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Hsuan-Yi Chou
To cite this article: Hsuan-Yi Chou (2014) Effects of endorser types in political endorsement
advertising, International Journal of Advertising, 33:2, 391-414
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Effects of endorser types in political
endorsement advertising
Hsuan-Yi Chou
National Sun Yat-sen University
Independent voters are a valuable vote source, often determining electoral outcomes world-
wide. Political endorsements from both celebrities and non-celebrities are also a common, vital
election strategy. This paper compares the ad effects associated with three types of endorsers
in political endorsement advertising on young independent voters in Taiwan, and explores the
moderating effects of two voter characteristics. The experimental results indicate that young
independent voters prefer political endorsement ads to general political ads. Compared to pol-
itical figure endorsements, political ads endorsed by either a common citizen or an entertainer
can increase voter favourability towards the advertised party and their intention to vote for it.
Moreover, common citizen endorsements are more effective than entertainer endorsements
in increasing voter turnout intention. However, for female voters or those with better general
attitudes towards political ads, the effects associated with endorser types are weakened.
Introduction
Independent voters are actively pursued by candidates during elections, because their
voting preferences can easily be changed (Wang 2010) and their votes significantly affect
the results of many elections (Castells 2007). For example, in the 2012 presidential and
legislative elections in Taiwan (where the author conducted this study), independent vot-
ers were the major target of each party/campaign as their voting decisions were critical
in determining which candidate would win the election (Hsieh etal. 2011). Post-election
commentary attributed President Ying-Jeou Mas success to attracting more votes from
independents (China Review News 2012).
Despite the importance of independent voters, scholars have continued to emphasise
party identifiers in existing research (Wang 2010). How independent voters make voting
decisions and how they may be influenced by political communication remain under-
researched issues (Girvan etal. 2010). Previous studies on independent voters have focused
primarily on the stage of descriptive study, with the purpose of enhancing understanding
of the basic characteristics of these voters (e.g. Dennis 1992; Phan & Garcia 2009; Wang
2010). However, election personnel are more interested in learning how to effectively
persuade independent voters to support their candidates. Thus, the research motivation
behind this study is to explore how to influence independent voters through political ads.
During elections, ads showing notable political figures or common citizens endorsing
particular candidates appear frequently. This is known as political endorsement advertis-
ing. Individuals from the entertainment world also make candidate/party endorsements or
participate in election events in an attempt to guide the opinions and voting behaviours of
the public ( Jackson & Darrow 2005; Wood & Herbst 2007). In Taiwan, the engagement
of entertainers in politics is a common phenomenon and many well-known hosts, actors
and stars may be seen in campaign events and advertisements (Lu 2004; Li etal. 2011).
Spokespersons/endorsers are very popular research topics in the fields of commercial
ads and communication management (e.g. Eisend & Langner 2010; Guido etal. 2011;
Rozendaal etal. 2011). However, in the area of political communication/advertising, lit-
tle research has evaluated the impact of celebrity versus non-celebrity political endorse-
ment on voters attitudinal responses and voting behaviours ( Jackson & Darrow 2005;
Henneberg & Chen 2007). In addition, the characteristics of voters who are apt to alter
their decisions after being exposed to political endorsements require further clarification
(Veer etal. 2010). Therefore, the primary purpose of the current study is to investigate the
effects of political endorsement advertising on independent voters. As young people are
more easily influenced by celebrity endorsements in traditional commercial marketing due
to their worship of celebrities (Yue & Cheung 2000; Jackson & Darrow 2005), this study
focuses on young voters to examine the effects of celebrity endorsements in the political
field. Additionally, this study focuses on young voters due to their importance in election
research and practice (Phillips etal. 2008; Chou & Chou 2012). For instance, in the 2012
Taiwan presidential election, both the Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic
Progressive Party (DPP), the two major parties in Taiwan, fought to win the support
of 1.2 million first-time voters (Chang & Hsieh 2011). The 2029 voter bracket was
expected to be the key age group (Hsieh etal. 2011). Moreover, Verclas (2008) predicted
that, by 2015, young voters will account for 33% of voters in the US. Therefore, exploring
the effects of political endorsement ads on young voters is of great research value.
