COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE EVALUATIONS OF POLITICAL ADVERTISING IN
LATIN AMERICA: THE EFFECT OF MESSAGE STRATEGY
Abstract
This study proposes to compare advertising evaluations across four message strategies in
televised political advertising as moderators between emotions and cognitions and these
evaluations. A quasi-experimental design was employed to manipulate the four message
strategies by showing a specific simulated commercial to the participants. The data was collected
in Mexico City and Matamoros among different social groups. Overall, the results revealed that
competitive ads produced the most favorable evaluations of cognition and emotion, whereas the
attacking ads created the least favorable. Finally, direct comparative ads showed less favorable
thoughts than indirect comparative ads, but more favorable than attacking ads, but did not impact
emotions.
Extended Abstract
The literature suggests that one important predictor of voter decision-making are
candidate evaluations developed, in part, through political advertising (Miller et al. 1986).
Political consultants and candidates rely increasingly on television advertising to increase their
candidate’s evaluation and influence voters during elections (O’Cass, 2005). But what factors
influence the respondent’s evaluations of the candidate’s image? Research evidence demonstrates
a powerful relationship between respondents’ cognitive thoughts (Tybout et al., 1978; Wright,
1973) and emotion responses to political advertising as prime influence factors (Madden et al.,
1988).
Although extensive research has been conducted on political advertising, particularly on
the effect of negative advertising, this study proposes to compare advertising evaluations across
four message strategies in televised political advertising as moderators between emotions and
cognitions and these evaluations. There is a shortage of research on political advertising in these
Latin American countries and with the exploitation of televised political ads during the past
presidential election in Mexico, this research area is extremely topical (IFE, 2007).
The literature classifies political advertising into four message strategies: (1) competitive
strategy, which includes only positive statements; (2) indirect comparative, which uses both
positive statements and negative statements, but does not mention the opposing candidate’s
name; (3) direct comparative strategy, which also includes negative and positive statements,
but does mention the opponent candidate; and (4) the attacking strategy, which uses only
negative statements about the opponent candidate, without naming the sponsor candidate.
Based on previous premises in political advertising which suggest that voter’s emotions
are affected by the valence of the message strategy (e.g., Tedesco 2002), we proposed: H1
Competitive ads are more likely to create positive viewers’ emotions toward the ad than direct
and indirect comparative and attacking ads. H2 Attacking ads are more likely to create negative
viewers’ emotions toward the ad than direct and indirect comparative ads. And, H3 direct
comparative ads are more likely to create negative viewers’ emotions toward the ad than indirect
comparative ads.
Furthermore, based on Lazarus cognitive theory, which suggests cognition is an
antecedent of feelings, and following the previous assumptions in political advertising about the
effect of the message strategies on voters´ emotions, we proposed that similar results might be
produced on voter’s cognition across the message strategies. Thus, we hypothesized: H4
Competitive ads are more likely to create more favorable viewers’ cognitive evaluations of the
candidate than direct and indirect comparative and attacking ads. H5 Attacking ads are more
likely to create less favorable viewers’ cognitive evaluations of the candidate than direct and
indirect comparative ads. And, H6 direct comparative ads are more likely to create less favorable
viewers’ cognitive evaluations of the candidate than indirect comparative ads.
A quasi-experimental design was employed to manipulate the four message strategies by
showing a specific simulated commercial to the participants. The message strategies were
categorized based on content analysis and then use of experienced judges. Respondents were
randomly shown an ad to provide a precise estimate of the effect of a particular stimulus from the
ad and increase the internal validity (Cook and Campbell, 1979). Finally, to increase external
validity, the location of the survey-experiment was the participant’s natural setting rather than a
laboratory setting, since this appears to impact results (Madden et al., 1988).
The data was collected in Mexico City and Matamoros among different social groups, by
applying a geographical sampling method. Thirty five interviewers were recruited to carry out the
survey experiment. Only adults, aged 18 and older were considered as potential candidates to
participate in the study. A total of 601 cases were examined.
