Differences in Readers' Response towards Advertising versus Publicity

Abstract

Publicity is assumed to have higher credibility than advertising prompting communication specialists to call for its use alongside traditional advertising to achieve overall communication goals. To test the differences in readers' response towards advertisements and publicity, a sample of students ( N = 104; 52 men and 52 women) were shown printed messages identified as advertising or publicity. The publicity format appeared to be associated with deeper processing because participants had higher recall, more message-relevant thoughts, and better discrimination for the publicity message. In addition, participants rated the publicity message higher on Source Credibility, Brand Attitude, and Purchase Intent than a comparable advertisement.