International Journal of Consumer Studies ISSN 1470-6423

Attitude towards fashion advertisements with political

content: impacts of opinion leadership and perception of
advertisement message
Beth Harben1 and Soyoung Kim2
1
Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA
2
University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

Keywords
Fashion advertisements, opinion leadership,
political message, advertisement attitude,
product attitude.
Correspondence
Beth Harben, Auburn University, Auburn, AL
334-844-1343, USA.
E-mail: harbeme@auburn.edu
Soyoung Kim is an associate professor in
Merchandising at the Department of Textiles,
Merchandising and Interiors at the University
of Georgia.
Abstract
Fashion advertisements with political content are unique in that they go against the
accepted strategy of advertising. As fashion advertisements with political content become
more prevalent, consumers’ reactions to them become an important subject of research.
This study examines consumers’ attitudes towards fashion advertisements with political
content with respect to fashion and political opinion leadership, political views, perception
of advertisement message and product attitude. Results showed that attitude towards
advertisements with political content was influenced significantly by the viewer’s political
views and agreement with the advertisement message, but not by political opinion lead-
ership. Fashion opinion leadership influenced product attitude only for advertisements
without political content. The viewers’ advertisement attitudes were carried over to product
attitudes regardless of the presence of political message.

doi: 10.1111/j.1470-6431.2007.00648.x

The focus in a growing number of fashion advertisements in the
last 10 years has been on a political or social theme rather than on
the product of the company that created the advertisement. Advo-
cacy advertising is a form of institutional advertising through
which a variety of organizations express their views on social,
economic and political issues, and also hope to influence public
opinion and behaviour (Salmon et al., 1985; Haley, 2001). An
example is the extensive campaign launched by Philip Morris in
1996 that emphasized the dangers of youth smoking and promotes
the company’s youth access prevention programme. This cam-
paign was part of the tobacco company’s efforts to repair its
damaged public image and credibility by widely publicizing the
company’s position opposing youth smoking. While advocacy
advertising is typically used to favourably position the company
on key issues and to ultimately create a favourable public image,
fashion advertisements incorporating political issues have differed
from the mainstream advocacy advertising in that they are aimed
at sparking great controversy.
The Italian apparel company Benetton brought advocacy adver-
tising to fashion in 1984 with its campaign, ‘All the Colors of the
World’ (Tinic, 1997). The purpose of the campaign was to promote
racial unity, and its advertisements featured young adults from
different racial groups wearing brightly coloured clothing while
Beth Harben completed her Masters degree in Textiles, Merchandising,
and Interiors at the University of Georgia in 2004, and is currently a PhD
student in the Department of Consumer Affairs at Auburn University.
smiling and embracing. Since then, the company’s advertisements
have become more controversial by removing merchandise from
the advertisements and covering topics such as capital punish-
ment, AIDS, world hunger, war and abortion. The advertisements
have featured shocking images, such as a nun and a priest kissing,
a man assassinated by the Mafia and a car engulfed in flames.
Similarly, Kenneth Cole featured in its advertising various politi-
cal messages taking a stance on issues such as gun control, abor-
tion rights and domestic violence. In 1985, Kenneth Cole was one
of the first apparel marketers to address AIDS awareness in
its advertisements. The advertisements displayed eye-catching
phrases such as ‘AIDS can’t be fought on a shoe string budget,’
and ‘What we stand for is more important than what we stand in’
(Cardona, 2003). Since then, Members Only, Diesel, Sisley and
Express have also issued advertisements with controversial politi-
cal messages (Kim et al., 2001). Diesel’s campaign in 1997
included violent pictures of mutilated body parts under the theme
called ‘Diplomacy is a kick in the face’ (Andersson et al., 2004).
The political content of fashion advertisements was quickly
noticed and widely discussed by the public. For example, the
campaign entitled ‘We, on Death Row’, which featured pictures
and interviews with death row inmates, caused Sears, Roebuck and
Company to pull Benetton US products from store shelves
(Reuters, 2000; Taylor, 2000). The campaign was condemned for
humanizing the inmates, and the manner in which Benetton gained
access to the inmates was investigated (Davis, 2001). More
recently, Kenneth Cole launched an advertisement that negatively