A MANOVA test was used to examine the hypotheses. The results indicated that the
message strategy significantly affects the viewer’s evaluation of cognition and to a lesser extent
affects viewers’ emotions. In specific terms, the results revealed that competitive ads produced
the most favorable evaluations of cognition and emotion, whereas the attacking ads created the
least favorable. Finally, direct comparative ads showed less favorable thoughts than indirect
comparative ads, but more favorable than attacking ads, but did not impact emotions.
Implications
This study provides valuable contributions for theory, practice and research.
Theoretically, the findings support previous theories and premises in the area of political
advertising in Mexico, although the findings are more nuanced as might be expected by cultural
differences between this study context and those reported in extant literature. In sum, in terms of
theoretical contributions, this study confirms the assumption that negative ads tend to create
negative opinions of the target candidate (Boydston and Kaid, 1983; Garramone, 1985; Merritt,
1984). Additionally, it provides new-found evidence that the valence of the message determines
whether the viewers will experience positive or negative thoughts across the four message
strategies. Practically, the findings will assist practitioners to understand the effectiveness of
televised political advertising, and will provide them the tools to build a guide for a proper and
efficient use of the message strategies in political campaigns. Methodologically, this study
innovatively applied a quasi-experimental survey to measure the effect of a political advertising
in a natural environment rather than in a laboratory. The experiment was designed to be
performed in a natural setting to assure a heterogeneous sample. In addition, a natural setting was
used, rather than a lab experiment, to avoid social bias as an individual disposition or
predisposition.
On the other hand, in order to achieve some levels of internal control, the researcher
controlled the phenomenon under investigation by showing a simulated designed advertisement
to the participants. Overall, the participation rate was over 80%, very high compared to other
studies in political advertising. Thus, in terms of participation rate and sample diversification, this
study not only accomplished its goal, but also demonstrated an innovative form to achieve that
goal. Details of the research design are provided in the article.
COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE EVALUATIONS OF POLITICAL ADVERTISING IN
LATIN AMERICA: THE EFFECT OF MESSAGE STRATEGY
INTRODUCTION
Weaver- Lariscy and Tinham (1999) suggest the role of televised advertising in electoral
systems is becoming increasingly important as these messages become a more powerful factor in
voters’ decision making. This change is especially prominent in Latin America, where recent
utilization of televised political advertising has allowed people across Latin American to become
more informed about political candidates than ever before. In Mexico, for instance, it was as
recently as the 2000 Presidential elections that Mexican citizens first saw televised a more
democratic competition between political leaders, specifically the PRI (Partido Revolucionario
Institucional) and PAN (Partido de Accion Nacional) (Chapa and Mendoza, 2007) . There is a
shortage of research on political advertising in these Latin American countries and with the
exploitation of televised political ads during the past presidential election, this research area is
extremely topical (IFE, 2007). For instance, during the 2006 presidential election in Mexico, two
million hours of political advertising was broadcast and the expenses for political advertising was
160 million dollars more than the total expenses for the 2000 presidential campaign (Nava,
2005).
The literature suggests that one important predictor of voter decision-making are
candidate evaluations developed, in part, through political advertising (Miller et al. 1986).
Political consultants and candidates rely increasingly on television advertising to increase their
candidate’s evaluation and influence voters during elections (O’Cass, 2005). But what factors
influence the respondent’s evaluations of the candidate’s image? Research evidence demonstrates
a powerful relationship between respondents’ cognitive thoughts (Tybout et al., 1978; Wright,
1973) and emotion responses to political advertising as prime influence factors (Madden et al.,
1988).
Likewise, evidence suggests that candidate image evaluations are strongly associated with
the valence of the message strategy (Tedesco, 2002). Moreover, the literature suggests that
campaign message strategy can influence how people vote and what people think the election is
about when they vote (Jamieson, 1984). Negative campaigns focus on political scandals as their
thematic content to make an argument against the opposing candidate (Kaid and Bystrom, 1987).
