Consumer Take-Away From Print and TV Advertisements 

for DanActive: A Mall Intercept Study 

Report submitted to Federal Trade Commission 

Manoj Hastak, Ph.D. 1

Professor of Marketing 

Kogod School of Business 

American University 

1

 Dr. Hastak served as a consultant to the FTC on this project. 
1

Consumer Take-Away From Print and TV Advertisements for DanActive: 

A Mall Intercept Study 

Introduction

 A research study was designed to investigate consumer take-away from one print 

advertisement and two TV advertisements for a probiotic dairy drink product called 

DanActive. Specifically, the study sought to assess whether the advertisements 

communicated to consumers, either directly or by implication, that drinking DanActive 

reduces the likelihood of getting a cold or flu. The data were collected for the FTC by ICF 

Macro. Detailed tabulations of responses to all questions are available in the report submitted 

by ICF Macro to the FTC. 

Method

 Five hundred and seventy five (575) mall-intercept interviews were conducted in 8 

geographically diverse markets: Baltimore, MD; Boston, MA; Dallas, TX; Eau Claire, WI; 

Denver, CO; San Diego, CA; St. Louis, MO; and White Plains, NY. Respondents were 

exposed to a print or television advertisement and then responded to a series of open-ended 

and closed-ended questions about the advertised product as explained in a subsequent section. 

 Interviews were conducted during a six-week period during June through August 2009.

Neither the interviewers nor the respondents were aware of the identity of the client or the 

purpose of the study. Respondents were paid $5.00 for their participation in the study. 

Advertisements 

 Two print advertisements and three TV advertisements were tested. Of the print ads, 

one was a real DanActive ad (“print test ad”) and one was a “cleansed” ad that was created by 

removing elements from the print test ad that were thought to be responsible for making the 

claim of interest in the present study, viz., that drinking DanActive reduces the likelihood of 
2

getting a cold or a flu (“print control ad”). Specifically, the phrase “clinically proven to help 

strengthen your body’s defenses” and the word “immunity” were removed from the test ad. 

The print ads are in Appendix A. Of the three TV ads, two were real DanActive ads (“TV test 

ad #1” and “TV test ad #2”), and the third was an ad for a Dannon yogurt drink called 

Danimals (“TV control ad”). The Danimals ad was chosen as the TV control ad because (a) it 

was a yogurt-based drink similar to DanActive, (b) it was also made by Dannon, (c) it was 

also targeted at parents of young children, and (d) it was promoted as healthy but did not 

contain references to “immunity” or to “strengthening body’s defenses” that were thought to 

imply that DanActive reduces the likelihood of getting a cold or a flu. 

Screening Procedure

 A series of screening questions was used to ensure that the respondents were in the 

target market for the product and the tested advertisements (see Questions 1 through 9a in the 

interview protocol provided in Appendix B). Specifically, all selected respondents (a) were 

female, (b) were aged 25-54, (c) had at least one child aged 5-17 living with them, (d) had 

purchased yogurt or a yogurt drink for themselves or for their children in the past 3 months, 

(e) considered themselves to be “much more/somewhat more health conscious” than other 

people their age, (f) had a combined annual household income of at least $40,000, and (g) had 

attended at least some college. In addition, respondents were excluded if they or anyone in 

their household worked in marketing research, advertising or public relations, for a store in 

the mall where the data were collected, or for a store or company that made or marketed dairy 

products. They were also excluded if they wore eyeglasses or contact lenses for 

reading/watching TV but did not have their corrective eye wear with them at the time of the 

interview.
3

 Age quotas were established for respondents for each of the five advertisements, based 

on demographic data about the potential target audience. Specifically, between 40% and 60% 

of the respondents for each ad were required to be in the 25-39 and 40-54 age groups.

 Respondents who were qualified to participate in the study based on their responses to 

the screening questions were administered the main questionnaire using a CAPI (computerassisted personal interviewing) system. 

Main Questionnaire 

 The main questionnaires for the two print ads (print test ad and print control ad) and 

the three TV ads (TV test ad #1, TV test ad #2, and TV control ad) followed a similar 

procedure and used identical questions (see Interview Protocol in Appendix B.) Respondents 

were randomly assigned to one of the five ads, and were interviewed individually. If assigned 

to one of the three TV ads, respondents were shown the ad twice with a brief pause in 

between. They were asked to watch the ad as they would at home. Respondents assigned to 

one of the two print ads were handed the ad and were asked to look at it as they normally 

would and take as much time as they needed. The advertisement was then removed from 

sight. Next, respondents were asked a series of open-ended and closed-ended ad 

communication questions that are explained in the next section. Before asking these 

questions, (starting with Q10) respondents were told: “If you don't know the answer to any of 

my questions, please say so rather than guess.” 

