Perfectly Imperfect: How Body-Positive Advertisements in Social Media Foster Consumer Engagement

Abstract

While brands are working to break down beauty stereotypes and employing body-positive advertisements to foster consumer engagement, empirical research on the influence of body-positive advertisements is scarce. This research integrates the literature on body positivity and gender-role stress theory to examine, across two studies, how and when body-positive advertisements influence consumer engagement. Our results indicate that consumers’ responses to body-positive (versus thin-ideal) advertisements lead to greater engagement with the brand when gender-role stress is high (versus low). Notably, body-positive explicit and implicit advertising strategies increase engagement, with implicit strategy fostering greater engagement than explicit strategy. Furthermore, we show that consumers’ perceived brand authenticity is the psychological mechanism underlying the impact of body positivity on consumer engagement. These findings advance the literature on body image in advertising and offer marketers a better understanding of the use of body-positive advertising strategy in their marketing and communication campaigns.