The Effect of Model and Product Type on Advertising Effectiveness: Comparing Fitness and Fashion Brands

Previous research suggests that people high in social comparison and body dissatisfaction perceive advertisements with thin models poorly because such advertisements increase body-related anxiety. Other research has shown that people are more willing to purchase items modeled by thin models than natural models due to social desirability. The current study investigated whether the product type and model’s body type interact to impact advertising effectiveness. Participants viewed a fashion or fitness advertisement with either a thin, average, or plus-sized model. Then, participants reported how effective they thought the advertisement was, how much they compared themselves to others and their feelings regarding their body image. The results showed no effect of product type on the dependent variables, but there was an effect of model type on advertising effectiveness: Participants who viewed thin and average models rated the advertisement as more effective than participants who viewed a plus-sized model. Additionally, body satisfied individuals compared themselves more to the model, rating the advertisement as less effective. This research provides evidence that although it is commendable that advertising companies are using plus-sized models, utilizing these types of advertisements may be less effective in eliciting positive attitudes toward their brands. Model Type and Advertising Effectiveness 3 The Effect of Model and Product Type on Advertising Effectiveness: Comparing Fitness and Fashion Brands As a female, I have been taught to subconsciously compare myself to other women by society and the media. While I am fortunate to have a family that promotes body positivity and I am considered to be on the slender side, I still have the idea of being thin engraved into my brain as the standard of beauty. My mother who has a similar body shape to my own was brought up in a household that was hypercritical of their bodies. While my mom is very fit and slender, she was not always this way and was put on diet plans such as Weight Watchers as a child because she was not as thin as the other girls were. She would eat less in the cafeteria and constantly worry about what she ate so she could “look like the other girls. ” When I look at pictures of my mom as a teenager, I would never categorize her as anything other than normal and I am repulsed by the idea that she was taught that she had to be thin to be pretty. While my mom is proud of her body and is body-positive now, I know it was a journey for her to get to where she is today. After meeting my father, she became aware of how her upbringing created a negative stigma around body image, an atmosphere she aimed to never create for her children. While this story may not resonate with everyone, many people, especially women, are frequently exposed to the thin ideal from both social interaction and the media (Dittmar and Howard, 2004). In today’s society, it seems as though people are more body positive than ever before, promoting healthy behaviors and the idea that everyone is built differently (Austin and Sobel, 2020). Today, companies such as Athleta and Zara are using curvier models that better represent the average person. These strides towards diminishing the thin ideal through advertisements are Model Type and Advertising Effectiveness 4 extraordinary, but are they effective? In the following study, the size of models in both fashion and athleisure advertising will be manipulated to assess their advertising effectiveness. Body Image and the Thin Ideal An issue in advertising is the concept of the thin ideal, which is defined as highly digitized and unrealistically thin women in the media (Borau and Nepomuceno, 2016). Over time, models have become slimmer, being 20% underweight on average, which has detrimental consequences such as glamorizing the thin ideal (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Dittmar and Howard (2004) investigated why women experience negative moods when looking at models exhibiting the thin ideal. In their study, women who worked as teachers or in the fashion industry viewed ostensible advertisements for perfumes. For participants assigned to the “thin image” condition, the advertisement images included thin models (i.e., size 2 clothing). For participants assigned to the “average-size” condition, the advertisement contained images of models who wore size 12 to size 14 clothing. Finally, participants assigned to the control condition viewed advertisements with no model images. After viewing the advertisements, participants completed measures to assess their level of ideal body internalization (i.e., the extent to which participants have internalized the notion that a thin body is the ideal body form), the extent to which they perceived the advertising as effective, and their degree of body-focused anxiety (i.e., the extent to which participants feel anxiety or stress about various parts of their bodies). The results showed no significant effect of model conditions on the perception of the brand. Among low internalizers, there was no effect of condition on body-focused anxiety. Among high-internalizing workers in the fashion industry, there was a modest effect of condition Model Type and Advertising Effectiveness 5 on body-focused anxiety, such that among these women, people exposed to thin models had modestly (though statistically significantly) elevated levels of anxiety. However, among high-internalizing teachers, the effect of condition on anxiety was strong: Among these women, people exposed to thin models reported nearly twice as much anxiety. The idea of internalization paves the way for social comparison theory and its effect on advertisement effectiveness and the thin ideal. Advertisements tend to be of skinny models who do not represent the body shape of most American women, especially in fashion advertising. In the beauty industry, thin models are the norm due to the lack of diversity in body shape and the use of image alterations (Tiggemann et al., 2019). This lack of variation in body shape suggests that future research should explore how viewers respond to different types of models in the beauty industry. While individuals who viewed thin models tended to report increased body dissatisfaction, the response to natural models was still unclear. Borau and Bonnefon (2017) explored this by testing the hypothesis that while natural models decrease body anxiety, they also trigger negative effects akin to disgust. These two reactions were suggested to have opposite effects on advertising performance. The researchers assessed the beauty industry, using skincare as their product of choice. The participants were placed into one of four conditions: natural oil, thin oil, natural cream, or thin cream. The natural conditions included images of models that the authors thought were “minimally altered models whose body size and complexion all pertain to a realistic range,” while the thin condition had altered models whose body size was unrealistic. In each condition, the participants were asked to browse through an online magazine with pictures of their assigned products. After the participants viewed the advertisements, they were asked questions regarding their body anxiety, attitude toward the product, and information about the Model Type and Advertising Effectiveness 6 participants' bodies (BMI, height, and weight). The results showed that when looking at natural models, the participants rated the product less favorably and experienced repulsion, especially among participants who had a moderate or high BMI. Further, this repulsion mediated a negative impact of natural models on three measures of advertising performance. Participants who viewed natural models did not report an increase in their attitude towards the brand. Participants expressed a greater liking of the natural model but did not have the desire to purchase after viewing the advertisement due to the model not being “socially desirable”. The researchers do not recommend that advertisers use natural, unaltered models whose body size, complexion, and general attractiveness are within a realistic range because they lower purchasing intentions. These findings are meaningful because while individuals felt body-related anxiety after viewing thin models, these advertisements were more effective than those with natural models due to social desirability and feelings of repulsion. As fashion and beauty brands are the biggest instigators of the thin ideal (Malkin, Wornian, and Chrysler, 1999; Silverstein, Perdue, Peterson, and Kelly 1986), researchers have spent great efforts to understand why this is the case. Tiggemann et al. (2009) examined the thinness fantasy, which describes the fact that some individuals think they are thinner after looking at skinny models, and thus become more body positive. The researchers studied the underlying processes involved in how women respond to thin-ideal media. In their study, participants looked at advertisements that featured a product with either a thin model or no model. All participants then answered a State Mood and Body Dissatisfaction scale that was conducted before and after viewing the advertisements. Then, in an orthogonal manipulation, participants assigned to the social-comparison condition were asked if they looked like the Model Type and Advertising Effectiveness 7 model, people in the fantasy condition were asked questions about how exciting the model's life was, while people in the control condition were not asked any additional questions. The results indicated that individuals in the thin-model condition experienced more negative mood and body dissatisfaction than did those in the no-model condition, showing that the product itself had little effect on body image. Further, individuals in the fantasy and control conditions experienced a more positive mood than those in the social comparison condition. These results suggest that the thinne