The Sex of Ad Viewers As a Determinant of Ad Evaluation: Matching the Sex of Viewers, Ad Characters, and Narrators in Drug Prevention Advertisements

INTRODUCTION: Determining the efficacy of media campaigns targeting health behaviors has been a focus of social science researchers for a number of years now; results show that pro-health campaigns typically achieve only modest impact. However, recent research suggests that consideration of message features and individual-level differences may play an important role in pro-health message effectiveness and improve weak effects reported in previous evaluations of health campaigns. One feature of persuasive messages that has received a substantial amount of attention is the sex of the message-source. A separate yet complementary stream of research examines persuasion via the transportation-imagery model (TIM) which posits that in narrative contexts, persuasion occurs as a function of an individual being “transported” into the narrative world. The present study brings together these disparate literatures to assess the potential interplay of viewer sex and the sex of ad characters as well as ad narrators in persuasive outcomes of drug prevention advertisements.

METHODS: The study, secondary analyses of nationally representative data from the National Survey of Parents and Youth – a survey designed to evaluate the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign – found support for hypotheses concerning the role played by sex matching among audiences and ad features.

RESULTS: Hierarchical linear modeling analyses revealed ad character and viewer sex similarity was associated with more favorable evaluations of advertisements aimed at preventing or curbing marijuana use. While applicable to both male and female viewers, this tendency was significantly more pronounced for male viewers. Post-hoc analyses assessing the possible role of marijuana use status showed that the character-viewer matching influence over respondents’ ad evaluations was strongest for males who were either nonusers and confident they would not start using marijuana (i.e., resolute nonusers) or those males who had already started using the drug (i.e., users). While initial analyses also revealed significantly more positive ad evaluations for females viewing ads with female narrators, post-hoc analyses showed this effect was principally driven by resolute nonuser females – a group already evaluating all ads extremely positively.

CONCLUSIONS: The study adds to the growing research implicating the importance of both viewer and advertisement characteristics in the efficacy of anti-drug advertisements. Results are consistent with expectations from the transportation imagery model and intimate that source effects may be more complex than persuasion research would propose. More research is required to understand how to best integrate findings into future drug prevention ads.