Damn dirty ads: the impact of explicit and implicit profanity in advertisements

Damn dirty ads: the impact of explicit and implicit profanity in advertisements

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Though profanity is inherently taboo, it seems to be appearing in more advertisements, but does it help or hurt sales? In three studies, participants were shown mock-up advertisements with varying degrees and instances of profane and non-profane intensifiers and varying spokespeople.Across all ngetikin studies, only implicit, low-intensity profanity was found to be more persuasive than the non-profane control; additional intensifiers decreased persuasiveness in click here each condition except the control.Furthermore, spokesperson dress did not influence persuasiveness, but a significant interaction between spokesperson sex and explicitness of the profanity was found.Sense of humor did not impact perceived persuasiveness of ads in Study 2 but was found to increase perceived persuasiveness in Study 3.Findings and implications are discussed.