Exploring a new typology of advertising appeals: basic, versus social, emotional advertising in a global setting

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Abstract
This study proposes, and empirically examines a new typology of emotional global appeals in terms of consumers' similarity of response. Each basic emotion possesses an evolutionary survival value, is associated with a different pattern of autonomic nervous system activity and facial expression, and is acquired early in the socialisation process. Basic emotions are universal in all demographic groups. Alternatively, social emotions are the blends of basic emotions. They are culturally specific because they are the social reactions that are acquired later in the socialisation process. Six Benetton ads were used to generate three pairs in the basic-social emotional hierarchy: happiness versus humour, love versus warmth, and sadness versus surprise. Two hundred and forty-seven male and female undergraduate consumers from the US, UK, Taiwan, and mainland China served as the subjects. Ads that employ basic emotions (happiness, love, and sadness) are found to generate more similar emotional responses among global consumers compared to those ads that elicit social emotions (humour, warmth, and surprise). Thus, this study suggests that basic-emotional appeals can be used to capitalise on the similarity between consumers globally, while social-emotional appeals can be used to capitalise on the uniqueness of consumers.