88 International Journal of Consumer Studies 32 (2008) 88–98 © The Authors. Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
B. Harben and S. Kim
portrayed the Bush–Cheney administration. However, after the
terrorism of September 11, the designer ended the campaign due to
complaints that the advertisements were anti-patriotic.
The complaints against these advertisements are not geographi-
cally restrained. During the Gulf War in 1991, Benetton created an
advertisement that contained a picture of a war cemetery. With the
exception of one Italian newspaper, mass media around the world
refused to print the advertisement. Hundreds of journalists criti-
cized the company for attempting to profit off an image of death.
In response to the criticism, Benetton created an advertisement
with an image of birth. The image of a newborn baby still attached
to the umbilical cord was highly condemned in Italy, France, Great
Britain and Ireland. However, the advertisement eventually won
awards in Sweden and the Netherlands (Benetton, n.d.). In
Germany, Benetton licensees sued the company, claiming that the
controversial advertisements prevented customers from wanting to
enter their stores (Nash, 1995). Although the Benetton advertise-
ment which featured a man dying from AIDS was praised by a
German AIDS group, both Germany and France prohibited the
advertisement from being publicly displayed (Tinic, 1997).
In Sweden, some of the advertisements by Diesel and Sisley
have been reported to The Market Ethical Board, and Benetton’s
campaigns have been reported to the Department of Justice
(Andersson et al., 2004).
Institutional advertising with weak persuasiveness and incon-
sistency with the corporation’s actual practices can also present
the danger of backfiring. For example, Shell Oil has waged a green
marketing campaign proclaiming its commitment to environmen-
tal issues, even while it is widely known that it is fighting lawsuits
and criticisms on a large number of fronts throughout the world for
its purportedly environmentally and socially irresponsible actions.
This green marketing campaign triggered environmentalists
and human rights supporters, including Greenpeace, to launch a
massive counter-campaign in the media, slashing sales and result-
ing in considerable damage to the corporate public image (Doyle,
2004).
Therefore, while fashion advertisements with political content
are unique, going against the accepted strategy of advertising, it
remains to be seen whether they will prove to be effective in the
long run. Conventional advertising shows the positive character-
istics of a product or the company itself, with the intent of selling
the product to the viewer. Many advertisements even go a step
further and try to sell not only the product but also a pleasant
situation or a desirable quality that could result from the product’s
purchase. In contrast, fashion advertisements with political
content differ, because they do not mention the product’s qualities.
Often the product is not even pictured in the advertisements. These
advertisements may show or describe the harsh reality of the world
instead of the pleasantries of a fantasy land. Benetton claims that
these advertisements are innovative and thus spark interest, as they
are different from what society is accustomed to experiencing. As
Huang (1997) argues, even advertisements that elicit negative
feeling can still be favoured by consumers, thereby increasing
advertising effectiveness.
As fashion advertisements with political content become more
prevalent, their effects on consumers become an increasingly
important subject of research. Marketers know that these adver-
tisements will attract consumers’ attention, but they also need to
know how the consumers’ attitudes towards these advertisements
International Journal of Consumer Studies 32 (2008) 88–98 © The Authors. Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Fashion advertisements with political content
(hereafter ‘advertisement attitude’) will affect their attitudes
towards the products. Often practitioners of advocacy advertising
believe that their campaigns enhance their credibility and influ-
ence public opinion, but little research has been conducted to
prove the effectiveness of their campaigns (Burgoon et al.,
1995). The current study examines consumers’ attitudes towards
a fashion advertisement with political content in terms of what
factors influence them and how advertisement attitude affects
attitude towards the product featured in the advertisement. This
study has chosen to take the positivistic-empirical approach to
understanding these relationships, and designed a case study
where two fictitious advertisements were tested using college
students as a research group. This study also includes a deter-
mination of whether opinion leadership is related to advertise-
ment attitude and product attitude. Opinion leaders are the
people in society most affected by formal media and they
communicate their views most frequently and more influentially
than others. Therefore, their attitudes towards advertisements
with a political message bear potential significance for
marketers.
It should be noted that this study examined advertisement atti-
tude from an American perspective, inasmuch as the political
message chosen referred to the US government’s decision to go to
war with Iraq. In the late spring of 2004, the war in Iraq was a
highly controversial topic for the presidential campaign. The issue
sparked debate around the country; it revived an interest in politics
for a historically apathetic demographic group in America, the
college student. In 1972, immediately after the government
changed the voting age from 21 to 18, the percentage of people
aged 18–24 who voted was 49.6% (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000).
From 1972 to 2000, the percentage of voters in this age group has
ranged around 20–30%, with a low of 16.6% in 1998 and a peak
of 42.8% in 1992 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000, 2002). Students
have cited apathy by way of explanation pointing out that the
politicians were not addressing issues that were important to them
(Speckman, 2004). However, students believed that the war was an
important issue, as many had friends who were going over to Iraq
