Consumers’ Responses to Advocacy Advertising: Sympathy, Empathy, and Attitudes

Abstract

Organizations wishing to promote a particular position on an issue, such as when the Sierra Club advocates for consumer action against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, often do so by producing advocacy ads. These ads are typically designed with the goal of motivating some form of pro-social action, such as asking consumers to write letters to public officials, donate money, protest, volunteer, or boycott a company’s products. Only a limited amount of research has explored the cognitive and affective mental processes that occur in responses to such advertising, and how those mental processes influence actual engagement in the advocated pro-social action. Developing an understanding of how consumers react to such advertisements is particularly important to practitioners of such advocacy advertising, as they often have limited funds available for such activities and need to optimize the effectiveness of the persuasive materials they produce.