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Advertisement Disclaimer Speed and Corporate Social Responsibility: “Costs” to Consumer Comprehension and Effects on Brand Trust and Purchase Intention

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Abstract

It is not uncommon for advertisers to present required product disclaimers quickly at the end of advertisements. We show that fast disclaimers greatly reduce consumer comprehension of product risks and benefits, creating implications for social responsibility. In addition, across two studies, we found that disclaimer speed and brand familiarity interact to predict brand trust and purchase intention, and that brand trust mediated the interactive effect of brand familiarity and disclaimer speed on purchase intention. Our results indicate that fast disclaimers actually reduce brand trust and purchase intention for unfamiliar brands, suggesting that there are both economic and social responsibility reasons to use less rapid disclaimers for unfamiliar brands. Conversely, disclaimer speed had no negative effects on brand trust and purchase intention for highly familiar brands, presenting ethical tensions between economic interests (e.g., an efficient use of advertisement time) and social responsibility. We discuss the implications of our framework for advertising ethics, for corporate social performance, and for corporate social responsibility.

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Notes

  1. A subset of the sample in Study 1 also provided data for a previous article (Herbst and Allan 2006), but that article did not explore issues of brand trust or the mediating role of brand trust in influencing purchase intention.

  2. A non-monotonic relationship exists in which a set of variables are positively related in part of their parameter range, yet they are negatively related in other parts of the parameter range (Schoonhoven 1981).

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Eli Finkel and Gráinne Fitzsimons for their generous contributions to this paper and for their helpful advice. This research was sponsored by the Wake Forest University Schools of Business Faculty Research Fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Schools of Business, Wake Forest University, 3209-C Worrell Professional Center, 1834 Wake Forest Road, Winston-Salem, NC, 27106, USA

    Kenneth C. Herbst

  2. Schools of Business, Wake Forest University, 3136 Worrell Professional Center, 1834 Wake Forest Road, Winston-Salem, NC, 27106, USA

    Sean T. Hannah

  3. Haub School of Business, Saint Joseph’s University, 274 Mandeville Hall, 5600 City Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, 19131, USA

    David Allan

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  1. Kenneth C. Herbst
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Correspondence to Kenneth C. Herbst.

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Herbst, K.C., Hannah, S.T. & Allan, D. Advertisement Disclaimer Speed and Corporate Social Responsibility: “Costs” to Consumer Comprehension and Effects on Brand Trust and Purchase Intention. J Bus Ethics 117, 297–311 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1499-8

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