The Effect of Program Context on Commercial Performance

Abstract In order to assess the effects of program context upon television commercial "performance," two proposed attributes of both television programs and commercials—content and style—were operationalized to establish four viewing packages. Each typology represented a different content-style relationship between the commercial and the program carrier. It was hypothesized that consistent contextual relationships would result in individuals reacting more favorably toward, though providing lesser recall of, the commercial/ product advertised. Post-viewing questionnaire responses obtained from 279 experimental subjects indicated that the content-style relationship between a program and commercial yielded no major commercial impact effects, although the stylistic dimension may have certain communication effectiveness consequences.