In order for endorsement ads to communicate effectively, the choice of endorser is
often the key decision (Henneberg & Chen 2007). According to the match-up relation-
ship between endorsers/spokespersons and the advertised products found in commercial
advertising studies (Friedman & Friedman 1979; Stafford etal. 2002), the current paper
contends that, even under circumstances of political endorsements, different types of
endorser (i.e. political figures, entertainers and common citizens) are likely to generate
different effects. Thus, the second purpose of this study is to compare the ad effects among
these three types of endorser to better understand the results of political endorsements.
Furthermore, voters personal characteristics may influence their processing modes
for political ads and thus cause different effects for different types of endorser (Veer
et al. 2010). First, as consumers general attitudes towards ads influence their attitudes
towards specific ads (Mackenzie & Lutz 1989; Alwitt & Prabhaker 1992), it is likely that
voters general attitudes towards political ads also influence their reactions towards polit-
ical endorsement ads. Second, male and female audiences often use different processing
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Effects of endorser types in political endorsement advertising
modes and styles when exposed to ad messages (Fisher & Dub 2005; Putrevu 2008), thus
generating different responses. Therefore, this study examines the moderating effects of
these two voter characteristics.
Specifically, this study aims to understand the responses of young independent vot-
ers towards political endorsement ads, compare the endorsed effects of the three types of
endorser (i.e. political figures, entertainers and common citizens), and discuss the moderat-
ing effects of voters general attitudes towards political ads and their genders. The research
results will contribute to a better understanding of political endorsement advertising and
independent voters, as well as provide suggestions for electoral advertising practice.
Independent voters
Party identification is an emotional attachment or a sense of belonging of a voter towards
a specific party (Abramson 1983). Independent voters are those who have no obvious
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International Journal of Advertising, 2014, 33(2)
party preference or identification. Keith etal. (1992) classified independent voters as pure
independents and independent leaners. The latter profess that they are also independent
voters, but they tend to intrinsically favour a specific party, and their voting behaviours are
more similar to party identifiers (Dennis 1988). Since characterising leaners as independ-
ents would lead to inaccurate estimates of party effects and the responses of the electorate
to campaign strategies (Petrocik 2009), the current study focuses on pure independents
to understand how to win these critical swing voters (65.7% of independent Taiwanese
voters fall into this category (Wang 2010)).
Previous studies on independent voters have focused primarily on: (1)how to define
and identify independent voters (Dennis 1988; Mayer 2008; Phan & Garcia 2009);
(2)comparisons with party identifiers (Wu & Hsu 2003; Su & Liang 2005); (3)reasons
why an independent voter became independent ( Jennings & Markus 1984; Dennis 1992);
(4)classification and comparison of types of independent voter (Nguyen & Garand 2009;
Wang 2010); and (5)voting decisions of independent voters (Girvan etal. 2010). In brief,
comparatively fewer studies have discussed independent voters from the perspective of
political marketing. Further, the predominant focus in previous research has been on
the effects of negative political ads (e.g. Ansolabehere etal. 1994; Lau & Pomper 2001;
Dermody & Scullion 2005) on independent voters voting intentions. Therefore, the cur-
rent study discusses how to influence the reactions of independent voters with political
endorsement ads, to address a gap in the literature.
Research hypotheses
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Effects of endorser types in political endorsement advertising
in elections) and carefully process relevant information. Conversely, when voters political
involvement is lower, they follow the peripheral route. They often lack the motivation
to engage in deep evaluation. Therefore, they engage in less demanding information-
processing and consider a smaller quantity of information, and their decisions are largely
influenced by simple peripheral cues (Petty & Wegener 1999).
This study focuses on pure independents in Taiwan. Independent voters can be old
independents or new independents (Burnham 1970). Wang (2010) examined the types of
independent voter in Taiwan based on their individual social background, political atti-
tudes and political behaviours, and found that pure independents in Taiwan are old inde-
pendents who generally are more apathetic about politics and lack political knowledge.