Such ads are often perceived as uninformative and untruthful (Chang et al., 1998), resulting in
negativism toward the political process and ultimately producing citizen disgust with political
campaigns (Pinklenton et al., 2002).Although extensive research has been conducted on political
advertising, particularly on the effect of negative advertising, this study proposes to compare
advertising evaluations across four message strategies (competitive, indirect comparative, direct
comparative, and attacking) in televised political advertising as moderators between emotions/
cognitions and these evaluations
BACKGROUND
Definitions of Message Strategies
Most professional practitioners and academic researchers generally classify political
advertising into three message categories: 1) positive ads, also identified as competitive ads,
which include only statements about the candidate, with no explicit mention of the candidate’s
opponent; 2) (direct) comparative ads, which contain both positive statements about the
candidate and negative statements about the opponent; and 3) negative or attacking ads, which
contain only negative statements about the opponent and nothing positive about the candidate
(Goldstein and Freedman, 2002; and Hill, 1989). However, although it has not been included in
any empirical studies, Gronbeck (1985) and Johnson-Cartee and Copeland (1991) have identified
another message strategy termed indirect comparative or implicit comparative. This message
strategy includes both explicit positive statement(s) about the sponsor (as do competitive ads) and
an implicit negative statement about the opponent (as opposed to direct negative statements like
those contained in direct comparative ads. This message strategy is called an indirect
comparative ad.
Emotional Evaluations
Some scholars have argued that emotions are a key factor in voter responses to mediated
messages (Tedesco, 2002). For example, Kaid et al. (1992) demonstrated that emotional factors
comprising either hopefulness or anxiety dimensions are directly related to respective positive
and negative evaluations of the candidates. Garramone (1984) defined the intended effects of
attacking advertising as creating negative feelings toward the targeted candidate and positive
emotions toward the sponsoring candidate. An experiment in testing the effects of competitive,
attacking, and comparative political advertising reveals that when participants were exposed to
negative advertising, they were more negative toward political campaigns than were participants
exposed to positive advertising (Pinkleton, Um and Austin, 2002).
Comparative ads also prompted positive affect, in addition to other consequences, and
were viewed more favorably than were attacking ads (Meirick, 2002). However, in Hill’s (1989)
study on responses to ads, he found both positive and negative messages had significant
difference on affect, yet he found no significant difference in responses to negative and
comparative ads, both of which were received more negatively than were positive ads. Overall,
political research suggests that voter’s emotions are affected by the valence of the message
strategy (e.g., Tedesco 2002). Thus, we proposed:
H1: Competitive ads are more likely to create positive viewers’ emotions toward the ad
than direct and indirect comparative and attacking ads.
H2: Attacking ads are more likely to create negative viewers’ emotions toward the ad than
direct and indirect comparative ads.
H3: Direct comparative ads are more likely to create negative viewers’ emotions toward
the ad than indirect comparative ads.
Cognitive Evaluations
The main debate regarding ¨cognition¨ among researchers and psychologists focuses on
whether emotion is a cognitive form. Specifically, Lazarus (1991) stated that individuals cannot
have an affective reaction in the absence of some sort of cognitive appraisal of that stimulus, even
though such an appraisal may not exist at a conscious level. In other words, he says that a
cognitive process must occur before one can have an emotion. Lazarus’s appraisal of cognitive
theory represents the school of thought of traditional psychology, which distinguishes feelings as
following cognition. The main argument is that before one can like something they must be
aware of it and have assessed some critical attributes. Surprisingly, the literature in political
advertising uses the terms thoughts and feelings interchangeably, which may not be appropriate
given findings related to other forms of advertising (cf. Madden et al., 1988). Thus, this study
specifically tests the role of cognition on advertising evaluations.
