How Well Will this Brand Work? The Ironic Impact of Advertising Disclosure of Body-Image Retouching on Brand Attitudes

Abstract

Prior research has demonstrated various effects of exposure to thin-idealized models in advertisements on consumers’ product evaluations. While this past research provides important insights, it does not to take into account that many of these thin-idealized images have been digitally manipulated. The present work studies the consequences of disclosure of this digital manipulation and the process consumers engage in when evaluating the brands responsible for these advertisements. We demonstrate that retouched advertisements may, contrary to conventional wisdom, have favorable consequences. Indeed, we show that individuals have more favorable brand attitudes for retouched (vs. un-retouched) ads when retouching is disclosed (vs. undisclosed). We show that disclosed retouched ads utilize a two-sided persuasive appeal, therefore leading consumers to evaluate the brand more favorably. We replicate this effect and explore attractiveness-relevant products and type of disclosure as boundary conditions.