Wu and Hsu (2003) also found that independent voters in Taiwan usually lack interest
in political affairs and election mobilisation, and understand less about political messages.
Since pure independents in Taiwan generally have low political involvement (Liu & Chu
2012), the author assumes that, when these voters receive political persuasive messages,
they process these messages following the peripheral route and form decisions based on
simple peripheral cues.
The multiple roles theory for persuasion variables by Petty and Wegener (1999) indi-
cates that, under different situations, a variable may play different roles and thus influence
message processing through different mechanisms. Specifically, any variable may play the
role of peripheral cue or central argument, determine the extent of elaboration, produce
a bias in elaboration (Petty & Wegener 1999) or influence attitudes via a self-validation
(Petty etal. 2002) or a belief polarisation (Chou etal. 2011) mechanism associated with
thought confidence. Furthermore, endorsers source characteristics may be considered as
peripheral cues or central arguments depending on their relevance to important attributes
of the ad product (Shavitt et al. 1994; Petty & Wegener 1999). This paper posits that
the special products/targets recommended in political ads (i.e. candidates or parties) will
cause the three source characteristics of expertise, attractiveness and similarity to play dif-
ferent roles.
Generally speaking, when a voter seeks out a good/ideal candidate, political expertise
becomes the core consideration due to its intimate relationship with policy quality and
administration performance. For example, Yu (2003) asked 712 voters what characteristics
an ideal candidate should have, and found that politics-related personal attributes such
as political expertise, competence, experience and performance are the most important.
Miller etal. (1986) also indicate that candidate competence, including previous political
experience, comprehension of political issues and intelligence, was used more frequently
by voters to evaluate candidates than other dimensions of candidate characteristics.
Extending McCrackens (1989) meaning-transfer theory, this study infers that endorse-
ment by political figures can transfer their expertise to the endorsed candidate/party. This
transferred meaning represents an important attribute for the recommended target, and
the endorsement may be treated as a central argument that helps voters evaluate the core
attributes of the target (Shavitt etal. 1994). Additionally, based on their political expertise,
political figures, especially those with neutral images, may have a greater ability to judge
the advantages and disadvantages of the candidates and parties. Therefore, their public
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International Journal of Advertising, 2014, 33(2)
Although both are peripheral cues, the author argues that the comparative effects of
entertainer and common citizen endorsements may be different. Kamins (1990) match-up
hypothesis posits that the obviously positive effects of spokesperson physical attractiveness
exist when the endorsed product is attractiveness-related. However, for an attractiveness-
unrelated product, the effects of spokesperson attractiveness are weakened. This effect has
been demonstrated in both high- and low-involvement decision contexts (e.g. Kamins
1990; Parekh & Kanekar 1994; Koernig & Page 2002). According to Kamins (1990)
match-up hypothesis, attractiveness is not a relevant element of products in political
endorsements (i.e. parties or candidates). Thus, the mismatch between physically attractive
endorsers and the product should somewhat weaken the favourable ad effects of entertainer
endorsements. However, messages transmitted by common citizen endorsers are based on
similarities in personal characteristics, which represent greater value for decision reference
(Bickart & Schindler 2001), and in turn have a greater influence on audiences (Latane &
Bourgeois 2001). Dahl etal. (2012) also propose that, when using real consumers in ads
rather than professional models, audiences will connect more with these ads and be more
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Effects of endorser types in political endorsement advertising
persuaded by them. Therefore, this paper argues that the ad effects of common citizen
endorsements are greater than those of entertainers and proposes the following hypothesis:
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International Journal of Advertising, 2014, 33(2)
that may not attract the attention of men might be sufficient to attract women, since
the latter attempt to assimilate/process all available information before rendering judge-
ment (Meyers-Levy & Sternthal 1991). Therefore, the selectivity hypothesis predicts
that women will process ad messages more thoroughly than men. Such propositions and
related applications have been documented in many studies. For example, Laroche etal.
(2000) demonstrate that females appeared to comprehensively acquire in-store informa-
tion for a Christmas gift, while males appeared to heuristically limit their search to a
smaller subset of in-store information. Putrevu (2008) demonstrates that, compared to
men, women will engage in more in-depth processing of sexual appeal advertising with a
strong fit with the target brand. Richard etal. (2007) and Kim etal. (2007) both find that,
as comprehensive information processors, female respondents also reflect a more complex
and exhaustive information search process than male ones in online websites.
