On Ads as Aesthetic Objects: A Thematic Review of Aesthetics in Advertising Research

Figures & data

Figure 1. The Björn Borg sports apparel brand incorporated elements of postmodern aesthetics in its “Chase the Exerhighs” advertising campaign.

Figure 2. Swedish surrealist Roy Andersson utilized the aesthetic category of the interesting when he directed TV commercials.

Figure 3. Swedish pharmaceutical Ipren’s (ibuprofen) famous ad is filled with zany aesthetics.

Figure 4. Public transport in Stockholm recently incorporated a cute meme in one of its advertising campaigns.

Figure 5. Timeline of publications in the domain of advertising aesthetics.

Table 1. Widely used methods in advertising aesthetics studies.

Method and Design	Number of Articles	Example
Quantitative	206
Content analysis	31	Biswas, Olsen, and Carlet (1992)
Experimental design	135	Edwards, Li, and Lee (2002)
Survey	38	McMillan and Hwang (2002)
Case study	2	Kennedy and McColl (2012)
Qualitative	67
Content analysis	21	Domzal and Kernan (1993)
Historical research	6	Stern (1999)
Grounded theory	27	Hirschman and Thompson (1997)
Interviews or focus group	3	Hirschman (1989)
Literary criticism	2	Stern (1992)
Ethnography	8	Ghaffari, Hackley, and Lee (2019)
Other approaches	36
Combined methods	6	Hung (2001)
Conceptual article	30	Puntoni, Schroeder, and Ritson (2010)

Table 2. Frequencies of each theme.

Theme	Frequencies of Theme	Subthemes	Key Previous Studies
The nature of advertising aesthetics	22%	(a) intersections between the aesthetic and the beautiful; (b) artistic advertising dimensions	Hirschman (1986) examined perceptions of advertising stimuli presented in an all-verbal or all-visual format.
Advertising creativity	30%	(a) the creative work of advertising practitioners; (b) creative ways of facilitating advertising campaigns	Dahlén (2005) studied how creative media choice enhances the perception of target brand associations and increases brand attitudes.
Textuality	10%	(a) poetics; (b) narrative	Brown, Stevens, and MacLaran (1999) used literary theory as a starting point to offer three gendered readings of a postmodern ad for a champagne brand.
Social aesthetics	8%	(a) marginalized consumer segments; (b) other social causes	Stern (1999) presented an overview of feminist and multicultural criticism, defining the cross-disciplinary study of marginalized populations in advertising research.
Cross-cultural differences	11%	(a) culture-specific imaginaries; (b) resistance to prevailing Western ideologies	Biswas, Olsen, and Carlet (1992) extended the research on cross-cultural advertising by comparing print ads from the United States and France in terms of emotional appeals, information content, and use of humor and sex.
The role of media in creating aesthetic opportunities	14%	n/a	Deuze (2016) offered a futuristic exploration of the role of advertising in society using media theory.
Aesthetic categories beyond the beautiful and sublime	4%	n/a	Homer and Kahle (1986) investigated the persuasive impact of surrealistic ads in print media.

Figure 6. A recent campaign by Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Sweden integrates the different themes from our conceptual model of advertising aesthetics. Photo: Gustav Ike/Universal.

Figure 7. Advertising practitioners who want to employ “woke” advertising copy as a brand strategy could learn from Oumph!

Figure 8. Untitled (I Shop Therefore I Am) by Barbara Kruger illustrates the aesthetic role text can have in an artwork.

Figure 9. One of the banned Instagram photos in Byström and Soda (2017) included period blood but no nudity.

