Context is Key: The Effect of Program-Induced Mood on Thoughts about the Ad

Prior research has shown that the context in which a commercial message is presented can have important effects on how the message is processed and its success in the marketplace. The authors examine the impact of context-induced moods on the processing of embedded television advertisements. Mood was manipulated naturally by varying the program context in which the stimulus ads were embedded, and its effects on ad processing were observed. The results indicate that ads placed in programs that induce negative moods are processed less systematically than ones placed in programs that put viewers in positive moods. Moreover, mood was found to influence attitudes toward the advertisements both by affecting the number of cognitions the audience generates about the ads and by modifying the effect of those cognitions on A_ad.