Femvertising - Women’s empowerment in advertising and its effect on attitudes and purchase intention depending on audience’s sex and political orientation

Femvertising - Women’s empowerment in advertising and its

effect on attitudes and purchase intention depending on

audience’s sex and political orientation

Zuzia Szwedo 12044539

Master thesis

Master’s Programme in Communication Science - Persuasive Communication

Graduate School of Communication Dr. Barbara Schouten

Abstract

Femvertising is a cause-related marketing tool increasingly used in advertising, allowing

brands to promote their products and services while standing for gender equality and empowering women. Nevertheless, such particular marketing technique also triggers discussion, especially due

to its controversial debate concerning equality between men and women as well as its inherent political nature. This study aims to explore the effects of Femvertising on viewers’ campaign

attitudes, as well as brand attitudes and purchase intention, and how those effects are moderated by sex and political orientation. Following an experiment conducted with 190 respondents who were

either exposed to a neutral or Femvertising campaign, the results showed no difference in terms of campaign attitudes between the two conditions, even though campaign attitudes do determine

brands attitudes as well as purchase intention. Sex nor political orientation proved to be moderating the effects of campaign type. However, political orientation turns out to determine campaign

attitudes, the latter being significantly higher among Leftist participants in both conditions than among Rightist participants. The research provides further evidence on sex and political orientation

influencing the effects of Femvertising on attitudes and purchase intention, and contributes to the marketing tools used by marketers for insights about potential consumers.

Keywords: Femvertising, cause-related marketing, sex, political orientation, attitudes,

Introduction

Women and men in media, especially in advertisements, are repeatedly depicted embodying

stereotypical gender roles (Jhally, 1987; Signoretti, 2017). Those derive from gender inequalities, based on women and men not undergoing the same obligations and conveniences (Montecinos &

Anguita, 2015). From economic, social, to political spheres, as well as public and private lives, gender inequalities have been more often than not represented on our screens, and those

representations became one of the most important factors that contribute to the construct of gender in current Western society (Pilar Rodríguez Pérez & Gutiérrez Almanzor, 2017). Gender is “the

culturally established correlates of sex”, and its depiction involves “conventionalised portrayals of these correlates” (Jhally, 1987). Sex, however, is simply a biological status that defines an

individual as female or male (Newman, 2002). When it comes to women in advertisements, these gender depictions are traditionally based on them being delicate, agreeable, co-dependent, and quite

subordinate (Kang, 1997). Men, on the contrary, are usually portrayed as independent, strong, emotionally inexpressive, and with leading positions (Gentry & Harrison, 2010). Nevertheless, the

way gender roles are depicted in media is also evolving. A very progressive marketing strategy that is being increasingly used is Femvertising, or Ad-her-tising (Espinar-Ruiz & Gonzalez-Diaz, 2012).

Femvertising is a quite recent trend in marketing that aims to represent women and girls as empowered in advertisements, to not only empower the female audience, but also to put an end to

the stereotypical gender roles display in media that has been normalised in Western society (Skey, 2016). Femvertising is a form of cause-related marketing, the latter being a communication tool that

aims to appeal to consumers who want to make positive changes in their society (Bronn & Vrioni, 2001). Cause-related marketing can cover a wide range of sociopolitical issues, starting from sustainability to fights against racism to homophobia. As a consequence, consumers’ political

matters when they are being exposed to such advertisements, especially since gender equality and women’s empowerment is on Leftist parties’ agendas (Inglehart & Norris, 2000).

Previous research shows that cause-related marketing is an efficient tool to achieve companies’ goals. Indeed, it has been found that advertisements promoting values aiming to make

society a better place have a direct positive effect on purchase intention, since the motives of the brand are being perceived as honourable among consumers who want to support such causes (Lee et

al., 2013). When it comes to Femvertising and its effectiveness, beside increased purchase intention, it has also been found that women who are exposed to advertisements promoting women’s

empowerment compared to neutral campaigns have higher positive brand attitudes as well as campaign attitudes (Drake, 2017). Furthermore, research shows that the more a person stands for

gender equality and women’s empowerment, the more that person will have an increasing purchase intention to buy a product from the brand that promotes those values, but also she or he will have a

higher interest in the company and higher positive consumer response overall (Bambauer-Sachse & Horvath, 2011). Additionally, previous study found that consumers’ support of gender equality

portrayal in advertising directly and positively impacts purchase intention, attitudes towards the campaign as well as the brand (Sternadori & Abitbol, 2019).