Biswas, Abhijit, Janeen Olsen, and Valerie Carlet. 1992. “A Comparison of Print Advertisements from the United States and France.” Journal of Advertising 21 (4):73–81. doi:10.1080/00913367.1992.10673387

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Edwards, Steven, Hairong Li, and Joo-Hyun Lee. 2002. “Forced Exposure and Psychological Reactance: Antecedents and Consequences of the Perceived Intrusiveness of Pop-Up Ads.” Journal of Advertising 31 (3):83–95. doi:10.1080/00913367.2002.10673678

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McMillan, Sally, and Jang-Sun Hwang. 2002. “Measures of Perceived Interactivity: An Exploration of the Role of Direction of Communication, User Control, and Time in Shaping Perceptions of Interactivity.” Journal of Advertising 31 (3):29–42. doi:10.1080/00913367.2002.10673674

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Kennedy, Rachel, and Bruce McColl. 2012. "Brand Growth at Mars, Inc.: How the Global Marketer Embraced Ehrenberg's Science with Creativity." Journal of Advertising Research 52 (2): 270–6. 10.2501/JAR-52-2-270-276

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Domzal, Teresa, and Jerome Kernan. 1993. “Mirror, Mirror: Some Postmodern Reflections on Global Advertising.” Journal of Advertising 22 (4):1–20. doi:10.1080/00913367.1993.10673415

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Stern, Barbara. 1999. “Gender and Multicultural Issues in Advertising: Stages on the Research Highway.” Journal of Advertising 28 (1):1–9. doi:10.1080/00913367.1999.10673572

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Hirschman, Elizabeth, and Craig Thompson. 1997. “Why Media Matter: Toward a Richer Understanding of Consumers’ Relationships with Advertising and Mass Media.” Journal of Advertising 26 (1):43–60. doi:10.1080/00913367.1997.10673517

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Hirschman, Elizabeth. 1989. “Role-Based Models of Advertising Creation and Production.” Journal of Advertising 18 (4):42–53. doi:10.1080/00913367.1989.10673166

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Stern, B. B. 1992. “Historical and Personal Nostalgia in Advertising Text: The Fin De Siecle Effect.” Journal of Advertising 21 (4): 11–22. 10.1080/00913367.1992.10673382

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Ghaffari, Mahsa, Chris Hackley, and Zoe Lee. 2019. "Control, Knowledge, and Persuasive Power in Advertising Creativity: An Ethnographic Practice Theory Approach." Journal of Advertising 48 (2): 242–9. 10.1080/00913367.2019.1598310

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Hung, Kineta. 2001. "Framing Meaning Perceptions with Music: The Case of Teaser Ads." Journal of Advertising 30 (3): 39–49. 10.1080/00913367.2001.10673644

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Puntoni, Stefano, Jonathan Schroeder, and Mark Ritson. 2010. “Meaning Matters.” Journal of Advertising 39 (2):51–64. doi:10.2753/JOA0091-3367390204

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Hirschman, Elizabeth. 1986. “The Effect of Verbal and Pictorial Advertising Stimuli on Aesthetic, Utilitarian and Familiarity Perceptions.” Journal of Advertising 15 (2):27–34. doi:10.1080/00913367.1986.10673002

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Dahlén, Micael. 2005. “The Medium as a Contextual Cue: Effects of Creative Media Choice.” Journal of Advertising 34 (3):89–98. doi:10.1080/00913367.2005.10639197

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Brown, Stephen, Lorna Stevens, and Pauline MacLaran. 1999. “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Bakhtin!: Literary Theory, Postmodern Advertising, and the Gender Agenda.” Journal of Advertising 28 (1):11–24. doi:10.1080/00913367.1999.10673573

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Deuze, Mark. 2016. “Living in Media and the Future of Advertising.” Journal of Advertising 45 (3):326–33. doi:10.1080/00913367.2016.1185983

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Homer, Pamela, and Lynn Kahle. 1986. “A Social Adaptation Explanation of the Effects of Surrealism on Advertising.” Journal of Advertising 15 (2):50–60. doi:10.1080/00913367.1986.10673005

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Byström, Arvida, and Molly Soda. 2017. Pics or It Didn’t Happen: Images Banned from Instagram. Munich: Prestel.

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