An Examination of Ad Attitude’s Cognitive and Affective Dimensions With Political Advertising: Television versus Print Media
Douglas R. Robideaux

Abstract
Television advertising for political campaigns now dominates all other media, both in the U.S. and internationally. However, early research in ad attitude and political advertising primarily utilized print media so this research examines whether there is a difference between the two. Using ads for U.S. presidential candidates, the cognitive and affective components of ad attitude were examined for differences between two media – television and print, and for two ad treatments – positive and negative content/tone. Results showed that the Cognitive, or credible/believable/informational, component of ad attitude was statistically significant for the negative tone ads between the print and television ad versions. The Affect, or feeling-based, component of ad attitude was not found to be statistically different between television and print ads. The implications for U.S. and international practitioners are discussed.

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