Viewer Processing of Archetypal Imagery in Advertising

This dissertation attempts to explain the mechanisms of persuasion that governs the processing of the archetypal messages. The present study integrates the Phase Interfaced Omnistructure (PIO) and the general emotion model to test the model of symbolic content processing. It extends previous work on archetypal structures by substituting symbolic images used in earlier research for real life advertisements. A total of 586 undergraduates at a large eastern university were randomly exposed to16 questionnaires with archetypal imagery. Using exploratory then confirmatory factor analysis, responses to 52 evaluative items are reduced to eight archetypes, a factor-structure which replicated across 16 ads. Data from 16 conditions were pooled together in order to run the path analysis. The resulting model exhibits an excellent fit. Second-order factors increased emotional involvement with the product, the ad and message clarity. Researchers, as well as practitioners, may be interested in the unique effect of the symbolic imagery on the emotional and cognitive processing.