Based on Lazarus cognitive theory, which suggests cognition is an antecedent of feelings,
and following the previous assumptions in political advertising about the effect of the message
strategies on voters´ emotions, we proposed that similar results might be produced on voter’s
cognition across the message strategies. That is, we proposed that competitive ads are more likely
to create positive evaluations of cognition, while attacking and direct comparative ads are more
likely to generate negative evaluations of cognition. In addition, with regard to the differences
between the indirect and direct comparative ads, the literature suggests that indirect comparative
ads may be more effective because viewers generate the arguments for themselves and because it
does not cause as great a backlash effect (Johnson-Cartee and Copeland, 1991). Thus, due to the
expected level of negativism perceived in their messages, as a consequence of an implicit
statement, we expected that indirect comparative ad will be less likely to create negative thoughts
than the direct comparative ad. Thus, we hypothesized the following statements:
H4: Competitive ads are more likely to create more favorable viewers’ cognitive evaluations
of the candidate than direct and indirect comparative and attacking ads.
H5: Attacking ads are more likely to create less favorable viewers’ cognitive evaluations of
the candidate than direct and indirect comparative ads.
H6: Direct comparative ads are more likely to create less favorable viewers’ cognitive
evaluations of the candidate than indirect comparative ads.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
This study used quasi-experimental design to examine the impact of exposure to a
specific televised political message advertisement. The researcher manipulated the ad´s
messages by using simulated advertisements, which employed imaginary candidates and political
parties, along with the same footage, music and voice over. However, the messages utilized in the
simulated ads were real, although the candidates and political parties were fictitious. These
facets of the design allowed control over extraneous variables and avoid bias. The message
strategies were categorized based on content analysis and then use of experienced judges. One ad
representing each strategy was used, based on sufficient interjudge reliability. A professional
individual performed the voice-over for all the videos and the same video footage was used for
each of the four political messages. In other words, the researcher only manipulated the valence
of the message, yet the same images, voice and simulated candidates and parties were used. After
the ads were produced, another interjudge reliability test was performed to validate the
representation of the four message strategies representation.
The simulated political ads were produced in a DVD format and shown to respondents
using a portable DVD player. Respondents were randomly shown an ad to provide a precise
estimate of the effect of a particular stimulus from the ad and increase the internal validity (Cook
and Campbell, 1979). Finally, to increase external validity, the location of the survey-experiment
was the participant’s natural setting rather than a laboratory setting, since this appears to impact
results (Madden et al., 1988). After viewing the ad three times, respondents answered the
questionnaire detailed below.
Data Collection
Mexico was chosen for this study for three reasons. First, there was a lack of empirical
research in the area of political advertising in this country. Second, an investigation of the effect
of political advertising in Mexico was deemed valuable since the use of political advertising in
Mexico is excessive compared to other Latin American nations. Third, Mexico was selected as a
way to increase the generalizability of previous findings in the area of political advertising, since
these have primarily used western European nations and the U.S. Thus, Mexico was selected
because its social, economical and political conditions differ dramatically from those of these
countries. The cities selected were Mexico City and Matamoros, since they represent very
different types of Mexican cities.
Thirty five interviewers were recruited to carry out the survey experiment. The
interviewers were trained to ensure they accurately performed the experiment. To enhance the
generalizability of the study, the researcher selected participants who represent a fair crosssection of the real electorate in Mexico by using the quota sample technique based on geographic
and demographic factors. A total of 30 locations were selected in each city to collect the data.
The social groups were divided in five categories; low, medium-low, medium, medium-high, and
high. Only adults, aged 18 and older were considered as potential candidates to participate in the
study.
Out of 867 prospective respondents approached, 716 agreed to participate in the
experiment; for an effective response rate of 82.5%. The participation in Mexico City was of 78%
and 89.5% in Matamoros. The reported response rate (over 80%) suggested little threat from
response bias, so no tests of this were conducted. The total sample size was 601 after removing
incomplete responses; 324 (54 %) men and 287 (46%) women with a mean age of 30-35 years
and was nearly evenly divided between test cities, (data from Mexico City accounted for 52.2%).
The ratio of treatments was almost equivalent in both cities. The sample consisted of 153
(25.45%) competitive ads, 144 (23.96%) indirect comparative ads, 160 (26.62%) direct
comparative ads, and 144 (23.96%) attacking ads.