Nevertheless, very few studies concerning Femvertising include both women and men in the research sample. This makes the results hardly generalisable and does not give insights into men’s

attitudes and intentions, meanwhile men are also potential consumers, and their results could differ from women as they are not in a position of need to be empowered due to society’s gender

inequalities (Montecinos & Anguita, 2015). Even though the research conducted by Bambauer-Sachse and Horvath (2011) includes women and men in the sample, there is no differentiation between the sexes in the results when it comes to purchase intention after Femvertising exposure.

Therefore, the first aim of this study is to clearly see if there is a difference between men and women when it comes to attitudes influencing purchase intention once they have been exposed to

Femvertising. Regarding pre-existing ideas and personal norms in terms of gender equality among consumers, only the Sternadori and Abitbol (2019) paper mentioned political orientation. However,

the study does not analyse how the latter moderates results in terms of campaign attitudes after Femvertising ad exposure, when political orientation could moderate those attitudes (Hoewe &

Hatemi, 2017). As a consequence, the second aim of this study is to determine the moderating effects of political orientation in campaign and brand attitudes as well as purchase intention after

the exposure to Femvertising. Hence, this study will theoretically contribute to literature by providing further evidence on sex as well as political orientation influencing either positively or

negatively reactions to Femvertising. Societally, findings of this study will give more insights to marketers about potential consumers and help to achieve brands’ main goal that to increase sales.

The research question is formulated as follows: How does Femvertising impact consumers’ attitudes towards the campaign, attitudes towards the brand, and purchase intention, and to what extent do

sex and political orientation moderate the relation between Femvertising and campaign attitudes?

Theoretical Framework

Main effects of Femvertising on consumer responses: attitudes towards the campaign, attitudes towards the brand, and purchase intention.

Campaign attitudes. Attitude towards a campaign is “a consumers’ overall evaluation of

different image contents and elements in advertising” (Sharma et al., 2012). As mentioned earlier, Femvertising is a form of cause-related marketing. The latter is one of the tools to prosocial

behaviour, that is to actions meant to help society to “thrive” (Costantini et al., 2019). One of the theories explaining helping behaviour is the empathic altruism theory, coined by Batson et al. (1981), based on the emotion directed towards the well-being of others. According to the empathic

altruism theory, when individuals have a genuine and selfless feeling of empathy for other people, they want to help them. Empathic concern involves sympathy, kindness and warmth (Batson et al.,

1981). Those are the emotions that cause-related marketing can provoke among viewers when a social issue is broached, and eventually lead to positive attitudes towards the campaign due to the

will to help that empathy causes (Batson et al. 1981). Indeed, the research conducted by Kozlowski and Sobotko (2017) based on altruism shows that the more an individual is willing to help, the more

he or she will have positive attitudes towards a cause-related marketing campaign. Additionally, previous research showed that overall presence of cause-related marketing increases positive

attitudes towards the ad when introduced in an advertising message (Hajjat, 2003). In another research conducted by Patel et al. in 2017, it has been found that advertisements that are

cause-related provoke significantly more positive campaign attitudes than advertisements that do not. When it comes to Femvertising, the research conducted by Akestam et al. (2017) with an all female

sample shows that campaigns with a Femvertising narrative have a more positive effect on attitudes towards the ad among the participants of the sample, compared to a traditional campaign that does

not portray women’s empowerment. Those previous research results show that individuals are generally more driven by altruism and their overall positive attitudes towards cause-related

marketing can be explained by the empathic altruism theory. Therefore, according to the empathic altruism theory justifying the inherent individuals’ will to help and previous research findings, the

first hypothesis is the following:

H1: Campaign attitudes will be more positive among viewers after exposure to Femvertising

in comparison to exposure to neutral advertising.

Brand attitudes. Attitude towards a brand is “a consumers’ overall evaluation of a

brand” (Ghorban, 2012). Just like campaign attitudes, those can also be positive or negative. The

level of brand attitudes can be predicted with the level of campaign attitudes thanks to the spillover effect theory. The spillover effect in marketing is “a change in beliefs regarding one entity due to

the evaluation of another associated entity” (Raufeisen et al., 2019) and refers to the degree to which a message impacts thoughts about characteristics that are not included in the message

