Murray, N. M., Manrai, L. A., & Manrai, A. K. (1993). Public policy relating to consumer comprehension of television commercials: A review and some empirical results. Journal of Consumer Policy, 16(2), 145-170.

Murray, N.; Manrai, L.; Manrai, A.

1993

Murray, N. M., Manrai, L. A., & Manrai, A. K. (1993). Public policy relating to consumer comprehension of television commercials: A review and some empirical results. Journal of Consumer Policy, 16(2), 145-170.

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The utility of disclosure supers in television commercials in providing consumers with useful information is investigated. First the role of the various regulatory agencies in monitoring disclosure supers is reviewed. Next we review the role of consumer behavior theory in explaining how consumers process disclosure information. Then we develop and test hypotheses relating to four format aspects of disclosure supers. The findings supported the hypotheses. Viewers demonstrated lower levels of comprehension for disclosure information relative to information in the body copy of the commercials. Comprehension of disclosure information increased when typeface of disclosure was larger and when a voice-over accompanied the disclosure, but decreased when volume of information in disclosure supers increased. The implications of the findings for public policy are discussed.

The overall comprehension rate for the body copy of the commercial was 58.1% in comparison to an overall comprehension rate of 48.1% for the disclosure supers. Comprehension increases with size of the disclosure typeface. The presence of voice-over increased the comprehension by 66%. The findings of the research reported in this paper suggest that there is high noncomprehension of advertising disclosure supers. Thus apparently the regulations (or lack of regulations) concerning advertising disclosure supers are either not exhaustive enough or are frequently not adhered to by the advertisers.

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