Pretest

 Before fielding the survey, ICF Macro conducted a pretest under my supervision by 

completing a small number of interviews in a mall-intercept facility in Baltimore, MD. The 

goal was to ensure that the study questions were clear to respondents and that the CAPI 

interviewing procedure ran smoothly. Minor revisions were made to the questionnaire based 
4

on the pretest.

Coding

 ICF Macro, under my supervision, developed a coding scheme for the two open-ended 

questions in the study (Q11 and Q13). Researchers at ICF Macro coded the open-ended 

questions.

Validation

 Market Decisions, a firm unrelated to ICF Macro, conducted the validation interviews. 

Contacted respondents were asked to confirm their name, the date and location where they 

were interviewed, and answers to key screening questions including age (Q1), children (Q2), 

prior purchase of yogurt/yogurt drink (Q3), and education level (Q8).

 Two hundred and eighty-eight respondents (50% of the total sample of 575 

respondents) were contacted. Of these 288 respondents, 92% of the interviews were 

validated. Given the large number of questions included in the validation questionnaire, this 

is a validation rate that falls within guidelines generally accepted in the industry. The (8%) 

invalidated interviews were removed and replaced. 

Results

 After they had seen one of the (print or TV) advertisements for DanActive/Danimals, 

respondents were first asked to identify the brand name of the advertised product (Q10/Q10a). 

Respondents who identified DanActive/Danimals as the name were asked the ensuing 

questions. Respondents who were unable to identify the brand name were eliminated from the 

study. Overall, 197/230 respondents exposed to the two print ads (85.7%) and 327/345 

respondents exposed to the three TV ads (94.8%) correctly identified the brand name of the 

advertised product. 

 Respondents were next asked an open-ended question about the ad they had just seen: 
5

Q11: What did the ad say or suggest about DanActive/Danimals? 

 Responses to this question reveal significant differences between respondents exposed 

to test ads versus control ads in the response category “product helps immune system/keeps 

you from getting sick”: 

TABLE 1 

Key Responses to Q11

(What did the ad say or suggest about DanActive/Danimals?) 

 Print 

Test Ad 

(n=100)

(a)

Print

Control Ad 

(n=97)

(b)

 TV Test 

Ad #1 

(n=108)

(c)

TV Test 

Ad #2 

(n=108)

(d)

TV Control 

Ad

(n=111)

(e)

Product helps immune 

system/keeps you from 

getting sick (net) 

61.0%

(b)

10.3%

(a)

68.5%

(e)

63.9%

(e)

6.3%

(c, d) 

-- product helps your

immune system 

33.0%

(b)

8.2%

(a)

 48.1% 

(e)

53.7%

(e)

4.5%

(c, d) 

-- product strengthens 

body’s defenses 

33.0%

(b)

2.1%

(a)

 24.1% 

(d, e) 

11.1%

(c, e) 

0.9%

(c, d) 

-- product could keep 

you from getting sick 

2.0% 0.0% 3.7% 2.8% 0.9% 

Note: In this table as well as in subsequent tables, a letter in parenthesis within a cell 

indicates that that cell percentage was significantly different (at p<.05, two-tailed test) from 

the corresponding cell percentage in the column designated by the letter. 

 These results show that respondents exposed to the print test ad as well as the TV test 

ads for DanActive generated significantly more mentions of “product helps your immune 

system” and “product strengthens your body’s defenses” than did respondents exposed to the 

control ads. About 60%-70% of respondents in the test ad conditions mentioned these 

thoughts, suggesting that these were dominant take-aways for respondents after seeing the test 

DanActive ads. This is not surprising given that “immunity” and “strengthening body’s 

defenses” were explicitly mentioned in the test DanActive ads but not in the control ads (print 

as well as TV). Relatively few individuals volunteered in response to this open-ended 

question “product could keep you from getting sick,” and there were no significant differences 
6

between the test and control ads on these mentions. 

 Next, respondents were asked: 

Q12: Did or didn’t the ad say or suggest anything about the health benefits of drinking 

 Danactive/Danimals? 

 Respondents were shown a card with three options: “yes, it did,” “no, it did not” and 

“don’t know/not sure.” Note that each of the test/control ads was focused on the health 

benefits of the advertised product. Results are summarized in the table below: 

TABLE 2 

Responses to Q12 

(Did or didn’t the ad say or suggest anything about the health benefits of drinking 

Danactive/Danimals?) 