Accordingly, this paper infers that when independent voters with low political involve-
ment are exposed to political endorsement ads, men will tend to focus on partial informa-
tion (i.e. salient cues) (Wolin 2003). Since endorsers are the focus of these types of ad
and have higher personal relevance due to the increased potential to treat them as the
reference group in ads (Schiffman & Kanuk 2007), endorsers are quite likely to attract
the attention of male voters, which will assist each endorser type to display its effects
adequately. However, since women consider a greater amount of information when mak-
ing decisions (Putrevu 2008), other information/cues in ads (such as the title, text content
and ad design) may also attract their attention and influence attitude formation as well,
thus weakening the associated effects of the various endorser types. As such, this study
proposes the following hypothesis:
H4: Compared to male independent voters, when female independent voters are
exposed to political endorsement ads, the ad effects of different endorser
types will be weakened, such that there is no difference in ad attitudes, party
attitudes, turnout intention and intention to vote for the advertised party
(a)between common citizen and political figure endorsements, (b)between
entertainer and political figure endorsements, and (c)between common citi-
zen and entertainer endorsements.
Method
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Effects of endorser types in political endorsement advertising
dollars). The residents were randomly assigned to one of the six experimental conditions.
Incomplete questionnaires and those that indicated a preference for or leaned a little more
to a specific party were eliminated, resulting in 129 independent voter responses (70.5%
male, 29.5% female) with an average age of 22.6.
Procedure
At the beginning, participants were first asked to evaluate their political involvement and
general attitudes towards political ads. Next, the experimental situation was introduced,
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International Journal of Advertising, 2014, 33(2)
and each participant was asked to imagine that he/she sees a newspaper political ad for
a certain party that is attempting to increase party votes for the nationwide constituency.
After reading one of the six-version ads embedded in the questionnaire, participants
completed the questionnaire. To identify independent voters, participants were asked to
indicate which party they preferred (Chang 2003). Following Wang (2010), those who
selected the option no preference were further asked, Do you feel yourself leaning a little
more to one of the political parties? Those who still answered no were considered pure
independents.
Measures
Four advertising effectiveness indices were measured using 7-point scales. Participants
assessed their attitudes towards the ad (bad/good, unfavourable/favourable, negative/
positive; = 0.93 (Pascal etal. 2002)) and the party recommended in the ad (bad/good,
dislike/like, unpleasant/pleasant; = 0.96 (Veer etal. 2010)), as well as the possibility that
they would vote in this election (very unlikely/very likely and low possibility/high pos-
sibility; = 0.96 (Garramone etal. 1990)). Intention to vote for the advertised party was
measured with two statements (Pease & Brewer 2008; Veer etal. 2010): After viewing
this ad, I will vote for the party recommended by the endorser (strongly disagree/strongly
agree) and If tomorrow is election day, what is the likelihood of me giving my at-large
party vote to the advertised party (very unlikely/very likely; = 0.87). Additionally, par-
ticipants were asked to use a 7-point scale to evaluate how they generally felt about pol-
itical ads (dislike very much/like very much (Chou & Lien 2010)).
For manipulation checks, participants were asked to check which party was recom-
mended in the ad. Next, the items for endorser awareness and familiarity were measured in
the same way as in the pretest. To ensure that different endorser types largely represented
different source characteristics, items for endorser physical attractiveness (unattractive/
attractive and ugly/handsome; = 0.85) and political expertise (without/with polit-
ical expertise and without/with political-relevant experiences; = 0.95), adapted from
Ohanian (1990), were measured. Additionally, endorser similarity was measured with two
statements adapted from Arpan (2002): the endorser in the ad has a similar background
and living environment to me and similar thoughts and values to me (strongly disagree/
strongly agree; = 0.85). Finally, to determine whether pure independents in Taiwan
are old independents, following Faber etal. (1993), participants indicated their degree of
agreement with statements concerning enduring political involvement on a 7-point scale:
I do not want to miss any news about politics and I like to talk about politics ( = 0.81).
