Comparing Advertising and Editorials

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• Comparing Advertising and Editorials
• An Experimental Study in TV and Print
• Ana Tkalac Vercic, University of Zagreb, Croatia
• Kristina Laco, Premisa, Croatia,
• Dejan Vercic, Pristop University of Ljubljana,
  Slovenia

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Our time has come in 2002
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Hypotheses
The aim of this study was to establish the
relationship between advertising and news
editorials in terms of communication effects
H1 a. TV editorial has greater impact on
perceived message credibility than TV
advertisement b. TV editorial has greater impact
on behavioral intentions than TV advertisement c.
TV editorial has greater impact on attitude
towards the subject of the message than TV
advertisement
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Hypotheses
The aim of this study was to establish the
relationship between advertising and news
editorials in terms of communication effects
H2 a. Print editorial has greater impact on
perceived message credibility than print
advertisement b. Print editorial has greater
impact on behavioral intentions than print
advertisement c. Print editorial has greater
impact on attitude towards the subject of the
message than print advertisement
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Methodology

• The research design was a 2 x 2 factorial design
• A sample of 400 adults participated in the
  experiment, in two major Croatian cities, in
  April 2008
• Subjects were randomly placed into one of the
  four experimental groups

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Methodology

• Subjects were asked to give their opinion on a
  number of humanitarian topics
• They answered to a series of questions after
  which they were exposed to a print advertisement,
  a TV advertisement, a print editorial or a TV
  editorial (these materials were never publicly
  shown prior to the experiment)
• After the exposure respondents were asked another
  group of questions

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Materials presented to the subjects
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Materials presented to the subjects

• TV advertisement
• TV editorial

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Findings

• The first hypothesis predicted that TV editorials
  would have a greater impact on message
  credibility than TV advertisement
• Results showed no statistically significant
  difference between perceived message credibility
  in those two groups
• Thus, H1a was not supported
• Similar results proved true for the print as well
  (thus H2a was also not supported)

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Perceived (self-reported) credibility of media
content
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Findings

• Hypotheses H1b and H2b predicted that editorials
  would have a greater impact on behavioral
  intentions than advertising in both print and TV
• Even though there was increase in the readiness
  to financially help drug addicts in all four
  experimental groups, the difference among groups
  was not statistically significant
• Consequentially, both H1b and H2b were not
  supported

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Findings

• Hypotheses H1c and H2c predicted that editorials
  would have a greater impact on attitude towards
  the subject of the message than advertising, in
  both print and TV
• These hypotheses also had to be rejected

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Post-exposure change of attitude
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Is it really?