Issue Summary
December 2025 (Vol. 65, Issue 4)
Writing for Impact: Colin Campbell’s Advice to JAR Authors
In his editorial in the December issue, Editor-in-Chief Colin Campbell offers ten practical, experience-based tips to help authors craft clearer, more compelling and more publishable research for the Journal of Advertising Research. Emphasizing that strong ideas often falter due to unclear storytelling or weak framing, he urges authors to begin with a meaningful managerial problem, state contributions early, and use positioning tables, overview tables, visuals and complete appendices to make their work easier to follow, evaluate and apply. Campbell also encourages writers to be explicit about their theoretical contribution, anticipate reviewer concerns, and prioritize clarity over cleverness—reminding scholars that at JAR, impact comes from research that is both rigorous and genuinely useful to the practitioners who shape advertising in the real world.
Petfluencers: Why Animals Can Be More Persuasive Than Human Influencers
This multi-study investigation shows that pets can outperform human social media influencers because audiences perceive them as more sincere and thus more trustworthy. Across a field test and three experiments, the authors find that petfluencers generate higher engagement and greater willingness to pay for endorsed products, driven by stronger perceptions of honesty and genuine intent. The research also reveals when petfluencers are especially effective: consumers who naturally anthropomorphize animals respond most positively when posts emphasize the present (rather than the future), creating a mindset match that boosts persuasion. For advertisers facing influencer fatigue and skepticism toward sponsored content, the findings suggest petfluencers offer a uniquely credible, lower-risk alternative—particularly when messages are framed concretely and aligned with audiences’ psychological tendencies.
The Baby Animal Effect: How Cuteness Drives Conservation Action
Featuring baby animals in wildlife conservation advertising reliably increases empathy, this research shows, which in turn boosts conservation intentions and—even under the right conditions—donations. Across four studies using images of baby tigers, elephants, rhinos and lions, the authors demonstrate that baby animals evoke significantly stronger empathic responses than adult animals, and that this empathy is the key mechanism driving pro-conservation attitudes. The research further reveals an important boundary condition: baby-animal appeals are especially persuasive when paired with promotion-focused messaging (e.g., “help wildlife flourish”), but not when framed in a prevention-focused way (“stop wildlife crime”). In the final study, this promotion-focus pairing also increased actual donation amounts by enhancing both empathy and conservation intentions. The findings offer actionable guidance for nonprofits and social marketers—use baby animals and forward-looking, positive messaging to maximize emotional engagement and motivate meaningful support for wildlife protection.
How Arrogance Can Work in Advertising—When Brands Use It Strategically
When do “arrogant” facial expressions in ads—models looking superior or dismissive—boost effectiveness rather than backfire? Across three studies, the authors find that arrogant expressions consistently increase attention, including longer viewing time and higher brand recall, because they violate viewers’ expectations and trigger closer processing. However, the impact on purchase intention depends entirely on brand positioning. When arrogance aligns with the brand’s identity—such as distinctive, premium or leader-like brands—it enhances purchase interest by making the brand appear confident and superior. When misaligned—such as for friend-like, accessible or everyday brands—the same expressions reduce purchase intention. The findings provide a clear rule for practitioners: arrogance can be a high-impact creative device, but only when it reinforces the brand’s strategic positioning. Misalignment not only wastes attention—but risks damaging consumer response.
When Activism Backfires—How Brands can Overcome Backlash
Learn how a brand’s response to backlash over a sociopolitical stance can either fuel or calm consumer reactions, depending on the message used, by reading this new study. Across three experiments, the authors compare four response strategies—retraction, responsibility, reaffirmation and no-response—and find that retraction consistently triggers the most perceived hypocrisy and the most negative brand attitudes among consumers who originally supported the brand’s stance. Visual evidence in the Accommodative–Defensive Framework illustrates how these message types fall along a spectrum of accepting vs. denying responsibility. The studies also show that message type matters far less to consumers who oppose the brand’s initial stance. A key managerial insight comes from Study 3: pairing a retraction with a “basic need” justification (e.g., employee safety)—as illustrated in the side-by-side message designs—significantly reduces hypocrisy perceptions among high-support consumers, offering brands a viable way to step back without alienating supporters. Overall, the research highlights hypocrisy as the central mechanism behind backlash and provides clear guidance: brands should avoid simple retraction when responding to activism controversy and instead consider responsibility, reaffirmation, silence—or, if a reversal is unavoidable, pair retraction with a compelling safety-based rationale.
Understanding How Often Subscribers Actually Read Digital Magazines
This study uses granular clickstream data from more than 42,000 subscribers to reveal how audiences really engage with digital subscription magazines. The results show far lower reach, viewing frequency and repeat-viewing than publishers or advertisers typically assume. Although all subscribers viewed at least one issue during the 11-week period, over half viewed only a single issue, and just 1% viewed all issues. Similarly, most content sections were viewed only once by two-thirds of their readers. Repeat-viewing rates averaged 37% for issues and 34% for content sections, meaning only one-third of viewers of an ad in one issue are likely to see a similar ad in the next. Importantly, the study finds no Double Jeopardy effect—content sections with larger or smaller shares of the magazine have similar repeat-viewing patterns. The clearest segmentation insight appears in the heavy- vs. light-viewer comparison. Heavy viewers showed repeat-viewing rates around 60%, whereas light viewers repeat-view was at just 12%. For planners and advertisers, the results underscore the need to adjust expectations downward, rely on behavioral rather than proxy metrics, and plan for broader cross-issue placement to achieve effective reach and frequency.