 Print 

Test Ad 

(n=100)

(a)

Print

Control Ad 

(n=97)

(b)

 TV Test 

Ad #1 

(n=108)

(c)

TV Test 

Ad #2 

(n=108)

(d)

TV Control 

Ad

(n=111)

(e)

% saying “yes, it did” 86.0% 

(b)

70.1%

(a)

 85.2% 90.7% 86.5% 

 These results show that that a substantial majority of respondents took a “health 

benefits” claim after watching one of the ads. Also, for the TV ads, there was not a 

significant difference in the percentage of respondents taking this claim in response to the test 

ads versus the control ad. For the print ads, while respondents exposed to the test ad were 

significantly more likely to take this claim when compared to respondents exposed to the 

control ad, nevertheless over 70% of the respondents exposed to the control ad took the health 

benefits claim. 

 Since subsequent questions focused on further probing respondent take away of 

health-related claims, respondents who replied “no, it did not” or “don’t know/not sure” to 

Q12 were not asked any further questions. Respondents who answered “yes, it did” were 

asked the following open-ended question: 
7

Q13: What did the ad say or suggest about the health benefits of drinking 

 DanActive/Danimals? 

 The distribution of responses in the response category “product helps immune 

system/keeps you from getting sick” and in all of the sub-categories under this category are 

shown below: 

TABLE 3 

Key Responses to Q13

(What did the ad say or suggest about the health benefits of drinking DanActive/Danimals?) 

 Print 

Test Ad 

(n=100)

(a)

Print

Control Ad 

(n=97)

(b)

 TV Test 

Ad #1 

(108)

(c)

TV Test 

Ad #2 

(n=108)

(d)

TV Control 

Ad

(n=111)

(e)

Product helps immune 

system/keeps you from 

getting sick (net) 

66.3%

(b)

17.6%

(a)

77.2%

(d, e) 

61.2%

(c, e) 

17.7%

(c, d) 

-- product helps your

immune system 

41.9%

(b)

16.2%

(a)

 56.5% 

(e)

51.0%

(e)

11.5%

(c, d) 

-- product strengthens 

body’s defenses 

24.4%

(b)

2.9%

(a)

 17.4% 

(e)

8.2% 3.1%

(d)

-- product could keep 

you from getting sick 

2.3% 0.0% 6.5% 3.1% 3.1% 

 The pattern of responses is very similar to the pattern for Q11 (Table 1). Specifically, 

respondents exposed to the print test ad as well as the TV test ads for DanActive generated 

significantly more mentions of “product helps your immune system” and “product strengthens 

your body’s defenses” than did respondents exposed to the control ads. Also, few individuals 

volunteered in response to this open-ended question “product could keep you from getting 

sick,” and there were no significant differences between the test and control ads on these 

mentions. 

 Finally, respondents who answered “yes” to Q12 were also asked the following: 

Q14: I’m going to read you several statements about [DanActive/Danimals]. All, 

some, or none of these may have been stated or suggested in the ad you just saw. After 

I read each statement, please tell me whether: 
8

 YES, it was stated or suggested in the [DanActive/Danimals] ad, or 

 NO, it was not stated or suggested in the [DanActive/Danimals] ad, or 

 You DON’T KNOW or are NOT SURE 

Then, respondents were read four statements in randomized order: 

Q14_1: [DanActive/Danimals] comes in bottles 

 Q14_2: Drinking [DanActive/Danimals] reduces the likelihood of getting a cold 

 or flu 

 Q14_3: [DanActive/Danimals] is a carbonated beverage 

 Q14_4: Drinking [DanActive/Danimals] reduces the likelihood of developing

 diabetes 

 Responses to Q14_2 are of focal interest in this study. Q14_1 and Q14_3 are decoy 

statements introduced to mask the purpose of the study. Q14_4 is a control statement 

designed to capture “yea saying.” 