(Ahluwalia et al., 2001). In this case, it would be the campaign attitudes initially provoked by the message in the ad that subsequently influences attitudes regarding a brand. Previous research

showed the validity of the spillover effect in various marketing areas, such as between brand alliances (Simonin & Ruth, 1998) where the reputation of a brand spilled over another; for celebrity

endorsement, where a campaign including a celebrity spilled over viewers’ attitudes towards the brand (Carrillat et al., 2014); and in brand portfolios (Lei et al., 2008) about how associations

between parent brands and subbrands spillover. When it comes to cause-related marketing, Wang and Korschun (2015) found that social responsibility spilled over the associations that consumers

had of a brand. Those examples showed how information embedded in a message affect brand attitudes that are were included in the message. Other previous research also confirmed that

attitudes towards campaigns or ads can influence further consumers’ behaviour such as brand attitudes and purchase intention (Bergkvist & Rossiter, 2008). Additionally, a message that included

a cause-related narrative produced more positive attitudes towards a company than a message that did not (Nan & Heo, 2007). Similarly to the previously mentioned argument, more positive

reactions to cause-related marketing can be due to consumers appreciating brand’s good will to openly support and stand for a cause (Hajjat, 2003). Consequently, the next hypothesis is the

following:

H2: The more positive the campaign attitudes, the more positive the brand attitudes.

Purchase intention. Purchase intention is “a kind of decision-making that studies the reason

to buy a particular brand by consumer” (Mirabi et al., 2015). As formerly mentioned, positive campaign and brand attitudes in turn positively affect purchase intention among consumers. Such

effects can be explained by the theory of planned behaviour coined by Ajzen (1985), which is based on attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control determining intentions, and the

latter determining behaviour. This theory has been applied to marketing research on many occasions, since it is considered as one of the most efficient theories to predict social and health

behaviour (Rivis et al., 2009). Kim and Karpova (2010) showed in their study how attitudes are a direct predictor of purchase intention by proving in their research that attitudes towards purchasing

counterfeited fashion items are positively related to purchase intention of those counterfeited goods. A research conducted by Hsu et al. (2017) also confirm the effectiveness of the model as it has been

found that attitudes towards green skincare products directly predicts purchase intention of those products. When it comes to cause-related marketing, in the research conducted by Lee et al. (2013)

it has been found that this tool increased purchase intention among consumers due to their positive attitudes towards advocacy ads. In the research conducted by Patel et al. (2017) similar results have

been found. Regarding Femvertising specifically, Drake (2017) found in its all female sample that including a women-empowering scenario in advertising increased purchase intention to a higher

extent among the viewers compared to a traditional advertisement. With the theory of planned behaviour and previous findings, the next hypothesis is the following:

H3: The more positive the brand attitudes, the higher the purchase intention.

Moderating effect of sex.

Being a man or woman is an identity and group-belonging factor in society. According to the social identity theory (Tajfel, 1974), an individual’s social identity refers to the social group a person belongs to and identifies with as a self-concept, and to how those different social groups

interact with each other within society. Some characteristics of this theory claim that individuals want their social identity to be positively distinguished from outgroup members, that they are

emotionally involved with the group they belong to, and that there is an existing intergroup competition (Tajfel, 1974). In a research based on the social identity theory conducted by Burn et al.

in 2000, it has been found that the more a woman’s self-concept is based on her sex, the more she will stand for women’s empowerment and identify with such a movement. The same study found

that women generally strongly identify with their sex and the group they belong to (Burn et al., 2000).

Hence, when it comes to the moderating effect of sex during exposure to Femvertising, both men and women are expected to have more positive campaign attitudes to Femvertising compared

to a neutral ad, however women are expected to react more positively to this marketing strategy than men according to the social identity theory. As based on the before-mentioned arguments

concerning cause-related marketing and empathy, individuals of both sexes react more positively to ads standing for a social cause, such as Femvertising. However, sex would moderate those effects

and make them stronger for women. This would be caused by one’s sex representation in media: a man or a woman perceiving their group being positively portrayed in advertisement might lead their

attitudes to be positively affected following the exposure, as according to Tajfel (1974) social groups want to be positively distinguished. Since Femvertising represents women in a more positive

and realistic light, female individuals associate themselves to those empowering brand images, and their product acceptance increases (Dolich, 1969). Akestam et al. (2017) found similar results, as

the female audience enjoys brands’ progressive approach where women are not being portrayed stereotypically and those stereotypes are being challenged. Additionally, the very few studies about

Femvertising that involve men in the sample, did also find that men can react rather positively to Femvertising (Vramo & Haglund, 2017; Jacobson et al. 2018). Indeed, in the research conducted by Jacobson et al. (2018), the results show that men are overall supportive of the Femvertising concept,

leading to generally positive attitudes towards the ad and the brand. Based on the additional findings illustrating overall more positive attitudes for both sexes during Femvertising exposure

than during a neutral ad, as well as on the social identity theory explaining the moderating effect of sex leading to stronger effect of Femvertising among women, the next hypothesis is the following:

H4: Exposure to Femvertising will lead to higher positive campaign attitudes among both

women and men compared to exposure to a neutral ad, but this effect will be stronger among women than among men.

