Effects of entertainment and enjoyment of television programs on perception and memory of advertisements

This study focuses on the hypothesis that entertainment and enjoyment properties of television programs have effects on recall, recognition, and perception of accompanying advertisements similar to the effects of program involvement reported by Norris and Colman (1993). Ninety-nine subjects each watched one of three television programs accompanied by six unfamiliar advertisements and then responded to questionnaires designed to measure perceptions of the programs and advertisements and memory for the advertisements. Correlations between program ratings and memory for advertisements were consistently negative but nonsignificant, and program ratings showed no consistent relationship with perceptions of the advertisements. The results provide no evidence that program entertainment and enjoyment, in contrast to involvement, influence advertisement effectiveness, which suggests that observed context effects depend on the predictor variables investigated.