 Table 4 shows the percentage of “yes” responses to each of these statements: 

TABLE 4 

Responses to Q14

(% saying “yes”) 

 Print 

Test Ad 

(n=100)

(a)

Print

Control Ad 

(n=97)

(b)

 TV Test 

Ad #1 

(n=108)

(c)

TV Test 

Ad #2 

(n=108)

(d)

TV Control 

Ad

(n=111)

(e)

Q14_1:

[DanActive/Danimals] 

comes in bottles 

75.0% 63.9% 79.6% 80.6% 78.4%

Q14_2: Drinking 

[DanActive/Danimals 

reduces the likelihood of 

getting a cold or flu 

32.0%

(b)

17.5%

(a)

 44.4% 

(e)

42.6%

(e)

21.6%

(c, d) 

Q14_3:

[DanActive/Danimals is 

a carbonated beverage] 

0.0% 3.1% 1.9% 1.9% 0.9%

Q14_4: Drinking 

[DanActive/Danimals 

reduces the likelihood of 

developing diabetes 

10.0% 11.3% 1.9% 

(d)

12.0%

(c, e) 

4.5%

(d)

 The Table shows that a significantly greater percentage of respondents exposed to the 
9

print test ad said yes to Q14_2 in comparison to respondents exposed to the print control ad 

(32.0% versus 17.5%). Similarly, a significantly greater percentage of respondents exposed 

to the TV test ad #1 or TV test ad #2 said yes to Q14_2 in comparison to respondents exposed 

to the TV control ad (44.4% and 42.6% versus 21.6%). Note also that only a small number of 

respondents said “yes” to the control question Q14_4. The average percentage of respondents 

saying “yes” to this question across the two print and three TV ads is 7.8%, and the range is 

1.9% to 12%. This suggests that “yea saying” was not a problem in this study. 

 Table 5 shows responses to Q14_2 that have been adjusted for “yea saying” (as 

reflected in responses to the control question) as well as for prior beliefs associated with 

yogurt drinks in general (as reflected in the responses to the control ads).

TABLE 5 

Unadjusted and Adjusted Responses to Q14

(% saying “yes”) 

 Print 

Test Ad 

(n=100)

(a)

Print

Control Ad 

(n=97)

(b)

 TV Test 

Ad #1 

(n=108)

(c)

TV Test 

Ad #2 

(n=108)

(d)

TV Control 

Ad

(n=111)

(e)

Unadjusted responses to 

Q14_2

32.0%

(b)

17.5%

(a)

 44.4% 

(e)

42.6%

(e)

21.6%

(c, d) 

Responses to Q14_2 

after subtracting 

responses to Q14_4 

(control question) 

22.0%

(b)

6.2%

(a)

 42.5% 

(e)

30.6%

(e)

17.1%

(c, d) 

Responses to Q14_2 

after subtracting 

responses to (a) Q14_4, 

and (b) Q14_2 

(adjusted) for the

control ad. 

15.8% 25.4% 13.5% 

 The first row in the Table shows the unadjusted responses to Q14_2. These are simply 

the percentages reported earlier in Table 4. The second row shows responses to Q14_2 after 

subtracting responses to the control question (Q14_4). These results show a pattern similar to 
10

the data in the top row. Specifically, a significantly greater percentage of respondents 

exposed to the print test ad said yes to Q14_2 in comparison to respondents exposed to the 

print control ad (22.0% versus 6.2%). Similarly, a significantly greater percentage of 

respondents exposed to the TV test ad #1 ad or TV test ad #2 said yes to Q14_2 in comparison 

respondents exposed to the TV control ad (42.5% and 30.6% versus 17.1%). These results 

show that the test ads communicate to a significant proportion of respondents that drinking 

DanActive reduces the likelihood of getting a cold or flu even after adjusting for yea saying. 

 The last row in Table 5 shows the effect of the test ads on consumer take-away of the 

colds/flu message after adjusting for both yea saying and prior beliefs. These adjustments are 

done by subtracting from responses to Q14_2 for the test ad: (1) the responses to Q14_4 

(control question) for the test ad; and (2) the difference between the responses to Q14_2 for 

the control ad (print or TV as appropriate) and the responses to Q14_4 for that control ad.

These results show that even after controlling for yea saying as well as for prior beliefs, the 

test ads communicated to 15.8% of respondents for the print ad, and to between 13.5% and 

25.4% for the TV ads the message that drinking DanActive reduces the likelihood of getting a 

cold or flu. 

Conclusion

 This study was designed to investigate consumer take-away from one print 

advertisement and two TV advertisements for a probiotic dairy drink product called 

DanActive. The results show that, after controlling for yea saying as well as for prior beliefs, 

the print ad communicated to 15.8% of respondents and the two TV ads communicated to 

13.5% and 25.4% of respondents, respectively, the message that drinking DanActive reduces 

the likelihood of getting a cold or flu.
APPENDIX A 

PRINT ADVERTISEMENTS (TEST AND CONTROL) 


APPENDIX B 

INTERVIEW PROTOCOL