Surrealistic type advertising: an exploratory investigation into consumer evaluations and the personality type of dogmatism, from a structural valuation perspective

Abstract

The examination of Surrealistic Type Advertising (STA) within the discipline of Marketing has been relatively sparse to date. Homer & Kahle (1986) investigated consumer evaluations of Surrealistic Type Advertisements from a Social Adaptation/ Cognitive psychology perspective, where they found Surrealism to have an influence on the evaluations, of the subjects they investigated. More recently Huthnance (1994) found the similarity between Surreal Art and STA to be primarily concentrated in the affective response both mediums create on their audiences. This response is described as frisson, which is posited to comprise the emotions 'Shock', 'Perplexity' and 'Anxiety'. A Chain of Effects Model is presented in this thesis to describe the relationship between STA and the potential influence it has on consumer behaviour. More precisely, STA is characterised by the presence of visual incongruities, which in turn are posited to be responsible for creating Surrealistic frisson. This thesis attempts to validate whether Surrealist frisson created by STA has an influence on consumer behaviour. The Chain of Effects model is operationalised by using Structural Valuation, a theory derived from the Cognitive Psychology discipline. This theory predicts consumer evaluations are based on the degree of incongruity between an advertisement and the mind-set of the consumer. A repeated measures experimental design was conducted using a sample of 72 undergraduate students. Subjects were asked to evaluate 9 print advertisements then complete a Dogmatism test, which assessed subjects' dispositions to be Dogmatic (open or closed minded). The results of the experiment found an interaction between Surrealism and Dogmatism. All subjects were found to evaluate High STA the most favourably, followed by Medium STA and Non STA. This implies that the evaluation of an advertisement may be influenced by the degree of visual incongruity experienced by the audience and also the receptiveness or open-minded of the audience to STA. Therefore Marketing Managers need to be aware of the affects of STA as this technique may compliment or even detract from the brand or product image expressed in an advertisement.