Moderating effect of political orientation.

Political orientation is “a more or less consistent view or perspective under which a social system is seen” (Weidlich & Huebner, 2008). One of the reasons due to which people’s political

orientations vary is that each person gives priority to different values in their lives (Caprara et al. 2006). Indeed, according to the theory of basic human values coined by Schwartz (1992), the

following are the universal values that guide people’s choices and behavioural orientations: self-direction, stimulation, hedonism, achievement, power, security, conformity, tradition, spirituality,

benevolence, and universalism. In his 1992 study, Schwartz highlights that those are motivational values, as they determine individuals’ motivations in terms of beliefs, attitudes, behaviours in all

areas such as religion, society, family or politics. As previously stated, different people give a different degree of importance to each of those values, which leads to people holding different

opinions, including in terms of politics.

A study conducted by Caprara et al. (2006) based on the basic human values theory proves

that center-left voters prioritise more values such as universalism or benevolence in their lives compared to center-right voters. Values such as universalism are based on equality, social justice, environment or broad-mindedness. When it comes to benevolence, it contains principles such as

helpfulness or responsibility (Schwartz, 1992). As cause-related marketing is part of a prosocial movement that aims to make society and the world a better place, it could be assumed that people

who prioritise values such as benevolence or universalism in their lives would react more positively to such type of advertising, that is people who are Left-wing oriented. Femvertising stands for

gender equality as well as women’s empowerment. Those two concepts belong to a Left-wing agenda that stands for women and their rights, being more “alternative” and “libertarian”, contrary

to the Right-wing agenda being more “traditional” and “authoritarian” (Walczak, 2012). Thus, an egalitarian approach, such as the one concerning gender equality, is more associated with a Leftist

political orientation (Inglehart & Norris, 2000).

Therefore, when it comes to the moderating effect of political orientation, Leftist viewers are

expected to have more positive attitudes towards the campaign after viewing the Femvertising campaign than after viewing the neutral campaign. Similarly, based on the previous information

concerning the empathic altruism theory (Batson et al., 1981) and effects of cause-related marketing, campaign attitudes among Femvertising viewers are expected to be higher than among

neutral ad viewers, however this effect is anticipated to be stronger among Leftist viewers. Nagar’s (2013) research shows that positive attitudes towards green advertising, a form of cause-related

marketing, moderate the effects of green advertising on brand attitudes by increasing them. Environment is a priority correlated with the previously mentioned universalism value (Schwartz,

1992), which is in turn correlated with the Leftist political orientation (Caprara et al., 2006), what shows that Leftist political orientation does moderate the effects of cause-related marketing on

viewers’ attitudes and increases them. The same conclusion can be made with Femvertising.

Therefore, according to the basic human values theory, its correlation to political orientation,

and the results found in previous research, the last hypothesis of this paper is the following:

H5: Exposure to Femvertising will lead to higher positive campaign attitudes compared to the

Figure 1

Conceptual model

Method

Design. In order to test the previously stated hypotheses, a 2 (Advertisement type:

Femvertising versus non-Femvertising) x 2 (Sex: Female versus Male and Political Orientation: Leftist versus Rightist) randomised between-subject factorial designs were employed, with attitude

towards the campaign, attitude towards the brand and purchase intention as dependent variables, and sex as well as political orientation as moderators.

