ABSTRACT
An individual’s evaluation of an advertisement, as measured by their attitude toward the advertisement Aad, has been found to be an important mediator of the effects of an advertisement on brand attitude (e.g., Mitchell & Olson, 1981). Recently, there has been considerable research directed at understanding the antecedents of attitude toward the ad (e.g., Mackenzie & Lutz, 1989) and the relationship between attitude toward the ad and brand attitudes (e.g., Homer, 1990). To date, however, most of the studies have examined advertising effects under attitude formation conditions and have examined the relationship between the mediators of attitude formation and change shortly after exposure to the advertisement (for exceptions, see Moore & Hutchinson, 1985; Burke & Edell, 1986). This limits the generalizability of the results in two ways. First, because brand attitudes are measured immediately after exposure to the advertisement, it is possible that the effect of Aad on brand attitudes may be relatively minor or may even disappear entirely shortly after subjects leave the laboratory environment. Alternatively, the relationship between the individual’s attitude toward the advertisement (Aad) and brand attitudes may change over time due to memory factors (cf. Moore & Hutchinson, 1985).