to fight, and that the war was having a negative effect on jobs and
the economy (Ebenkamp, 2004). As the war in Iraq inspired debate
and protests around many of the nation’s campuses, college stu-
dents were as divided as the rest of the nation. Speakers were
jeered off the stage for condemning the Bush administration’s
policies on one campus and asked to leave the stage for praising
the administrations’ policies on another campus (Marcus, 2003).
Therefore, this particular political issue makes it an appropriate
choice for the study, as it may be less likely to be subject to college
students’ political apathy.
Literature review
Fashion and political opinion leadership
Opinion leaders are those who exert ‘influence on the opinions of
others within a specific field through personal communication’
(Hellevik and Bjorklund, 1991), and who are interested in that
field (Weimann, 1994). Because opinion leaders in one field
are not necessarily opinion leaders in another (Hellevik and
Bjorklund, 1991), we included in our study two types of opinion
leadership: fashion and political opinion leadership.
89
Fashion advertisements with political content
In his study of French female fashion opinion leaders, Vernette
(2004) states that fashion media should target opinion leaders to be
successful, because opinion leaders tend to be more positive
towards media advertising than non-leaders. Given that opinion
leadership is linked to use of the media for information seeking
and opinion leaders influence the attitudes of other individuals by
providing a primary word-of-mouth source of information (Herr
et al., 1991; Shah and Scheufele, 2006), his argument appears well
substantiated. Vernette further explains that because fashion
opinion leaders have enduring involvement with fashion products,
and also because advertising is their frequent topic for discussion,
their views carry more weight in communication with others,
thereby strengthening advertising persuasion. In his study,
however, the respondents were asked about their attitudes towards
fashion advertising in general rather than about their attitudes
towards any specific advertisement. Advertisement attitude
was measured by such questions as ‘Life would be dull without
advertising’ and ‘I find advertising entertaining’. An examination
of whether fashion opinion leaders will be in favour of fashion
advertisements despite controversial political messages contained
therein should provide interesting insights into the role of fashion
opinion leadership in advertising effectiveness.
As our study involved advertisements with political content, it
seemed appropriate to investigate the influence of political opinion
leadership as another form of opinion leadership. Political opinion
leaders are those who have a major influence on others’ opinions
about various political issues. A few dominant characteristics of
political opinion leaders identified in previous studies include a
high level of media exposure, strong interest in political issues and
active involvement in political affairs and organizations. Hellevik
and Bjorklund (1991) also discovered that political opinion
leaders tended to hold more extreme views than non-leaders.
Given that political opinion leaders are strongly interested in
political topics, use mass media frequently and tend to form
extreme views, we hypothesized that political opinion leadership
may have a measurable impact on attitude towards advertisements
with political content.
Hypothesis 1: Fashion opinion leadership will have a signifi-
cant impact on attitude towards advertisements featuring
fashion products.
Hypothesis 2: Political opinion leadership will have a signifi-
cant impact on attitude towards advertisements with a politi-
cal message.
Perception of advertisement message
Advertisement attitude is ‘the predisposition to respond in a
favourable or unfavourable manner to a particular advertising
stimulus during a particular exposure occasion’ (MacKenzie et al.,
1986, p. 130). Advertisement attitude is based on one’s reactions
to various elements of the advertisement, such as model, celebrity
endorser, colour, layout and text message (Kim et al., 2002). As
Schlossberg (1992) noted, advertisements with positive social
messages bring about positive responses by shaping public atti-
tudes in the intended manner; however, in the context of adver-
tisements dealing with controversial political issues, the impact of
a message on consumer attitude is not clear. As illustrated by
public reactions to campaigns by Benetton, Kenneth Cole and
others, the impact may depend not only on the degree of contro-
90 International Journal of Consumer Studies 32 (2008) 88–98 © The Authors. Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
B. Harben and S. Kim
versy of the issue, but also on personal characteristics such as
agreement with the message or interest in the topic.
Lord et al. (1995) reported that message agreement strongly
influences advertisement attitude. This finding was corroborated
by Laczniak et al. (1999), who studied the influence advertising
message involvement, product involvement and product knowl-
edge have on the way a consumer processes an advertisement. Of
the three variables, advertising message involvement had the
strongest influence on advertisement processing. In fact, product
involvement and product knowledge had little impact on a con-
sumer’s response to the advertisement after controlling for the
influence of advertising message involvement.
Additionally, recognition and understanding of an advertise-
ment message may also be a factor in determining advertisement
attitude. For example, one study examining the effectiveness of
Mobil Oil’s advocacy campaign (Adkins, 1978) found that only
9% of those polled understood what the advertisements were
saying. The fact that more than half of the sample indicated a
negative attitude towards the campaign may be associated with the
fact that the message was not understood by the majority. All these
studies suggest that how one perceives the message in the adver-
tisement may influence one’s advertisement attitude.
Hypothesis 3: Perception of advertisement message will have
a significant impact on attitude towards advertisements with a
political message.
Advertisement attitude and product attitude