Instrument
Cognitive responses were measured by adopting Cacioppo and Petty’s (1981) traditional
procedures. Participants were asked to list their thoughts on a page with eight rectangular boxes;
one thought per box. Later, after the participants complete the demographics, the interviewers
returned to the cognitive part and asked the participants to indicate whether each thought was
favorable or unfavorable, using 5-point Likert-type scale. (cf. Brecker, 1984; and Madden et al.,
1988). The unfavorable thoughts were then subtracted from the favorable thoughts across all
eight thoughts to calculate a summated score for cognition for each respondent.
Emotional feelings experienced during the advertisement exposure were measured using
Machleit and Wilson’s (1988) items. Participants were asked to complete the sentence “During
the commercial I feel____________,” The adjectives that used are: (1) insulted, (2) good, (3)
angry, (4) happy, (5) cheerful, (6) irritated, (7) warmhearted, (8) pleased, (9) repulsed, and (10)
soothed; using a 5-point Likert scale with end points ranging from “very much so” to “not at all.
Then these items were categorized and weighted in positive and negative factors accordingly
(Machleit and Wilson, 1988; Abelson, et al., 1982). As with cognitions, negative emotions, such
as irritated and repulsed, were then subtracted from the positive emotions, such as cheerful and
happy, across all emotions thoughts to calculate a summated score for emotion.
DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
A MANOVA test was used to examine the hypotheses. The results, as displayed in Table
1, showed a significant omnibus test and univariate tests indicating a differential effect of
messages strategies with respect to both cognitive and affective evaluations (Wilk’s
Lambda=18.75; p=.000). This indicated that advertising strategy did mediate evaluations, with
the effect more pronounced in cognitive evaluations (R2=.144; p=.000) than in affective
evaluations (.R2=.023; p=.001).
Insert Table 1 about Here
Overall, the mean differences’ direction estimated by the post-hoc test allowed tests of
hypotheses. Emotional evaluations were similar across the three more positive message
strategies (competitive and both comparative message types) while evaluations were significantly
lower with respect to attacking ads (for instance, mean difference=.367 with competitive ads).
Thus, hypothesis 1 was partially supported, since emotional evaluations were more positive for
competitive ads than attacking ads. Similarly, hypothesis 2 was supported, as attacking ads were
evaluated less positively than either direct or indirect comparative ads, although this relationship
was not very strong (as reflected by the smaller F values and small difference scores).
Hypothesis 3 was rejected, as no difference was observed across the two types of comparative
ads.
Meanwhile, with respect to cognitive evaluations, we see a difference between
competitive ads and all other ad strategies tested, thus supporting hypothesis 1. Meanwhile,
attacking ads generated less favorable cognitions than the other message strategies, thus
supporting hypothesis 2. Hypothesis 3 is also supported, since indirect comparative ads produced
significantly more positive cognitive evaluations than direct comparative ads.
In sum, the message strategy significantly affects the viewer’s evaluation of cognition and
to a lesser extent affects viewers’ emotions. In specific terms, the results revealed that
competitive ads produced the most favorable evaluations of cognition and emotion, whereas the
attacking ads created the least favorable. Finally, direct comparative ads showed less favorable
thoughts than indirect comparative ads, but more favorable than attacking ads, but did not impact
emotions.
CONTRIBUTIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
This study provides valuable contributions for theory, practice and research.
Theoretically, the findings support previous theories and premises in the area of political
advertising in Mexico, although the findings are more nuanced as might be expected by cultural
differences between this study context and those reported in extant literature. Practically, the
findings will assist practitioners to understand the effectiveness of televised political advertising,
and will provide them the tools to build a guide for a proper and efficient use of the message
strategies in political campaigns. Methodologically, this study innovatively applied a quasiexperimental survey to measure the effect of a political advertising in a natural environment
rather than in a laboratory.
