Effects of positive versus negative news on newspaper advertising response

"Advertising effectiveness" is an issue of great concern to media planners. This study examines one dimension of source effects on advertising effectiveness specifically, positive, negative, or neutral news as portrayed in headlines and news stories in a mock tabloid newspaper. Students were randomly assigned to one of the treatments—Very Bad, Bad, Neutral, Good, or Very Good news—in which advertising remained constant. Analysis of variance and Chi-square tests suggested support for three of the four hypotheses: (1) Bad news will generally have negative effect, and good news a positive effect on general consumer attitude, product usage intentions, and brand recall; (2) affective states produced by the media content will have an effect on evaluation of advertising message; and (3) because neutral news has lower interest value than either good or bad news, neutral news will produce the lowest advertising-response scores. No support for the fourth hypothesis—that the effects of news on receptivity to advertising will vary with sex, age, race, and other demographic variables--was indicated by data. The review of pertinent literature includes a thorough review of findings and theories in the area of positive and negative messages, as well as a review of relevant research in psychobiology and interaction of media environment and advertising. The author suggests future research in this area using 30-minute news programs containing 30-second commercials.