Consumers’ advertisement attitudes ultimately lead to the forma-
tion of attitudes towards the products featured in the advertise-
ments, because consumers use advertisement claims to make
evaluations about product benefits (Burton and Lichtenstein, 1988;
Kim et al., 2002; Mostafa, 2005). Although political messages in
fashion advertisements have little to do with endorsing products or
promoting product attributes, it would be of interest to see whether
a close connection between advertisement attitude and product
attitude could be established for this type of advertisements.
Hypothesis 4: Advertisement attitude will have a significant
impact on attitudes towards the products featured in
advertisements.
Method
Description of the survey
Four web pages were designed to collect data for the study. Each
web page included one of four jean advertisements created by the
researchers, as well as a link to a five-part online survey. The four
advertisements designed specifically for this study comprised: (1)
a pair of female jeans and a political message (Fig. 1); (2) a pair of
female jeans and a non-political message (Fig. 2); (3) a pair of
male jeans and a political message (Fig. 3); and (4) a pair of male
jeans and a non-political message (Fig. 4). Jeans were chosen as
the fashion product in the advertisement, because they are com-
monly worn by both male and female students and thus familiar to
all students in the sample. A contemporary style of jeans was
chosen, but the jeans did not have trendy features that might
distract the respondents.
The topics that were used in the message for the advertisements
were also familiar to the sample. The political message was ‘While
B. Harben and S. Kim
Figure 1 Advertisement with female jeans and a political message.
the President was busy creating a reason for war, we were busy
creating the perfect pair of jeans’. The message was referring to
the controversy surrounding the President’s decision to go to war
with Iraq. This topic was chosen because it was widely being
discussed among college students at the time of this survey. The
non-political message was ‘We have a fit for everybody in
America’. This message simply advertises the jeans. Aside from
the differences in message, the advertisements were made to look
identical. The same background was used for both advertisements,
and the jeans and the message were placed in the exact same
position in the advertisements.
Fashion opinion leadership
The first section of the survey included nine questions measuring
fashion opinion leadership on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = strongly
disagree, 7 = strongly agree). The questions were adopted from a
scale of product-specific opinion leadership developed by Flynn
et al. (1996). Examples of the questions included ‘Other people
come to me for advice about choosing clothing’ and ‘I often
International Journal of Consumer Studies 32 (2008) 88–98 © The Authors. Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Fashion advertisements with political content
Figure 2 Advertisement with female jeans and a non-political message.
influence people’s opinions about fashion’. The reliability index
for the nine-item scale was low at 0.60. Examination of item-
total statistics indicated that the reliability would improve by the
largest amount upon removing two questions (‘I don’t need
to talk to others before I buy clothing’ and ‘I like to get
other’s opinions before I buy clothing’). The reliability of the
remaining questions was acceptable with the Cronbach’s alpha
of 0.78.
Political opinion leadership
Eleven questions measuring political opinion leadership were
either adapted from Hellevik and Bjorklund (1991) or created
by the researchers. Hellevik and Bjorklund divided political
opinion leadership into three parts based on different aspects of
political discussion: (1) whether the respondent speaks his or her
views during political conversation or listens to others’ views
(1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree); (2) whether the
respondent engages in political discussion at all (1 = never,
91
Fashion advertisements with political content
Figure 3 Advertisement with male jeans and a political message.
7 = daily); and (3) whether others are influenced by the respon-
dent’s views (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree). The
researchers added five questions asking how frequently the
respondent engaged in various political activities and how fre-
quently he or she acquires political information from the media
(1 = never, 7 = weekly or daily depending on question). The reli-
ability for this scale was 0.81.
Perception of advertisement message and
advertisement attitude
The respondents were then asked to review the assigned adver-
tisement and asked questions regarding their (1) recognition of
the political message in the advertisement (‘I believe the adver-
tisement is communicating a political message’); (2) understand-
ing of the message (‘I understand what the political message in
the advertisement is trying to say’); (3) strength of agreement
with the message (‘I agree with the political message in the
advertisement’); and (4) strength of feelings about the message
92 International Journal of Consumer Studies 32 (2008) 88–98 © The Authors. Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
B. Harben and S. Kim
Figure 4 Advertisement with male jeans and a non-political message.
(‘I have strong feelings about the political message in the adver-
tisement’). The respondents then proceeded to answer four ques-
tions regarding advertisement attitude (interesting, effective,
good, likable). The reliability for the advertisement attitude scale
was 0.87.
Product attitude
Three questions adapted from studies by DeLong et al. (2002) and
Kim et al. (2002) were used to measure product attitude (‘The
product in this advertisement is stylish’, ‘The product in this
advertisement is attractive’ and ‘Overall, I like the product in the
advertisement’) (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree). The
reliability for this scale was 0.84.
Survey participants
In order to provide a broad sampling of college students, respon-
dents were recruited from diverse fields of study (biology,
B. Harben and S. Kim Fashion advertisements with political content

