@article{2020:keller:effectiven,
title = {Effectiveness of Animal Images in Advertising},
year = {2020},
note = {The effectiveness of showing animal images compared to displaying
human models in advertisements and the effectiveness of using animals
for further marketing instruments such as brand names, mascots, logos,
product packaging designs, slogans, and product shapes has rarely been
investigated in the academic research. Moreover, the characteristics
of the animals used (e.g., species, pose, age, and beauty) for
creating effective advertising have been ignored to date. This lack of
research is surprising because many companies use animal images for
promoting their brands and products. Our findings indicate that
advertising practice can benefit from showing animals instead of human
models. In particular, we recommend using animals in advertising as
follows. Both pets and undomesticated animals are found to be superior
to human models in eliciting positive emotions such as pleasant
surprise and happiness/joy. Furthermore, they are advantageous in
evoking pleasant feelings of entertainment. If advertisers aim to
induce such positive affective states in consumers, they should
consider using animal images. Famous examples of this strategy are the
commercials entitled “Buster, the Boxer” promoting John Lewis and
“Lost Puppy” promoting Budweiser beer. The animals’ cuteness
additionally positively influences feelings of entertainment. If the
advertiser aims to enhance message credibility, we recommend using
images of pets instead of depictions of undomesticated animals.
Although we recommend using animals in advertising and in particular
cute animals (infantile animals or cute species) and pets, we advise
practitioners to be careful when showing animals as role models.
People easily link and compare themselves to images of role models and
might feel insulted. Therefore, we recommend against using animals
such as the retailer Netto did in its “Netto Cats” commercial.},
journal = {Marketing ZFP},
pages = {3--32},
author = {Keller, Barbara and Gierl, Heribert},
volume = {42},
number = {1}
}