Table 1

Study design

Sex Political Orientation Condition Female Male Leftist Rightist Experimental Experimental x _Female Experimental x Male Experimental x _Leftist Experimental x _Rightist Control Control x Female Control x Male Control x Leftist Control x Rightist

Campaign type

-

-

-

-

-

-

Sample. The sampling method used in this research is both a convenience and snowball

sampling method due to the limited time frame and financial resources (Bryman, 2016). The

convenience sampling method was chosen because of its accessibility and promising response rate, and the snowball sampling method for similar reasons, but more specifically because participants

could contact fellow potential participants (Bryman, 2016). Nevertheless, the disadvantages of those similar sampling methods are that the findings from the sample are not possible to generalise since

it is not known what population participants represent or where the sample is drawn from (Bryman, 2016). The link of the experiment questionnaire was shared on social media platforms such as

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, with friends, family, and colleagues, who also shared it with their acquaintances. Facebook is the most used social media platform in the world, and Instagram as

well as WhatsApp are also very widely used worldwide (Obar & Wildman, 2015). The total number of participants in this research was N = 202. However, 12 of them did not finish to fill out the

survey therefore N = 190. The number of female participants (N = 121) was higher than the number of male participants (N = 69). The age mean of participants was of 25.47 (SD = 7.38, N = 190),

range 16-66. Additionally, 28.4% of participants had a French nationality, 11.6% were Polish, 10.5% were American, 7.4% were from the United Kingdom, and 5.8% were from Mexico.

Procedure. Participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire, that firstly included an

informed consent form. After having given written informed consent, the survey began with questions regarding participants’ demographics, such as age, sex, and nationality. Secondly,

participants’ political orientation was assessed in order to place them in either Leftist or Rightist category. In the next section of the questionnaire, participants were exposed to an advertising poster of the product “water” that included either the control (neutral type of campaign) or experimental

(Femvertising type of campaign) condition. After exposure to the advertisement, participants’ attitude towards the viewed campaign was assessed, along with attitude towards the brand

promoting the viewed campaign and finally, participants’ purchase intention of “water” advertised in the viewed campaign. The questionnaire ended with a manipulation check that assessed

participants’ understanding of the Femvertising aspect of the campaign.

Stimulus material. The type of campaign was manipulated by exposing participants to two

very similar advertising posters, where both were promoting the same product, by the same brand,

with an identical design and visuals. However, the message conveyed in the control condition was neutral and simply promoting the product itself, whereas the one of the experimental condition was

empowering women while promoting the product. In the poster of the control condition we can see one man and one female enjoying their water, dressed fashionably, with the sentence “Stay Fresh,

Stay Cool”, implying that this water makes its consumers “cooler”. In the experimental condition, however, three women of different ethnicities posing confidently are depicted enjoying their water,

including one holding a flag stating “Stay Fresh While Fighting The Patriarchy”. The name of the brand for this water is “Equa”, similar to the word “aqua” meaning “water” in Latin, but also

reminding of the word “equality” (See Appendix C).

The brand used in the experiment does not exist, as using a brand that participants might know about would have led to bias and decreased internal validity (Sheff, 2010). Additionally, the

chosen product Water is a low involvement product, and has been chosen following a pre-test. A low involvement product was chosen due to the fact that those products are universal and do not

require consumers to actively seek information about the product since factors such as brand name, ad theme, and slogans are enough for consumers to form their attitudes and intentions (Belch & Belch, 2015). The pre-test consisted of a list of ten low-involvement products which frequency of

use and involvement were measured, as well as product differences between sex, age and political orientation (N = 20). Water was chosen as it was not only one of the most frequently used products

(15 out of 20 participants chose “Always” and 3 “Frequently”) but also one where the involvement was the lowest. Furthermore, no between the sex, age and political orientation groups were found

when it comes to the product Water (See Appendix A for all results of the pretest).

Measures. Sex. In order to assess participants’ sex, they were asked the following question:

“Are you…?” with the options (1) Male, (2) Female, and (3) Something else, specify (Bauer et al,

2017).

Political orientation. Participants’ political orientation was measured using a five-item scale

developed by Evans et al. (1996), where a 7-point Likert scale starting from “totally disagree” (1) to

“totally agree” (7) measured the participants’ tendency to be Rightist or Leftist. The lower the responses on the scales, the more the participant is Right-wing oriented as items such as

“Government should redistribute income from the better off to those who are less well off” or “Ordinary working people do not get their fair share of the nation's wealth” were used. (See

Appendix B for the full survey). The scale seemed promising as its reliability was high when measured by Evans et al. (1996) with a Cronbach's Alpha of .84, even though when measured

during this research the result was lower, with a Cronbach’s Alpha of .67 (M = 4.86, SD = 1.07). The variable was divided into the two groups Leftist and Rightist after conducting a proportional

split (Decoster et al., 2011) since the number of Leftist participants (N = 167) was much higher than the number of Rightists (N = 23).