advertising, political science, psychology, leisure studies,
housing). The survey web site address was distributed to a total of
1268 students, of whom 179 responded. One of the researchers
visited each of 12 selected classrooms, briefly explained the
survey and handed out a small slip of paper with the following
information printed on it: (1) the title of the survey, ‘College
Students’ Opinions of Fashion Advertisements’; (2) the web
address for the survey; and (3) the phrase ‘Your opinion counts!’
in order to better motivate the students to participate in the survey.
An equal number of flyers were distributed for the advertisement
containing a political message and for the advertisement with a
non-political message. The web sites were available for 5 weeks.
The low response rate of 14% may be due to the particular
method used to recruit participants. Each of the classes was visited
only once; thus there was no repeat contact with any of the stu-
dents. In addition, no incentive was offered for taking the survey.
This method of recruitment, while promoting strictly voluntary
participation, raised a concern as to the representativeness of the
final sample. The response rate might have been improved, if a
persuasive cover letter had been given to the students when they
were initially contacted. A cover letter was made available only
when a student correctly accessed the web page. The weak
response rate can be also attributed to the fact that male students
might not have found the subject of fashion advertisement impor-
tant and intriguing enough to participate in the survey. As classes
with a balanced representation of both genders were deliberately
chosen, low participation by male students may be seen as a major
cause for the poor response rate.
After 5 weeks, a total of 177 usable data were generated. As the
survey was completed in a volunteer manner, an even distribution
of respondents for each advertisement could not be ensured. Even
so, our results yielded an almost even distribution between the
advertisements; 84 students (47%) viewed the advertisement with
political message (hereafter to be called the political message
group) and 93 students (53%) viewed the advertisement with no
political message (the non-political message group).
Results
Description of respondents
The ages of the respondents ranged from 18 to 27 years with an
average of 21 years; the majority of the respondents were female
(n = 126, 70%). Participation by male students (n = 52, 29%) may
have been low as fashion is still largely viewed as a feminine topic
of interest. Almost all of the students were single (n = 171, 96%).
When asked about their political views (1 = very conservative;
4 = neutral; 7 = very liberal), the respondents tended to be neutral
with a mean of 4.32 (SD = 1.75).
The political message group strongly believed that the adver-
tisement was communicating a political message (mean = 6.23,
SD = 1.14), and strongly indicated that they understood the
message (mean = 6.28, SD = 1.05). However, their overall agree-
ment with the message was relatively weak with a mean of 3.05
(SD = 2.08). They had somewhat strong feelings about the
message (mean = 5.70, SD = 1.26), but they were not asked if their
feelings were positive or negative.
Group comparisons
T-tests were conducted to compare the political message group
with the non-political message group in terms of advertisement
attitude and product attitude (see Table 1). When summated scales
for both advertisement attitude and product attitude were used, the
political message group did not significantly differ from the other
group in either variable. Additional t-tests were performed to
determine whether the two groups differed for each of the
individual items constituting advertisement attitude and product
attitude. Significant differences were detected for two items
measuring advertisement attitude; the political message group
believed more strongly that the advertisement they viewed was
interesting (P < 0.001), and the non-political message group
believed more strongly that the advertisement they viewed was
good (P < 0.05).
Multiple regression analyses
Ordinary least squares regression was used to examine how
strongly advertisement attitude and product attitude were pre-
dicted by demographic characteristics and the selected perceptual
variables. Using the enter method of multiple regression, a set of
demographic variables was first entered into the equation followed
by fashion opinion leadership, political opinion leadership and
political views simultaneously, then by perceptions of advertise-
ments, and finally by advertisement attitude. In order to compare