Jackson (2007) found that, when celebrities endorsements of certain political beliefs
involved significant personal benefits, it would weaken the endorsement effects and even
result in adverse impacts. Additionally, Wood and Herbst (2007) suggested that if people
questioned a celebritys political endorsement motivation for candidates, the celebritys
endorser credibility would be undermined. However, de los Salmones etal. (2013) found
that the attribution of altruistic motivations to the celebrity endorsement was positively
related to endorser credibility. Since the endorsement motive perceived by the participants
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Effects of endorser types in political endorsement advertising
has a great influence on the endorsement effect ( Jackson 2007), it was measured and con-
trolled. Participants evaluated the following statements adapted from Yoon etal. (2006)
and Dong etal. (2010) on a 7-point scale (extremely unlikely/extremely likely): the politi-
cal endorsement by this man is a self-marketing strategy, because of personal benefits
involved, to enhance self-image (egoism motive; = 0.85), because he sincerely cares for
political development and because of his belief that the recommended party is a better
choice (altruism motive; = 0.81).
Manipulation checks
All participants correctly recognised the recommended party. Endorser types signifi-
cantly affected endorser awareness (F(2, 126) = 87.413, p < 0.05), familiarity (F(2, 126) =
48.745, p < 0.05), political expertise (F(2, 126) = 37.917, p < 0.05), physical attractiveness
(F(2, 126)=56.257, p < 0.05) and similarity (F(2, 126) = 32.024, p < 0.05). Compared to the
group exposed to the common citizen endorsement, the groups exposed to the ads with
political figure and entertainer endorsers had higher scores on the measures of endorser
awareness (M = 5.69 = 5.31 > 2.02, both p < 0.05) and familiarity (M =4.42=4.42 >1.58,
both p < 0.05). The political figure had more political expertise than the entertainer and
the common citizen (M = 4.83 > 2.57 = 2.96, respectively, both p < 0.05). The entertainer
had higher physical attractiveness than the political figure and the common citizen
(M =5.49 > 3.57 = 3.24, respectively, both p < 0.05). The common citizen had higher
perceived similarity than the political figure and the entertainer (M = 4.39 > 2.81 = 2.74,
respectively, both p < 0.05). Endorser types also affected participants perceived altruism
motive of political endorsement (F(2, 126) = 3.222, p < 0.05); the perceived altruism
motive was more intense for political figure and common citizen endorsements than for
entertainer endorsement (M = 4.06 = 3.86 > 3.31, respectively, both p < 0.1). Pair-wise
comparisons also revealed that the perceived egoism motive was more intense for the
common citizen endorsement than for the political figure endorsement (M = 4.66 vs 4.01,
p < 0.1). To prevent such perceptions from confounding the pure effects of endorser types,
the political endorsement motives of the endorsers were controlled in the formal analy-
sis. The independent voters in the study exhibited a low degree of political involvement
(M = 2.84 < 4, t(128) = 9.82, p < 0.05).
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International Journal of Advertising, 2014, 33(2)
Therefore, the follow-up analysis did not discuss this variable, and combined the KMT
and DPP samples. Second, the results of the paired-sample t-tests revealed that the atti-
tudes of participants towards political endorsement ads (M = 3.49) were better than those
towards general political ads (M = 2.85, t(128)=5.089, p < 0.05).
Next, while controlling for potential influential variables (i.e. the political endorsement
motives perceived by the participants), this study applied analyses of covariance
(ANCOVAs) to examine the main effects of the endorser types, voters general attitudes
towards political ads and voters genders. The results shown in Table 1 reveal that
endorser types significantly affected party attitudes (F(2, 122) = 3.315, p < 0.05), turnout
intentions (F(2, 122) = 3.806, p < 0.05) and intention to vote for the advertised party
(F(2, 122)=2.912, p < 0.1). Participants were more favourable towards the recommended
party (M = 3.56 = 3.62 > 3.12, both p < 0.05) and had greater potential to vote for that
party (M = 3.67 = 3.72 > 3.19, both p < 0.05) for ads endorsed by the common citizen and
the entertainer than for ads endorsed by the political figure. Therefore, H1 was partially
supported by the party attitude and intention to vote for the advertised party indices.
