Two-sided advertising: A meta-analysis

A meta-analysis is conducted that integrates empirical findings from the two-sided advertising literature. First, the study provides a summary of findings of the persuasive impact of two-sided advertising. Secondly, using regression analysis, the influence of message structure, marketer, and receiver variables on the persuasive impact of two-sided messages is tested. Finally, the crucial problem of the net-effect of source credibility and the amount of negative information on attitudes toward the brand is investigated. The results confirm that the persuasive impact of message sidedness depends on suggested variables (amount of negative information, attribute quality, placement of negative information, correlation between negative and positive attributes and marketers' voluntariness). Also the curvilinear relationship between the amount of negative information and brand attitude is supported. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.