Table 1 Comparisons between political

Political message Non-political message
message group and non-political message
(n = 84) (n = 93)
group
Mean SD Mean SD T-value

Ad attitude 3.42 1.67 3.51 1.42 -0.37

The ad is interesting 4.62 1.93 3.49 1.59 4.21***
The ad is effective 3.27 1.98 3.66 1.68 -1.39
The ad is good 2.90 1.93 3.49 1.57 -2.24*
I like this ad 2.89 1.99 3.39 1.61 -1.82
Product attitude 5.10 1.25 5.01 1.16 0.49
The product is stylish 5.26 1.43 4.89 1.45 1.70
The product is attractive 5.18 1.34 5.01 1.22 0.87
Overall I like the product 4.87 1.66 5.14 1.14 -1.25

*P ⱕ 0.05, ***P ⱕ 0.001.

International Journal of Consumer Studies 32 (2008) 88–98 © The Authors. Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd 93
Fashion advertisements with political content B. Harben and S. Kim

the political message group with the non-political message group,
two separate sets of regression analyses were conducted.
Advertisement with political content
For the political message group, the following independent vari-
ables were included in the regression model: demographic charac-
teristics (age and gender), fashion opinion leadership, political
opinion leadership, political views and four message-perception
variables (recognition of the message, understanding of the
message, agreement with the message and feelings about the
message) (see Table 2). The enter method was employed to
compare the influences of demographic characteristics and percep-
tual variables.
The results showed that neither of the two demographic vari-
ables significantly influenced advertisement attitude. The R2 coef-
ficient was rather low (6%) with only two variables included in the
equation. When two opinion leadership variables and political
views were added to the model, the R2 coefficient increased to
0.22. Only one variable, political views, was significant (b = 0.43,
P < 0.001) revealing that the more liberal the student is, the more
positive attitude he or she holds towards the advertisement.
Neither fashion nor political opinion leadership was significant
in predicting advertisement attitude. When the four message-
perception variables were entered into the equation, the R2 coeffi-
cient increased to 0.48. Of the four message-perception variables,
only agreement with the message significantly influenced adver-
tisement attitude. Respondents who more strongly agreed with the
message exhibited a more favourable advertisement attitude
(b = 0.69, P < 0.001).
The second regression model tested the impacts of the same
variables and advertisement attitude on product attitude (see
Table 3). Age (b = 0.25, P < 0.05) and gender (b = 0.27; P < 0.05)
were significant predictors of product attitude when only demo-
graphic variables were included; older and female respondents
responded more favourably towards the product featured in the
advertisement than younger and male respondents. The same two
variables, however, emerged as insignificant when other percep-
tual variables were entered into the equation. Of the perceptual
variables, only advertisement attitude was significant (b = 0.51,
P < 0.001). The final model explained 32% of the variation in
product attitude.
Advertisement without political content
For the non-political message group, the two demographic vari-
ables, two opinion leadership variables and political views were
examined for their impacts on advertisement attitude (see Table 2).
Age was the only significant predictor of advertisement attitude,
with older students being more positive towards the advertisement
(b = 0.39, P < 0.001). The R2 coefficient of the final model was
0.20.
A separate regression model tested the impacts of the same
variables and advertisement attitude on product attitude (see
Table 3). Age and gender were both insignificant when entered
alone, but emerged as significant when three other variables
(fashion opinion leadership, political opinion leadership, political
views) were added to the equation. Older (b = 0.24, P < 0.05) and
female students (b = 0.32, P < 0.05) held a more positive attitude
towards the product in the advertisement. The respondent’s
political view did not have a significant impact on product atti-
tude. The R2 coefficient increased from 0.05 to 0.14 when the
three perceptual variables were added. When advertisement atti-
tude was added to the equation, the R2 coefficient increased to
0.20. Age became insignificant but gender remained significant
(b = 0.32, P < 0.05). Interestingly, both fashion and political
opinion leaderships emerged as significant predictors of product
attitude; higher levels of fashion opinion leadership (b = -0.32,
P < 0.05) and political opinion leadership (b = -0.25, P < 0.05)
were associated with less favourable product attitudes. As
expected, advertisement attitude was a significant predictor of
product attitude (b = 0.28, P < 0.05).

Table 2 Regression analysis results for ad

Ad attitude
attitude
Non-political
Political message group message group

Beta Beta Beta Beta Beta

Demographic characteristics
Age 0.16 0.09 -0.03 0.41*** 0.39***
Gender (1 = female) 0.21 0.13 0.06 0.09 -0.03
Perceptual variables
Fashion opinion leadership 0.02 0.02 0.24*
Political opinion leadership 0.13 0.03 0.15***
Political views 0.43*** -0.02 -0.07
Perception of ad message
Recognition -0.25
Understanding 0.28
Agreement 0.69***
Feelings 0.05
R2 0.06 0.22 0.48 0.15 0.20

*P ⱕ 0.05, ***P ⱕ 0.001.

94 International Journal of Consumer Studies 32 (2008) 88–98 © The Authors. Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
B. Harben and S. Kim Fashion advertisements with political content

Table 3 Regression analysis results for pro-

Product attitude
duct attitude
Non-political
Political message group message group

Beta Beta Beta Beta Beta Beta Beta

Demographic characteristics
Age 0.27* 0.25* 0.19 0.21 0.19 0.24* 0.13
Gender (1 = female) 0.24* 0.27* 0.23 0.20 0.18 0.32* 0.32*
Perceptual variables
Fashion opinion leadership -0.10 -0.12 -0.13 -0.25* -0.32*
Political opinion leadership 0.01 -0.12 -0.14 -0.21* -0.25*
Political views 0.22 -0.09 -0.08 -0.13 -0.11
Perception of ad message
Recognition -0.20 -0.07
Understanding 0.14 0.00
Agreement 0.20 -0.16
Feelings 0.20 0.17
Ad attitude 0.51*** 0.28*
R2 0.11 0.12 0.18 0.32 0.05 0.14 0.20

*P ⱕ 0.05, ***P ⱕ 0.001.