Furthermore, the common citizen endorsement generated higher turnout intention than
did the entertainer endorsement (M = 5.69 vs 4.54, p < 0.05). Thus, H2 was partially
supported by the turnout intention index.1
1
The ANOVA results of endorser types on the advertising effectiveness indices revealed that without the
control variables (i.e. political-endorsement motives), endorser types significantly affected turnout intentions
(F(2, 126) = 2.925, p < 0.1) but not other indices (all F(2, 126) < 1.123, all p > 0.1). However, after controlling
for endorsement motives, endorser types affected party attitudes (F(2, 124) = 2.463, p < 0.1), turnout intention
(F(2, 124) = 3.673, p < 0.05) and intention to vote for the advertised party (F(2, 124) = 2.135, p = 0.123;
the comparative effects among endorser types could be found through the planned contrast process). Thus,
controlling for the perceived endorsement motives strongly impacted the effects of endorser types.
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Effects of endorser types in political endorsement advertising
On the other hand, voters general attitudes towards the political ads significantly
affected their attitudes towards specific ads (F(1, 122) = 14.313, p < 0.05), party
attitudes (F(1, 122) = 23.695, p < 0.05) and intention to vote for the advertised party
(F(1,122)=9.693, p < 0.05), the effects of which found through regression analyses
were all positive ( = 0.311, t(122) = 3.783, p < 0.05; = 0.384, t(122) = 4.868, p < 0.05;
= 0.260, t(122) = 3.113, p < 0.05). Male voters had greater intention to vote for the
advertised party (M = 3.73 vs 3.33, F(1, 122) = 3.960, p < 0.05) than female voters, which
may result from the better ad effects of gender matching between the male audience and
the male endorser (Boyd & Shank 2004).
For the control variables, the egoism motive significantly affected turnout intention
(F(1, 122)=3.312, p < 0.05) while the altruism motive affected ad attitudes
(F(1,122)=10.464, p < 0.05), party attitudes (F(1, 122) = 9.815, p < 0.05) and intention
to vote for the advertised party (F(1, 122) = 5.230, p < 0.05). Regression analyses
revealed that the effects of the egoism motive on ad attitudes were negative ( = 0.163,
t(122)=1.820, p < 0.1), but the effects of the altruism motive on the other three indices
were all positive ( = 0.276, t(122) = 3.235, p < 0.05; = 0.256, t(122) = 3.133, p < 0.05;
= 0.198, t(122) = 2.287, p < 0.05, respectively), which was consistent with the research
results of the endorsers altruistic attribution (de los Salmones etal. 2013).
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International Journal of Advertising, 2014, 33(2)
When participants had better attitudes towards political ads in general, the ad effects
of endorser types were directionally consistent with those found in the poorer atti-
tude group, but became weaker. The comparative effects between the political figure
and common citizen endorsements and those between the political figure and enter-
tainer endorsements on participants party attitudes ( = 0.072, t(120) = 0.546, p > 0.1;
= 0.185, t(120) = 1.386, p > 0.1) and intention to vote for the advertised party ( = 0.016,
t(120) = 0.112, p > 0.1; = 0.174, t(120) = 1.245, p > 0.1) were not significant. Therefore,
H3(a)and H3(b)were partially supported by the party attitude and intention to vote for
the advertised party indices.
For the interaction between D2 and general attitudes towards political ads on turnout
intention, the slope of general attitudes towards political ads was non-significant for the
political figure endorsement ( = 0.188, t(120) = 1.305, p > 0.1), but significantly posi-
tive for the entertainer endorsement ( = 0.356, t(120) = 2.135, p < 0.05).
