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The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of the symmetrical disposition of information items displayed on the front of product packaging on perceived complexity, perceptual fluency, aesthetic evaluation and product purchase intention.

A sample of 104 participants was exposed to fast-moving consumer goods packaging. A within-subject design experiment was carried out to assess the influence of the symmetrical disposition of information items displayed on the front of the packaging. ANOVA and a PROCESS procedure to assess mediation (Hayes, 2013) examined the relationships among the factors influenced by symmetry.

This study found that the symmetrical disposition of information items around the vertical axis (mirror symmetry) decreased visual complexity and highlighted an “indirect-only mediation” of visual complexity on the aesthetic evaluation of the packaging through processing fluency. This research also highlighted the fact that packaging aesthetic evaluation had a positive influence on purchase intention.

This study extends knowledge on package design by showing that the elements on which the producer can act (in this case, symmetry on the front of packaging) have an influence on the consumer’s evaluation of the product and intention to purchase.

This study aims to investigate the role of two structural factors – threat level depicted on fear messages and warning size – as well as two contextual factors – repeated exposure and type of packs – on pictorial and threatening tobacco warnings’ effectiveness.

A two (warning threat level: moderate vs high) × two (coverage: 40 vs 75 per cent) × two (packaging type: plain vs branded) within-subjects experiment was carried out. Subjects were exposed three times to pictorial and threatening tobacco warnings. Both self-report and psychophysiological measurements of emotion were used.

Results indicate that threat level is the most effective structural factor to influence smokers’ reactions, while warning size has very low impact. Furthermore, emotional arousal, fear and disgust, as well as attitude toward tobacco brand, decrease after the second exposure to pictorial and threatening tobacco warnings, but stay stable at the third exposure. However, there is no effect of repetition on the emotional valence component, arousal-subjective component, on intention of quitting or of reducing cigarette consumption. Finally, there is a negative effect of plain packs on attitude toward tobacco brand over repeated exposures, but there is no effect of the type of packs on smokers’ emotions and intentions.

Useful marketing social guidance, which might help government decision-makers increase the effectiveness of smoking reduction measures, is offered.

For the first time in this context, psychophysiological and self-report measurements were combined to measure smokers’ reactions toward pictorial and threatening tobacco warnings in a repeated exposure study.

Upstream social marketers advocate implementing effective public policies to protect vulnerable populations from the impacts of advertising harmful products. This study aims to explore how alcohol ad content restrictions (as practised in some countries where ads may only convey factual information and objective properties of alcohol products) versus non-regulated advertising affect consumers’ product perceptions, attitude towards the ad and desire to drink. This study also examines how such restrictions influence the noticeability of text health warnings in ads (signalling alcohol-related risks) depending on their prominence.

A multi-method study was used to increase the validity of results. An online quantitative survey (n = 348) and an eye-tracking study (n = 184) were conducted on young French people (15–30). The eye-tracking method is particularly relevant for objectively measuring visual attention.

Results show that content restrictions on alcohol advertising reduce ad appeal and desire to drink. A more prominent format enhanced attentional processing of the text warning, whereas none of the tested ad contents influenced its noticeability.

This study assesses scientific evidence of the effect on alcohol ad content regulations adopted by some countries and provides arguments for upstream social marketers to inform and influence policymakers.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first multi-method study that assesses the effect of regulated vs non-regulated alcohol ads in terms of persuasion and of text warning visibility.