochure giving further details of the index and catalogues. The total annual cost of the service is about £1500, but it is possible to purchase particular sections separately. For further information, contact Kevin Brennan, Technical Indexes Ltd, Willoughby Road, Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 4DW, tel 034426311, tx 849207.

This paper delves into evaluating the effectiveness of warning messages as a deterrent against excessive fat consumption. It examines how consumers perceive the fat content of food products when presented with two distinct label types: (1) a textual warning, providing succinct information about the fat content, and (2) a pictorial warning, offering a visual representation that immediately signifies the fat content.

Two quantitative studies were carried out. Study 1 employed a questionnaire to evaluate the efficacy of textual and pictorial warning messages on high- and low-fat food products. Similarly, Study 2 replicated this comparison while incorporating a neuromarketing instrument to gauge participants’ cerebral reactions.

Results indicate that pictorial warnings on high-fat foods significantly deter consumers’ purchasing intentions. Notably, these pictorial warnings stimulate the left prefrontal area of the cerebral cortex, inducing negative emotions in consumers and driving them away from high-fat food items.

While the influence of images over text in shaping consumer decisions is well understood in marketing, this study accentuates the underlying mechanism of such an impact through the elicitation of negative emotions. By understanding this emotional pathway, the paper presents fresh academic and managerial perspectives, underscoring the potency of pictorial warnings in guiding consumers towards healthier food choices.

1. Textual warnings do not seem to discourage high-fat product consumption.

2. A pictorial warning represents the fat content of an equivalent product.

3. Pictorial warnings decrease the intention to purchase a high-fat product.

4. Pictorial warnings determine an increase in negative emotions.

Textual warnings do not seem to discourage high-fat product consumption.

A pictorial warning represents the fat content of an equivalent product.

Pictorial warnings decrease the intention to purchase a high-fat product.

Pictorial warnings determine an increase in negative emotions.