Smiling or sad faces in charity display advertising? A visual-verbal congruency approach considering the role of targeting

Abstract

No consensus exists in charity advertising on whether sad or smiling persons shown in the ad are more effective, and so far, the outcomes on specific advertising campaign goals, generating awareness and consideration, have been ignored. A lab experiment proves feelings of sympathy as an underlying mechanism for the impact of the emotion display shown in the ad on consumers’ awareness, and subsequently, consideration. Findings of a large-scale field experiment reveal that sad emotion displays and visual–verbal congruency lead to higher ad success for awareness metrics, while smiling emotion displays and visual–verbal incongruency positively affect consideration metrics. The latter effects are strengthened for retargeted consumers.