Implications for Theory
This study provided evidence that the message of the ad is not only a direct predictor of
viewers’ emotional responses, but is an even better predictor of viewers’ analytical thoughts. The
findings across message strategies specifically indicated that both competitive ads and indirect
comparative ads produced MORE favorable evaluation of cognition than direct comparative and
attacking ads, as well a significant difference was observed between a competitive and an indirect
comparative ad. A direct comparative ad, on the other hand, created LESS favorable evaluations
of cognition than a competitive ad and an indirect comparative ad, but MORE favorable than an
attacking ad. Finally, an attacking message produced the least favorable evaluation of cognition;
followed by the direct comparative and the indirect comparative advertising and, last of all,
competitive advertising which produced the least unfavorable reactions. With respect to
emotions, significant differences were only observed between attacking and competitive ads,
while the differences with respect to the other message strategies was less clear.
In sum, in terms of theoretical contributions, this study confirms the assumption that
negative ads tend to create negative opinions of the target candidate (Boydston and Kaid, 1983;
Garramone, 1985; Merritt, 1984). Additionally, it provides new-found evidence that the valence
of the message determines whether the viewers will experience positive or negative thoughts
across the four message strategies.
Implications for Practice
The overall results indicated that the most reliable message strategy is the competitive; it
produces highest positive evaluation of cognition toward the candidates and more positive
emotions. Since the thoughts generated after watching the competitive ad are the most favorable,
they also likely produce the highest evaluation of the candidate, given past research linking
cognitive evaluations to positive attitudes toward the advertised product (Madden et al., 1988).
As to this point, it has been said that the competitive strategy produces the best outcomes,
yet, in most of the cases, a campaign might also need to communicate negative messages. For
instance, sometimes some level of negativism is expected in political advertising among voters
who make political decisions based on who they don’t want to be elected (Johnson-Cartee and
Copeland, 1991). In this instance, an indirect comparative strategy should be considered. The
positive scores of indirect comparative strategy are the second highest after the outcomes
obtained in the competitive strategy, and not only that, the difference between these two
strategies does not represent a risk for the campaign because statistically the study revealed that
non significant differences occurred in any of these variables between these two message
strategies. Therefore, a televised political campaign should, in that case, employ a mix of
strategies (competitive and indirect comparative) as a means of communicating negative
information about an opponent, by highlighting the superiority of the sponsored candidate over
the opponent, but without explicitly attacking him/her. That is, the message should slightly
disappoint the viewers about an issue, or action, which should represent an opponent’s flaw, and
subsequently underline the sponsor’s attributes to place him, in the eye of the viewers, as the best
option. Thus, the negative message should not be the focus of the message, but the positive
messages, which must emphasize the attributes and superiority of the sponsor over the opponent.
As previously discussed, the indirect comparative is recommended, but in the case of a
direct comparative, some deliberations should be taken before risking the campaign with this
strategy. The results of this study, indicated that a significant difference between direct and
indirect comparative strategies exist on negative evaluations of cognition. Thus, a negative
consequence for this finding has to do with the fact that the direct comparative advertisement
creates negative thoughts, which according previous premises, will eventually affect attitudes the
candidate and the campaign.
Finally, the attacking advertising does not produce any good but hurts the political
campaign. Although research in advertising suggests that repetition, even in the case of negative
advertising, increase attitudes toward the ad and attitudes toward the brand (Batra and Ray 1986),
this assumption does not apply to political advertising. Literature in political advertising states
that too much exposure to attacking advertising produces political cynicism (Chapa and Mendoza
2007; and Tedesco 2002), and repetition creates a backlash against the sponsor (Sooner, 1998). In
this instance, repetition might only increase viewer’s disgust for the candidate, and so decrease
viewers’ intention to vote. That is, an attacking message strategy will only contribute to citizens’
disgust with the campaign.
Implications for Research
The methodological implications and contributions of this study have to do with the
research design applied for data collection, which significantly introduces a different and
practical mode for testing political advertising. That is, in an attempt to enhance external validity,
the researcher used a quasi-experimental design to emphasize a field setting (Cook and Campbell,
1979) rather than a lab setting. Thus, the location for the research was the participant’s natural
setting at the moment of the experiment, either at home or in a public place, rather than in
laboratory, as is common in political advertising. The experiment was designed to be performed
in a natural setting rather than in a laboratory location to assure a heterogeneous sample. In this
instance, the researcher applied a geographical sampling method, in quest of a sample population
that guarantee the inclusion of all social groups. In addition, a natural setting was used, rather
than a lab experiment, to avoid social bias as an individual disposition or predisposition.