Campaign attitudes. The measurement tool that has been applied in order to measure

participants’ campaign attitudes after the viewing of the ad was used by Dianoux et al. (2014), who

merged surveys developed by Okazaki et al. (2010) and Bhat et al. (1998), asking “For you, this ad is rather…” with the options “boring”, “irritating”, “disturbing”, “credible”, “good”, “interesting”.

A 7-point Likert scale with (1) Strongly disagree to (7) Strongly agree answer options was used to answer. In Dianoux et al. (2014) research, an additional item initiated by MacKenzie et al. (1986)

was also used “To what extent do you like or dislike this ad” with the 7-point Likert scale (1) Like to (7) Dislike. The items used in Okazaki et al. (2010) are originally from the Ad Disapproval scale

developed by Bhat et al. (1998) with α = .93, and Attitude toward the ad scale developed by Mitchell and Olson (1981) with α = .87. When measured during this research, the reliability of the

whole scale was α = .85 (M = 4.76, SD = 1.29).

Brand attitudes. Brand attitudes were assessed by using a measurement tool developed by

Spears and Singh (2004), with the question “Please describe your overall feelings about the brand

described in the ad you just saw” and 5 items such as “unappealing/appealing”, “bad/good”, “unpleasant/pleasant”, “unfavourable/favourable”, “unlikeable/likeable”. A 7-point Likert scale was

used. Spears and Singh (2004) conducted two studies to confirm the reliability of this scale, with α = .94. When measured during this research, its Cronbach’s Alpha was of .94 as well (M = 4.24, SD

= 1.69).

Purchase intention. Purchase intention was measured by using a measurement tool that was

also created by Spears and Singh (2004), with the question “Please describe your overall purchase

intention of the advertised product after seeing this ad” and 5 items such as “never/definitely”, “definitely not intend to buy/definitely intend to buy”, “very low purchase interest/very high

purchase interest”, “definitely not buying it/definitely buying it”, “probably not buying it/probably buying it”. A 7-point Likert scale was used. This scale was also previously tested in two studies, with a Cronbach’s Alpha of .97 (Spears & Singh, 2004). When measured during this research, α = .

Manipulation check. In order to test the effectiveness of the experimental manipulation,

participants have been asked a very similar manipulation check question including one item as in

the research conducted by Drake (2017), that is “Based on the ad you just saw, to what extent do you agree that the ad empowers women?”. Participants’ answers were based on a 7-point Likert

scale from (1) “Strongly disagree” to (7) “Strongly agree”.

Results Manipulation check.

In order to measure the effectiveness of the manipulation, a One-Way ANOVA was performed using SPSS. The results of the analysis show that the effect of the manipulation on the perceived

women’s empowerment was significant F (1, 180) = 9.02, p = .003. Participants who were in the control condition did significantly less think the ad was empowering women (M = 3.73, SD = 1.40)

compared to those who were in the experimental condition (M = 4.47, SD = 1.89). This effect is of weak to moderate size as η² = 0.22 and represents 22% of variance. Hence, the manipulation has

been successful.

Randomisation check.

A Chi-Square test and One-Way ANOVA analyses were conducted in order to ensure an equal

randomisation across conditions regarding sex and age. When it comes to sex, a Chi square test was conducted. The results show that there was no significant differences between the participant groups

in terms of sex, χ² (1) = 0.14, p = .711. Furthermore, a One-Way ANOVA analysis was conducted for the age randomisation check. The results of the analysis also show a successful randomisation as there was no significant difference between the groups regarding age, F (1, 188) = 0.07, p. = .792.

The age mean in the control condition was 25.61 (SD = 6.31) and 25.33 (SD = 8.31) in the experimental condition.

Effects of Femvertising, campaign attitudes, and brand attitudes on purchase intention. First hypothesis. To test the first hypothesis H1 stating that Femvertising provokes more

positive campaign attitudes than a neutral ad, an independent samples t-test was performed. In the

control condition with the neutral ad, campaign attitudes were slightly higher (M = 4.77, SD = 1.15) than in the experimental condition with the Femvertising ad (M = 4.76, SD = 1.41). However, this

small mean difference of 0.01 is not statistically significant, t (182) = 0.04, p = .069, 95% CI [0.01, 0.19], and its effect size is very small with d = 0.01. Therefore Femvertising advertisements do not

provoke more positive campaign attitudes than neutral ads and the first hypothesis H1 is rejected.