When Fast Music Makes Ads More Persuasive—and When It Doesn’t
Researchers in this study analyzed 26,025 real-world video ads and conducted three controlled experiments to uncover when music tempo meaningfully shapes advertising effectiveness. The authors find a clear interaction between tempo and regulatory focus. Fast-tempo music significantly increases purchase intentions and willingness to pay for promotion-focused ads, which emphasize positive gains, because it heightens time pressure and pushes consumers toward quicker, more heuristic decision-making. In contrast, tempo has no significant effect on prevention-focused ads, which trigger more systematic, detail-oriented processing that dampens the influence of music. The evidence shows that the tempo effect emerges only once music becomes sufficiently fast. The study also illustrates how fast music boosts willingness to pay in promotion-focused ads but not prevention-focused ones. Finally, the research confirms that this effect operates through a serial pathway of increased time pressure and heuristic processing—not arousal. The findings give advertisers a practical rule: pair fast music with gain-framed, promotion-oriented content to boost ad impact, and rely less on music when communicating risk avoidance or reassurance.
When “Truth” Shapes the Vote: How Perceived Message Honesty Drives Policy Support
Discover how voters’ perceptions of truth in political advertising shape vote choice in industry-versus-opponent policy battles, in this new study. Findings show that the truth matters, but differently for different voters. Using survey data from more than 1,800 California voters across three high-stakes ballot measures, the authors find that perceived truth in industry messages most strongly boosts support among conservative-leaning voters, while perceived truth in opponent messages most strongly boosts support among liberal-leaning voters. Crucially, political party endorsements can flip these patterns. When one party endorses the industry side, truth perceptions become most influential for voters of the other party. A qualitative, follow-up study on the 2022 sports-betting initiatives further shows that voters naturally connect truthfulness with trust, reinforcing truth as a key driver of persuasion. For practitioners, the findings highlight that effective issue advertising must consider not only message accuracy but also political identity and party cues—because perceived truth can either mobilize your base or win over the other side.
Is Personalized Advertising Really More Persuasive?
This meta-analysis of 53 experimental studies provides the strongest evidence to date that personalized advertising reliably outperforms generic ads—boosting consumer attitudes, behavioral intention, and overall persuasion. The authors find a small but consistent positive effect (d = .16) and importantly show that perceived relevance—not perceived intrusiveness—is the key mechanism driving personalization’s impact. Contrary to common concerns about privacy backlash, personalized ads did not significantly increase feelings of intrusiveness, suggesting personalization is generally low risk in most commercial contexts. The analysis also reveals when personalization works best: actual personalization using real consumer data (d = .28) is far more effective than imagined or scenario-based personalization (d = –.15), and covert behavioral personalization performs better than overt cues like names. Overall, the study concludes that personalization succeeds because it enhances consumers’ ability to connect the message to themselves, making it a broadly effective strategy across demographics and ad types when executed authentically and relevantly.
Using Unfamiliar Cues to Break Through Multitasking Distraction
Advertisers can improve ad recall among multitasking audiences by embedding an unfamiliar cue—such as a scientific ingredient name—into the message, this study finds. Across four experiments, the authors find that unfamiliar cues trigger selective attention and curiosity, prompting viewers to engage in congruent multitasking (e.g., searching the unfamiliar term on their phone) rather than unrelated distraction. As shown in the Overall Model Diagram on page 6, this cue drives memory through two pathways under congruent multitasking: (1) it increases task relevance, improving attention, and (2) it reduces perceived similarity to competing products, making the advertised item more distinctive. These effects lead to significantly better ad recall. However, the benefit disappears during incongruent multitasking, where unrelated phone use suppresses attention and eliminates the cue’s impact. The findings suggest a practical tactic for advertisers: in a world where most viewers split attention across devices, embedding a small but unfamiliar detail can redirect multitasking behaviors in your favor—turning distraction into deeper message processing.
Cross-Funnel Synergies That Transform Media ROI
This is one of the most comprehensive demonstrations to date that media tactics can work together across the purchase funnel—often far more powerfully than when evaluated in isolation. Using two years of data from a Fortune 500 CPG brand and modeling 19 distinct media tactics, the authors show that upper-funnel channels like sports and Hispanic TV significantly boost the effectiveness of mid-funnel tactics such as paid search, social and retargeting, while mid-funnel tactics also amplify lower-funnel coupons. In contrast, tactics within the same funnel stage act as substitutes, showing little to no synergy (e.g., TV forms do not reinforce one another). Building on these findings, the authors develop a Mixed Integer Linear Programming optimization model that incorporates these synergies and can be run in minutes, producing radically different allocations: shifting spend away from broad national TV and toward Hispanic TV, sports TV, paid search and retargeting. The synergy-aware model predicts such changes will yield a 40% increase in incremental revenue, compared with a main-effects-only approach. For marketers, the takeaway is clear: cross-funnel complementarity is real and material and optimizing media plans without accounting for these interactions leaves substantial revenue on the table.