On the other hand, in order to achieve some levels of internal control, the researcher
controlled the phenomenon under investigation by showing a simulated designed advertisement
to the participants. That is, four simulated political advertising were produced in a DVD format
and used as test units or treatment stimuli in this study. In addition, because this was a one-ad
quasi-experiment design, the test unit, represented by a simulated advertisement, was randomly
assigned to the participants to clarify the causal inference of the study and so increase the internal
validity (Cook and Campbell, 1979).
Finally, portable DVD players were utilized to show the political advertisement to the
participants, and headphones were used to avoid participant’s distraction and achieve some level
of internal control. At this point, is important to remark that viewers voluntarily agreed to
participate in the study without the use of a monetary incentive. Overall, the participation rate
was over 80%, very high compared to other studies in political advertising. Thus, in terms of
participation rate and sample diversification, this study not only accomplished its goal, but also
demonstrated an innovative form to achieve that goal.
LIMITATIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
Despite the theoretical and practical strength of this investigation, two main limitations
are identified in this study. Social desirability was not tested, thus in future research,
administering a measure that has pairs of items that are matched for social desirability may be
beneficial. In addition, generalizing the results of this study should be done with caution. The
sample used in this study does not represent the entire population of Mexico. The perceptions and
demographics of the sample of this study might not be the same of the people living in other
places in Mexico. In future research, the population could be expanded from viewers from the
north and center of Mexico to people from the south of Mexico, who differ dramatically from the
observed viewers in terms of customs: In Mexico, there are 59 indigenous groups, approximately
10% of the total population (Montes, 1999), and the majority of these groups are located in the
southwest of Mexico; in Oaxaca, Chiapas and Guerrero.
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TABLE 1
MANOVA RESULTS
Comparing the Effect of the Message of the Ad
on Viewer’s Emotions and Cognition
Multivariate Test of Significance
Value
Exact F
Sig.
163
.839
.189
.174
17.65
18.20
18.75
34.72
.000
.000
.000
.000
Pillais
Hottelling’s Trace
Wilks’ lamba
Roy’s gcr
Univariate F test
Sum of
Squared
14.93a
192.13b
Emotions
Cognition
Mean
Squared
4.978
64.04
F
Sig.
5.66
18.99
.001
.000
a R squared = .028 (adjusted R squared = .023)
b. R squared = .149 (adjusted R squared = .144)
Post Hoc Tests - Multiple Comparisons
DEPENDENT VARIABLE
Scheffe
Bonfferoni tests
Emotions
(I)
AD’S MESSAGE
Competitive
(J)
AD’S MESSAGE
Indirect Comparative
Direct Comparative
Attacking
Indirect Comparative
Competitive
Direct Comparative
Attacking
Mean
Difference
(I-J)
Sig.
-.0649
.949
.0366
.989
-.3670*
.010
.0649
.949
.1015
.828
-.3021
.059
Direct Comparative
Competitive
Indirect Comparative
Attacking
Attacking
Competitive
Indirect Comparative
Direct Comparative
Cognition
Competitive
Indirect Comparative
Direct Comparative
Attacking
Indirect Comparative
Competitive
Direct Comparative
Attacking
Direct Comparative
Competitive
Indirect Comparative
Attacking
Attacking
Competitive
Indirect Comparative
Direct Comparative
-.0366
.989
-.1015
.828
-.4036*
.003
.3670*
.010
.3021
.059
.4036*
.074
-.4163
.000
-.9260*
.000
-1.5227*
.074
.4163
.014
-.5097*
.000
-1.1065*
.000
.9260*
.014
.5097*
.002
-.5968*
.000
1.5227*
.000
1,1065*
.002
.5968*
.074