AAA Annual Conference 2018

Jisu Huh, University of Minnesota
Nilesh Bhutada, Takeda Pharmaceuticals
Brent Rollins, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine
Matthew Perri, University of Georgia

To fill the gap in the DTCA research regarding the effects of different endorsers used in testimonial vs. non-testimonial ads, this study tested the effects of different types of endorsers (expert vs. consumer vs. celebrity) in testimonial vs. non-testimonial message contexts on consumers’ perceptual, attitudinal, and behavioral responses toward DTCA. It also examined the role of source credibility and source similarity as the psychological mechanism of the endorser type effects. Results from an experiment demonstrate expert endorsers tend to generate significantly higher source credibility, while consumer endorsers generate the highest source similarity. Neither the endorser type nor the message type factor had significant main effect on the dependent variables, but the interaction of endorser type and message type significantly impacted ad believability and ad skepticism. Specifically, the endorser type factor had significant impact on the dependent variables only in the testimonial ad condition, but not in the non-testimonial ad condition. The effects were mediated by source credibility.