AAA Annual Conference 2020

With the increasing dependence on covert advertising, ad disclosure labels are prevalent in content across various online platforms. Despite their pervasiveness online, little is known regarding how different covert advertising labels are interpreted by consumers. Two experiments examined participants' advertising recognition and open-ended interpretation of label meaning for disclosures, with the first experiment (N = 383) exposing participants to a disclosure label with no context, and the second experiment (N = 641) exposing participants to a disclosure label as part of a sponsored social media post. Findings for the first experiment showed that the labels "#Ad" and "Brand Publisher" were less likely than the other labels to be associated with payments or compensation, while "#Ad" also prompted less association with selling or persuasive intent. Additionally, labels with familiar language like "Sponsored content" or "Advertisement" were more likely to be recognized as paid advertisements, indicating that some labels are more effective disclosures than others. However, generally, labels were interpreted with similar meanings. Platform also made a significant difference, with the probability that consumers perceived materiality being higher on Instagram than on Facebook.

Author(s): Bartosz W. Wojdynski, University of Georgia; Laura M. Hudgens, University of Georgia; Marilyn Primovic, University of Georgia; Nah Ray Han, University of Georgia; Taeyeon Kim, University of Georgia; Nathaniel J. Evans, University of Georgia