Do Mixed Emotions and Advertising Mix?
Joyous family reunions, sweater-clad couples strolling on beaches, dads and toddlers sharing a bowl of cereal, joyous babies chuckling in the bathtub, steaming cups of coffee shared with good friends in sunlit kitchens, relatives rejoicing over e-mailed images of the new baby, happy moms unloading sparkling soccer clothes from the dryer, diminutive flower girls romping through meadows … According to conventional wisdom, advertisements that lift your spirits sell products. But what if everyone’s spirits don’t get lifted in the same way – that is, what if purely happy messages and images don’t work that well on large segments of the population? In a new paper, “The Peaceful Co-Existence of Conflicting Emotions: Examining Differential Responses to Mixed Emotional Appeals,” Wharton marketing professor Patti A. Williams and Stanford’s Jennifer L. Aaker highlight the psychological impact of advertising that presents various consumer groups with a mixed (happy and sad) emotional appeal, as op
