Article
A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: How Humanized, Retargeted Ads Intrude in Social Contexts
Journal of Consumer Affairs
(2019)
Abstract
A great deal of past work has demonstrated that ads that “fit” or blend into their context evoke favorable responses because consumers perceive such ads as less intrusive. The current work posits that when aspects of the ad make persuasive intent salient—such as exposure to retargeted ads, which are generated based on consumers' past online browsing behavior—this relationship reverses such that fit between an ad and its context elicits higher perceptions of intrusiveness. Specifically, ads that present ad copy in a conversational style “fit” with a social media context on the dimension of social presence. Across three studies, we show that retargeted ads that “fit” the context on the dimension of social presence evoke higher levels of perceived intrusiveness, which, in turn, influence downstream responses such as attitudes toward the ad.
Disciplines
Publication Date
Fall 2019
DOI
10.1111/joca.12222
Citation Information
Anne Hamby and Veronika Ilyuk. "A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: How Humanized, Retargeted Ads Intrude in Social Contexts" Journal of Consumer Affairs Vol. 53 Iss. 3 (2019) p. 1167 - 1191 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/anne-hamby/10/