Lost and found: The information-processing model of advertising effectiveness

The objective of this study is to formulate a general framework for advertising research. The article provides a brief review of the hierarchy-of-effects paradigm, Petty and Cacioppo's (1983) elaboration-likelihood model (ELM), and McGuire's (1978) information-processing model (IPM). It is argued that the usefulness of the ELM for advertising research derives from its heuristic rather than integrative merits. It is further argued that the IMP, if appropriately revised on a number of critical aspects, incorporates rival proposals in the hierarchy-of-effects paradigm as well as the ELM and provides a sufficiently general framework for research on advertising effectiveness.