Advert provocateur

A study of digital advertising in the International Journal of Business and Systems Research suggests that memorable visuals are more likely to encourage consumers to buy than campaigns that rely primarily on emotional impact. The findings challenge the received wisdom about how online advertising influences behaviour.

The researchers analysed survey responses from more than 400 participants using structural equation modelling. This statistical technique tests relationships between multiple factors simultaneously. They examined how four advertising characteristics, provocativeness, emotional tone, cultural relevance, and visual appeal, affected purchase intention through two pathways. The first of these was emotional response, meaning the feelings an advertisement evokes, and the second was advertisement recall, or how well people remembered the details of the campaign.

The findings indicate that provocative advertising and culturally relevant messages were effective at generating emotional reactions. However, those emotional responses did not translate into stronger purchase intentions. Similarly, an advertisement’s emotional tone neither improved recall nor influenced buying intentions.

By contrast, visually appealing advertisements consistently improved advertisement recall, and, in turn, stronger recall was linked to greater purchase intention. The results suggest that memory, rather than emotion alone, is the more reliable route from advertising exposure to consumer action.

The research addresses a gap in advertising studies, which have traditionally focused on factors such as credibility and informativeness rather than the effects of provocative or culturally tailored content. As brands compete for attention on social media platforms, the findings imply that striking imagery may be more effective when it helps audiences remember a message, rather than simply provoking an emotional reaction. For advertisers, in other words, the study suggests that attention-grabbing or controversial campaigns may need to be paired with memorable visual design to influence purchasing decisions.

Haile, T.T. (2026) ‘Beyond the norm: exploring the paradigm shift in advertising tactics towards the unconventional and provocative’, Int. J. Business and Systems Research, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp.235–256.

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