not place as much importance on keeping up with current events in

Discussion
Hypothesis testing
Fashion opinion leadership
Fashion opinion leadership did not have a significant impact on
either advertisement attitude or product attitude for the advertise-
ment containing political content, but did significantly influence
product attitude for the advertisement without political content,
offering partial support for Hypothesis 1. Interestingly, those
respondents with a higher level of fashion opinion leadership
exhibited less favourable attitudes towards the product in the
advertisement without political content. This finding may be due
to the fact that the product chosen for the advertisement stimuli
was jeans, which, although contemporary in style, lacked trendy
features. As fashion opinion leaders tend to actively monitor the
latest fashion trends (Summers, 1970; Vernette, 2004), they may
have found the ordinary jeans less than exciting. In order to gain a
full understanding of the role of fashion opinion leadership in the
formation of attitudes towards fashion advertisements, future
studies need to include a variety of products with a varying degree
of fashionability.
Political opinion leadership
The results from multiple regression analyses also showed that
political opinion leadership did not have a significant impact on
either advertisement attitude or product attitude for the advertise-
ment with political content, contradicting our Hypothesis 2. These
findings, however, should not be generalized to the population at
large without caution. Many of the questions measuring political
opinion leadership required the respondents to indicate how often
they use the media to gain information on current political affairs.
These questions may not have been as appropriate for college
students as they might be for others, as many college students may
the world as older adults do. A larger sample with a better repre-
sentation of the general population might reveal different findings.
Interestingly, political opinion leadership negatively impacted
on product attitude for the advertisement without political content.
Although the relationship between the two variables was not pro-
posed for the advertisement without political content, the finding
was not completely unexpected. The negative direction of the
relationship may suggest a lack of interest in fashion products
among political opinion leaders.
Political message vs. non-political message
The result of t-tests showed that the presence of a political
message did not necessarily affect the respondent’s overall adver-
tisement attitude. This finding, however, should not be considered
conclusive. When individual items measuring advertisement atti-
tude were examined, those who viewed the advertisement with
political content agreed more strongly than those who viewed the
advertisement without political content that their advertisement
was interesting, but agreed less strongly that the advertisement
was good. When individual items measuring advertisement atti-
tude were tested for their impacts on product attitude, ‘good adver-
tisement’ exhibited a stronger positive relationship with product
attitude (b = 0.50, P < 0.001) than ‘interesting advertisement’
(b = 0.27, P < 0.05). These findings suggest that some advertise-
ments with political content, even when perceived as interesting,
can still be considered poor, resulting in less favourable product
attitudes. These findings lend support for an early study by
Berlyne (1960), who suggested that degree of interest should not
be combined into one global measure of overall advertisement
attitude, as there exists a non-monotonic relationship between
degree of interest and overall liking for an advertisement.
Factors that contribute to the perception of interesting but poor
advertisements with political content may include the viewer’s
political view and his or her level of agreement with the political