Second hypothesis. In order to test the second hypothesis H2, that stands for higher positive

campaign attitudes leading to higher positive brand attitudes, a simple regression analysis was

conducted with campaign attitudes as independent variable and brand attitudes as dependent variable. The regression model predicting average brand attitudes from campaign attitudes is

statistically significant, F (1, 182) = 42.46, p < .001. Campaign attitudes have a moderate to strong association with brand attitudes, b* = 0.44, t = 6.52, p < .001, 95% CI [0.40, 0.74] and explain 19%

of the variance in brand attitudes (R² = 0.19). For every unit increase in campaign attitudes, brand attitudes increase with 0.57. The second hypothesis H2 is therefore confirmed and positive

campaign attitudes do lead to positive brand attitudes.

Third hypothesis. To measure the success of the third hypothesis H3 stating that positive brand

attitudes lead to higher purchase intention, another simple regression analysis was performed. The results of the analysis show that the regression model with brand attitudes as independent variable

and purchase intention as dependent variable was significant, F (1, 182) = 59.69, p < .001. Brand attitudes have a strong association with purchase intention, b* = 0.50, t = 7.73, p < .001, 95% CI

[0.35, 0.58] and explains 50% of the variance in average purchase intention (R² = 0.50). For every unit increase in brand attitudes, purchase intention increases with 0.46 unit. Therefore, the third

hypothesis H3 is confirmed; positive brand attitudes indeed do increase purchase intention.

Moderating effects of sex and political orientation on campaign attitudes.

Fourth hypothesis. In order to test the fourth hypothesis H4 stating that exposure to

Femvertising will lead to higher positive campaign attitudes among both women and men and that this effect will be stronger among women, a 2x2 between subjects factorial ANOVA was conducted

with campaign type, sex, and their interaction. All four subgroups are more or less of equal size, Levene’s F (3, 180) = 1.45, p = .229. The two-way analysis of variance shows that the main effect

of campaign type on campaign attitudes is not statistically significant and is very weak, F (1, 180) = 0.08, p = 0.78, η² = 0.00, explaining 0% of the variance in campaign attitudes, although campaign

attitudes were slightly higher in the control condition (M = 4.77, SD = 1.15) than in the experimental condition (M = 4.76, SD = 1.41). Additionally, the analysis of variance showed a non

significant and very weak main effect of sex on campaign attitudes, F (1, 180) = 1.61, p = 0.20, η² = 0.01, explaining 1% of the variance in campaigns attitudes. There was no significant difference

between women (M = 4.85, SD = 1.23) and men (M = 4.60, SD = 1.38) when it comes to campaign attitudes. Finally, regarding the interaction effect between the campaign type and sex, it was not

significant either F (1, 180) = 0.37, p = .544, η² = 0.00, resulting in no effect at all as the interaction explains 0.00% of the variance in campaign attitudes. In the control condition, women’s campaign

attitudes (M = 4.82, SD = 1.15) are higher than men’s (M = 4.69, SD = 1.16). This very slight difference also occurs in the experimental condition, where women’s campaign attitudes are a bit higher (M = 4.88, SD = 1.30) than men’s (M = 4.51, SD = 1.60). Therefore, according to those

Fifth hypothesis. Finally, to test the fifth and last hypothesis H5 stating that Exposure to

Femvertising will lead to higher positive campaign attitudes among Leftist than Rightist viewers,

another 2x2 between subjects factorial ANOVA was conducted with campaign type, political orientation, and their interaction as main effects. All four groups were more or less of equal size,

Levene’s F (3, 180) = 1.37, p = .254. The two-way analysis of variance showed again that the main effect of campaign type on campaign attitudes is not statistically significant and is weak, F (1, 180)

= 0.08, p = 0.78, η² = 0.00, explaining 0% of the variance in campaign attitudes, even if campaign attitudes were slightly higher in the control condition (M = 4.77, SD = 1.15) compared to the

experimental condition (M = 4.76, SD = 1.41). Interestingly, the analysis of variance showed a significant main effect of political orientation on campaign attitudes, F (1, 180) = 4.53, p = .035, η²

= 0.02, although its effect size is weak as it explains 2% of the variance in campaign attitudes. Participants with a rightist political orientation had lower campaign attitudes overall (M = 4.21, SD

= 1.54) than participants with a leftist political orientation (M = 4.84, SD = 1.24). The interaction effect between campaign type and political orientation was not statistically significant and had no

effect size, as F (1, 180) = 0.05, p = .830, η² = 0.00. Leftists kept more or less similar campaign attitudes in both control (M = 4.85, SD = 1.10) and experimental (M = 4.83, SD = 1.36) conditions.

