The impact of animal metaphors on consumer response to courtesy advertising

This paper investigates how consumers feel and react to animal metaphor advertising in the context of the public service environment. Three studies are carried out using both field and experimental data. The results show that ads with an animal-like transgressor (vs. a human transgressor) elicit a stronger moral outrage response (e.g., contempt, anger, disgust), which generates a stronger perception of dehumanization toward the transgressor, consequently enhancing the consumers’ persuasive reaction to follow public etiquette. The animal metaphor effect is robust, irrespective of whether the metaphorical objects are high or low in conceptual similarity, but the consumer reaction is more intense when the metaphorical pairing is conceptually high in similarity. However, this effect is diminished when the ad is displayed as a drawing as opposed to a photograph. The implications of the findings for retailers or service providers considering the use of animal metaphor in their ads are also discussed.