Are Intrusiveness and Sexual Images Effective in Advertisements? The Influence of Ad Format and Sexually Appealing Content on Mobile News Consumers

We examined the association of intrusive and sexually appealing advertisements in a mobile news environment with audiences’ perceptions of the content and reactive behaviors. Based on the psychological reactance theory, we conducted a 2 × 2 (sexual ad versus nonsexual ad × highly intrusive ad versus low intrusive ad) full factorial experimental design measuring associations with behavioral ad avoidance and ad memory (recall and recognition). The results indicate that users were more concerned to avoid pop-up ads than banner ads. Also, we observed significant main effects of intrusiveness and sexual appeals in advertisements on audiences’ recall of ads. Our findings call into question the effectiveness of advertising that relies on intrusive exposure and sexual images.