ABSTRACT
SUMMARY. Despite growing interest and research in cross-cultural advertising, little has been done to address the influence of provocation on consumers’ attitudes. This research investigates the effect of provocative imagery on Norwegian and Thai consumers’ attitudes toward products. This study focuses on cross-cultural advertising using a nested experiment designed to investigate the impact of the provocative contents of a print advertisement on the two different cultural groups. One hundred adult subjects per culture were asked to rate two different products (Walkman and chocolate). For each culture, an experiment group (Group A) and a control group (Group B) was established. Significant differences in product ratings and attitudes were found between the groups for each culture. Norwegian respondents’ attitudes were on average more negative than Thai respondents’ attitudes when exposed to the provocative imagery. The findings suggest the need for advertisers to consider the impact of such provocative material in these cultures. doi:10.1300/J037v16n01_11 [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <docdelivery@haworthpress.com> Website: < https://www.HaworthPress.com > © 2006 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]
