American International Journal of Social Science

The Influence of Visual Puns on Advertising Credibility
Chao-Ming Yang

Abstract
Advertisements that employ visual puns can easily achieve the goal of persuasiveness. However, the exaggerated and theatrical visual language of advertisements may make it difficult for audiences to believe their claims. Based on previous studies, we formulated 4 hypotheses by using a 2 x 2 mixed experimental design. We manipulated 2 independent variables, advertisement product type (high-involvement-rational versus low-involvement-rational) and skepticism toward the advertising (high-skepticism versus low-skepticism), to validate the hypotheses and test the effect of visual puns on the advertising credibility. This study obtained 4 significant outcomes: (a) The effect of visual puns on the advertising credibility depended on the product type, and visual puns yielded a higher credibility in low-involvement-rational advertisements than in high-involvement-rational advertisements. (b) Differences in degree of skepticism toward an advertisement among the participants affected their beliefs in the claims of an advertisement containing a visual pun, and the participants with low-skepticism were more likely to believe an advertisement compared with high-skepticism. (c) Visual puns in low-involvement-rational advertisements yielded a relatively higher credibility among participants with a high-skepticism. (d) Visual puns in high-involvement-rational advertisements yielded a relatively higher credibility among participants with a lowskepticism.

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