Effects of programme context on memory of humorous television commercials

Abstract

This study examined the effects of programme context on the memory of humorous television advertisements among a youth sample aged 16 to 18 years. Additionally, the relationship between the enjoyment and involvement properties of the programme and memory for advertisements were investigated. An experimental design was developed to test the memory for a set of six humorous and a set of six non-humorous advertisements within two programme contexts—a news bulletin and a comedy show. Findings indicated that unaided recall for advertisements was affected by programme type with memory for advertising being better from news than from comedy. Further, memory for humorous advertisements was better than that for non-humorous advertisements. Audience involvement with, and enjoyment of, the surrounding programme were found to be associated with poorer memory for advertisement content. Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.