A study of the impact of magazine credibility, involvement, and message ambiguity on advertising effectivenes

This study investigated the vehicle-source effect on magazine advertising based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) under strictly controlled experimental conditions. This study was an effort to find a theoretical explanation for the media effect on advertising and to systematically investigate interaction effects of magazine credibility on advertising with involvement and perceived message ambiguity. The independent variables in the study included magazine credibility, involvement, and message ambiguity. The dependent variables examined were advertisement credibility, attitude toward the advertisement, attitude toward the brand, and intention to buy. The subjects were students of a mid-south college. The results of the experiment were analyzed using ANOVA and Scheffe tests.;The study results indicated magazine credibility had a positive impact on advertising effectiveness in general and that the impact of magazine credibility on advertising was greater under a low involvement condition than under a high involvement condition. The hypothesized interaction effects of magazine credibility and message ambiguity on advertising effectiveness, however, were not observed.;Theoretically, this study demonstrates that the ELM model provides an appropriate framework to explain the media effects on advertising. Practically, the results of this study suggest that a highly credible magazine can charge higher prices for its advertising space than a low credibility magazine. The results also suggest that advertisers of low involvement products and those of high involvement products need to use different criteria in selecting media for their advertisements and that advertisers of low involvement products need to consider the media effects more seriously.