Impact of endorser and message appeal on the success of an online AIDS PSA

Abstract

This exploratory study investigated the impact of endorser type and message appeal on the success of an online AIDS public service announcement (PSA). The research sought to determine the main effects and interaction effects of endorser and message appeal on the measures of PSAs effectiveness (recall, recognition, attitudinal and behavioral). In order to achieve this goal, the research conducted a 3 X 2 factorial design experiment that manipulated three types of endorsers (celebrity, expert, and typical person) and two types of message appeals (emotional and rational) in the PSA. The researcher expected the expert endorser would be more effective than other endorsers, whereas in terms of message appeal, the researcher anticipated that the rational appeal would have a significant effect on PSA effectiveness. In addition, the study expected that the PSA that used an expert and rational appeal would have more impact than other endorser-appeal combinations. The results were analyzed by conducting ANOVA analysis. The findings were not congruent to the researcher’s expectations. A significant effect of expert and rational appeal was not found on any of the effectiveness variables. One of the interesting findings of the study was that there was no difference between the effectiveness of emotional and rational appeal. These findings were discussed by using the information processing explained in the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM). Based on the analysis, the research also offered practical and academic implications and suggestion for future research.