The impact of advertising creativity, warning-based appeals and green dispositions on the attentional effectiveness of environmental advertisements

Abstract

Accompanying the growing call for ecological sustainability, environmental advertising is playing an increasingly important role in green marketing to foster environmental concern and pro-environmental behavior. The present study examined the impact of two factors on people’s selective attention to green advertisements: advertising creativity (by comparing creative vs. standard advertisements) and appeal type (by comparing warning-based vs. vision-based appeals). The study also investigated the association between advertising effectiveness and individual differences in levels of green dispositions, including environmental concern and value orientation. To explore these issues the study employed a Rapid Serial Visual Presentation paradigm to measure the magnitude of the “attentional blink” arising from people attending to environmental advertisements of varying creativity and appeal type. Findings revealed a significant attentional blink effect for environmental advertising (indicative of heightened selective attention) that was greater for creative advertisements than standard advertisements. A significant association was also found between the magnitude of the attentional blink and dispositional differences in environment-related altruistic value. Results extend previous findings relating to the attentional blink as an index of advertising effectiveness, and shed light on the importance for green marketing of advertising creativity, advertising appeal and environmental value.