International Journal of Consumer Studies 32 (2008) 88–98 © The Authors. Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd 95
Fashion advertisements with political content
message conveyed in the advertisement. As findings from multiple
regression analyses revealed, attitudes towards the advertisement
with a political message were significantly influenced by the
respondents’ political views, and also by their strength of agree-
ment with the message in the advertisement. As the political
message chosen for this study took a stance against the Republican
President’s decision to go to war with Iraq, it was not surprising
that the more politically conservative the viewer was, the less
positive attitude he or she held towards the advertisement. In
addition, the less strongly the viewer agreed with the message in
the advertisement, the less positive attitude he or she held towards
the advertisement. The fact that a respondent’s political views and
agreement with a message were significant predictors of adver-
tisement attitude suggest that marketers should be aware of the
negative impact of their advocacy advertising for those who do not
share the same political views.
Agreement with advertisement message and overall
advertisement attitude
Hypothesis 3 was only partially supported, as just one of the four
variables measuring perceptions of advertisement message (i.e.
agreement with the message) appeared as a significant predictor of
advertisement attitude. Neither recognition nor understanding of
the message affected the respondents’ attitudes towards the adver-
tisement. Further, emotional reactions to the message, measured
by feelings towards the message, did not influence advertisement
attitude. This finding suggests the need for further investigation
into the roles of emotional vs. cognitive reactions to advertisement
messages. One possible explanation from a methodological point
of view is that the respondents might have found it easier to
indicate their level of agreement with the message, but were not
sure of how to respond in terms of the strength of their feelings.
Additionally, it is possible that the relationship between emotional
reactions to the message and overall advertisement attitude may be
significant only for either positive or negative feelings; thus, future
studies need to consider the nature of the viewer’s emotional
reactions with a question specifically asking whether their feelings
are positive or negative.
Advertisement attitude and product attitude
Consistent with Hypothesis 4, advertisement attitude significantly
influenced product attitude for both types of advertisements. This
finding suggests an important implication for fashion advertisers.
The viewer’s positive or negative attitude towards the advertise-
ment can be carried over to his or her attitude towards the product,
even when the advertisement does not contain any message per-
taining to the product. If the viewer does not agree with the
message in the advertisement, he or she will likely respond
unfavourably towards the advertisement, which will, in turn, lead
to an unfavourable attitude towards the product.
Demographic characteristics
Although age and gender effects were not a focus of this study,
regression analyses demonstrated that product attitude for both
advertisement stimuli were significantly influenced by age and
gender. Specifically, older students and female students responded
96 International Journal of Consumer Studies 32 (2008) 88–98 © The Authors. Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
B. Harben and S. Kim
more favourably towards the jeans featured in the advertisements
than younger and male students. As with fashion opinion leaders,
younger students might have found the basic-style jeans not trendy
enough to consider interesting. The gender difference, on the other
hand, may reflect the fact that women are generally more inter-
ested in fashion items and therefore more favourable towards
fashion advertisements than men.
Conclusions
This study marks a unique effort to investigate attitude towards
fashion advertisements containing political content with respect to
the effects thereon of fashion and political opinion leadership,
political views and perception of advertisement message. Political
consumerism, however, is a complex issue that warrants consid-
erations of social, economic and political contexts, and therefore,
a case study involving a small sample of college students should
be reviewed with caution. Stolle et al. (2005) defined political
consumerism as ‘consumer choice of producers and products
based on political or ethical considerations’. Although political
consumerism is typically discussed in conjunction with consumer
boycotts, this study of consumers’ attitudes towards fashion adver-
tisements with political content can also be seen to be in the vein
of political consumerism, given that advertisement attitude often
leads to product choice. A subsequent question for discussion is
whether the degree of a consumer’s involvement in his or her
decision-making process is a prerequisite for political consump-
tion. Will it still be considered political consumption even if the
consumer is not deliberately making the decision to express his or
her political opinion? The issue becomes even more complicated
when an argument is made that some people may decide against
purchasing a product, not because they do not agree with the
political views contained in the advertisement, but simply because
the advertisement deals with a political issue. A myriad of envi-
ronmental and individual factors affecting a consumer’s political
consumption presents significant challenges to understanding the
issue of advertisement with political content.
This study took the positivistic-empirical approach and investi-
gated relationships among a few selected variables in an artificial
environment. As such, it will face the usual criticisms of the
positivistic philosophy, one of which is that this mode of inquiry
tries to explain the rich complexity of human interaction in
simplistic patterns. Although this study suffered from over-
simplification, it on the other hand attempted a systematic inves-
tigation into the effects of individual characteristics, such as
opinion leadership, political views, agreement with political
message and demographics.
Although social context and group characteristics are not part of
these analyses, some of the findings can be discussed taking these
factors into consideration. During the time of the study, the nation
was divided over the president’s decision to go to war in Iraq. The
debate spread onto college campuses across the country. College
students, a group that had been apathetic towards politics in the
past, were now voicing their opinions. The degree of interest and
division of opinions rendered the issue appropriate for this study.
Leading up to the war in Iraq, the president gave a number of
reasons to go to war, including Saddam Hussein’s cruel and inhu-
mane practices, his disregard for UN weapons inspections and
his stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction (Purdum, 2002;
B. Harben and S. Kim
Gordon, 2003). While the first two reasons gave cause for the
punishment of Hussein, many believed that this did not warrant
going to war. When officials found no weapons of mass destruc-
tion, people began criticizing the president and many believed that
he had fabricated the intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq
(Dean, 2003). US citizens and people from all over the world
began to question the Bush administration’s prewar intelligence,
resulting in widespread mistrust of the US and a rapid deteriora-
tion of public opinion thereof. As this is a rather extreme circum-
stance, it is possible that choice of a less divisive political issue
for inclusion in the study might well have resulted in different
outcomes.
The findings of this study seem to reveal college students’
former reputation for apathy towards politics, and simultaneously,
their new political awareness. Students’ lack of enthusiasm for
political consumerism may partially explain why political opinion
leadership had no significant impact on advertisement attitude and
product attitude for the advertisement with political content. Other
results, however, reveal some degree of concern among college
students for the particular political issue chosen for this particular
study. Students who expressed that the advertisement with politi-
cal content was interesting and those who had somewhat strong
feelings about the message were found less favourable towards
the advertisement. In addition, the more politically conservative
the viewer, the less positive the attitude he or she had towards the
advertisement. As previously pointed out, the choice of this par-
ticular issue may well have impacted on these results in atypical
manner.
A major limitation of this study pertains to the chosen sample.
It was limited to college students at a single university, and also
gender unbalanced with females representing the majority. Other
limitations concern the advertisement stimuli used in the survey.
Future research should include diverse advertisement stimuli with
different political messages (both liberal and conservative) in
order to more fully understand the effects of political messages on
advertisement and product attitude. Another limitation of this
study was the small sample size, which has reduced power to
detect true relationships among variables. In particular, for a mul-
tiple regression model with as many independent variables as are
incorporated in this study, a larger sample size is required for
adequate statistical power. It is also possible that the fact that the
advertisements were not created by a professional might have
affected the results in some way. Finally, as mentioned earlier,
using a diverse selection of fashion products in the advertisement
should provide better insight into the relationship between fashion
opinion leadership and product attitude.
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