Endorser types were coded in a different way (1, 0) for common citizen, (0, 1) for
political figure and (0, 0) for entertainer to directly compare the effects between com-
mon citizen and entertainer endorsements. Using similar analytical procedures, the results
show that the interaction between D1 and general political advertising attitudes was
significant on ad attitudes ( = 0.227, t(120) = 1.786, p < 0.1). The slope of general
attitudes towards political ads was not significant for the common citizen endorsement
( = 0.189, t(120) = 1.420, p > 0.1), while it was significantly positive for the entertainer
endorsement ( = 0.560, t(120) = 3.530, p < 0.05). Additionally, spotlight analyses show
that the common citizen endorsement had a more positive impact on participants turnout
intention ( = 0.431, t(120) = 2.973, p < 0.05) than the entertainer endorsement for par-
ticipants with poorer attitudes towards political ads in general. However, the above effects
disappeared ( = 0.143, t(120) = 0.988, p > 0.1) when participants had better attitudes
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Effects of endorser types in political endorsement advertising
towards political ads in general. Therefore, H3(c)was partially supported by the turnout
intention index.
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International Journal of Advertising, 2014, 33(2)
support H4(a), the party attitude and intention to vote for the advertised party indices
partially support H4(b), and turnout intention index partially supports H4(c).
General discussion
Conclusions
The results suggest several conclusions. First, young independent voters prefer political
endorsement ads to general political ads. This may be because these voters tend to lack
political experience and knowledge, and the celebrity and non-celebrity endorsers in
political endorsement ads may act as a type of decision reference that helps this group
form its attitudes (Burton & Netemeyer 1992; Hou 2012), leading to a preference for
this type of ad.
Second, endorser types have a significant impact on young independent voters
ad responses. Compared to the political figure endorsement, party ads endorsed by
either a common citizen or an entertainer can result in voters becoming more favour-
able towards and increasing their intention to vote for the advertised party. Moreover,
common citizen endorsements are more effective than entertainer endorsements in
increasing voters turnout intention. This study uses four indices to understand voters
advertising effectiveness responses, and finds that the effect patterns of endorser types
on party-directly-related indices (i.e. party attitudes and intention to vote for the adver-
tised party) and election-participation index (i.e. turnout intention) are different. This
responds to Pease and Brewer (2008), who suggest that research on celebrity political
endorsement should adopt multiple effect indices to comprehensively understand its
impacts.
Third, voters general attitudes towards political ads and their genders both moder-
ate the effects of endorser types. In the group with better general attitudes towards
political ads and in the female group, the effects associated with endorser types are
weakened, and the common citizen, entertainer and political figure endorsements
generate similar ad effects. By contrast, for the group with poorer general attitudes
towards political ads and in the male group, endorser types generate the expected
effects. Common citizen endorsements and entertainer endorsements generate better
effects than political figure endorsements, while common citizen endorsements are
more effective than entertainer endorsements.
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Effects of endorser types in political endorsement advertising
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International Journal of Advertising, 2014, 33(2)
may be necessary for political marketers to reconsider the strategic application of politi-
cal figure endorsements in future election campaigns. Though employing celebrities to
transfer their symbolic properties/meanings to endorsement process is more consistent
with the communicative mode in collectivistic cultures, such as Asian countries (Choi
etal. 2005), this paper finds that, in Taiwan, celebrity appeals may not be a guarantee of
better persuasive effects, which further manifests the importance of endorser types and
the research value of this paper.
For independent voters who are male or who have poorer attitudes towards political
ads in general, the favourable ad effects of using common citizen and entertainer politi-
cal endorsements are more obvious. Thus, political marketers can target these people to
strengthen the promotion of political endorsement ads.
Many democratic countries, such as Canada, the US and the UK, have been facing
the problem of low voter turnout rates in recent years (Rubenson etal. 2007; Veer etal.
2010; Doxie 2011). However, voter apathy towards politics and the low voter turnout
rate are signs of an aggravated civil society and are disadvantageous to the long-term
development of democracy. Therefore, this study also suggests that government authori-
ties use common citizens, rather than celebrities, in political endorsement ads that
encourage independent voters to vote.
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Effects of endorser types in political endorsement advertising
Acknowledgement
The author would like to thank National Science Council, Taiwan (NSC
100-2410-H-110-069-) for financial support, and two anonymous reviewers for their
helpful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript.
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