Television Violence and Memory for TV Advertisements

Abstract

This study attempted to investigate further recent research showing that violent programming interferes with audience memory for embedded advertisement content. In an extension of earlier work, the impact of the surrounding program was examined in relation to memory for advertising that itself contained violence as well as for non-violent advertising. Participants therefore saw either a violent or a non-violent advert embedded in either violent or non-violent film clips that were similar on other dimensions that might influence memory, such as arousal and involvement. After viewing the clip, participants evaluated the advertisement and the film clip and completed several recall and recognition tests for the commercial content. The violent advert was recalled better than the non-violent advert for the same brand, with the latter suffering most especially when presented in a violent program environment. Males exhibited better overall recall of advertisements than females, though there was no significant gender by advert-type interaction. Viewers' subjective evaluations of both the surrounding program and the advertisement they watched were positively correlated with advertisement recall. The results are discussed in relation to interference and construct accessibility hypotheses