The Covert Advertising Recognition and Effects (CARE) model: Processes of persuasion in native advertising and other masked formats

Abstract

Covert advertisements, or those that utilize the guise and delivery mechanisms of familiar non-advertising formats, differ from other more direct forms of advertising in several ways that are important for understanding users’ psychological responses. Research across various covert advertising formats including various forms of sponsored editorial content, other native advertising formats, and product placement has shown that variation consumers’ persuasive responses to such messages is largely driven by whether they recognize that such messages are advertising at all. After reviewing the findings of empirical research into covert advertising effects, we present a model of covert advertising recognition effects (CARE) that outlines potential antecedents and processes underlying the recognition of covert advertising, and maps several pathways to persuasive outcomes that are contingent on advertising recognition and perceptions related to the information in and perceived presentation of the advertisement itself.

Keywords:

• Native advertising
• covert advertising
• persuasion knowledge
• information processing
• advertising recognition
• sponsorship transparency

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank Ray Taylor, Michelle Amazeen, and three thoughtful anonymous reviewers for their suggestions regarding earlier versions of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bartosz W. Wojdynski

Dr. Bartosz W. Wojdynski (Ph.D., University of North Carolina) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia, where he directs the Digital Media Attention and Cognition Lab. His research focus is the role of design in digital news and advertising in affecting users’ visual attention, comprehension, and persuasion. His recent work seeks to explicate the psychological processes that underlie mechanisms of deception, selective attention and exposure, issue perception, and credibility judgments online.

Nathaniel J. Evans

Dr. Nathaniel J. Evans (Ph.D., University of Tennessee) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia. His research examines the blurring of boundaries between entertainment and commercial content. He uses experimental and survey methodology to examine consumers' information processing, evaluation, and behavioral outcomes of exposure to native advertising and other immersive or covert advertising formats. His research has examined regulatory and policy related topics in advertising, marketing, communication and health.