ENTERTAIN AND SELL: THE ROLE OF HUMOR IN ADVERTISING IN MANIPULATING BUYER’S BLACK BOX

Abstract

This dissertation explores the mediating role of attitude towards the advertisement and attitude towards the brand, and moderating role of self-monitoring and message argument in the relationships between perceived humor in the advertisement and purchase intention of the customer. Survey data was collected from 617 individuals comprising of data gathered from three types of humor after showing advertisements of each type to the respondents. Confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and macro developed by Preacher and Hays (2008) have been used to test moderation and mediation effect in the hypothesized model. A good fit between the data and tested model was observed. As predicted, purchase intention was positively related to perceived humor and full mediation effect has been found. However for moderation of self-monitoring the findings were distinctive but the moderation effects of message arguments have not been supported by the data in all the three types. Findings provide media agencies with an insight into the audience emotional consequences in exposure to the different types of humor used in advertisements. Findings are particularly salient for national and multinational media agencies in Pakistan as well in the other parts of the world. This is one of the first studies to provide empirical support for the relationships between perceived humor and purchase intention in Western and non-Western (Pakistani) context considering the types of humor by using mediating and moderating variables in this association.