When its comes to Rightist participants, they campaign attitudes were very slightly higher in the control condition (M = 4.27, SD = 1.39) than in the experimental one (M = 4.12, SD = 1.80). As a

consequence, the fifth hypothesis H5 is not confirmed.

Conclusion

The aim of this study was to provide insights regarding the effects of Femvertising mainly on campaign attitudes, as well as brand attitudes and purchase intention, and whether those effects on

campaign attitudes were moderated by sex and political orientation. The outcomes of this research showed that campaign attitudes are not more positive among viewers with exposure to Femvertising

in comparison to exposure to neutral advertising. Additionally, the positive campaign attitudes generated by exposure to Femvertising did lead to positive brand attitudes. The same conclusion is

made concerning brand attitudes, which is associated with increased purchase intention. Furthermore, exposure to Femvertising does not lead to higher positive campaign attitudes for

women as compared to men. Finally, exposure to Femvertising does not lead to higher positive campaign attitudes among Leftist viewers compared to the control condition. However, being

Leftist or Rightist is a predictor of campaign attitudes overall as Leftist participants had more positive campaign attitudes than Rightist participants in both conditions. Therefore, this research

shows that Femvertising does not affect campaign attitudes, but the latter predicted brand attitudes, which in turn predicted purchase intention. There was also no moderation between sex and

campaign type, or political orientation and campaign type. Nevertheless, political orientation turned out to have a main effect on campaign attitudes.

Discussion of findings.

Previous research shows that the presence of cause-related marketing increases attitudes toward the ad, the brand, and increases purchase intention (Hajjat, 2003; Kozlowski & Sobotko,

2017), and that those reactions are mostly due to individuals’ altruism (Kozlowski & Sobotko, 2017). The outcome of the non-significant difference of campaign attitudes between the condition

presenting a neutral ad and condition presenting Femvertising leads to a discussion about the empathic altruism theory that showed to not be proven accurate in this research (Batson et al. 1981).

Indeed, it can be assumed from the results that the campaign in the experimental condition did not particularly awaken the will to contribute to women’s empowerment, as it did probably not provoke more empathy among participants of the experiment, nor sympathy or concern compared to the ad

in the control condition. The Kozlowski and Sobotko (2017) research illustrates that the degree of altruism determines attitudes towards cause-related marketing, and those attitudes are lower among

sceptical individuals. The research conducted by Webb and Mohr (1998) shows that individuals can be skeptic about cause-related marketing due to the possible misuse of social issues by companies,

the risk to be taken advantage of for profit, but also scepticism towards advertising overall. In this case, the capitalisation on gender equality can also spoil the cause’s image and cause scepticism

(Johnston & Taylor 2008; Polonsky & Wood, 2001). The findings of previous research (Hajjat, 2003; Patel et al., 2017) showing the efficiency of cause-related marketing on attitudes also

highlighted the involvement that individuals may have with the cause. It can be assumed that participants were not sufficiently involved with the gender equality cause, what led to such results.

The findings of this study are aligned with the spillover effect theory, here in this case of positive campaign attitudes “spilling over” to positive brand attitudes (Simonin & Ruth, 1998;

Raufeisen et al. 2019). Indeed, for both neutral and Femvertising ads participants’ campaign attitudes were a direct predictor of brand attitudes. Therefore, this research adds to the validity of

the spillover effect theory, and confirms that brand attitudes can be predicted by campaign attitudes, but also strengthens the results of previous empirical research on the spillover effect (Bergkvist &

Rossiter, 2008). Furthermore, when it comes to brand attitudes affecting purchase intention, the theory of planned behaviour introduced by Ajzen (1985) where attitudes directly determine

intentions, has also proved to be valid according to the findings of this research. Similarly, in both control and experimental conditions, brand attitudes were a direct and strong predictor of purchase

intention. According to those results, both campaign and brand attitudes can be considered as determinants of purchase intention, and previous empirical research results have also been

strengthened (Lee et al., 2013).

Additionally, previous research showed that both men and women are meant to react positively to Femvertising. Nevertheless, the results of this research lead to discussion, as it was not

the case for none of the sexes, especially concerning men. In the Jacobson et al. (2018) research mentioned previously, it has indeed also been mentioned that some men might feel excluded when

exposed to Femvertising, or that the tone of certain Femvertising campaigns might be too aggressive, what leads to negative attitudes (Jacobson et al., 2018). In the case of the Femvertising

ad used in this research, the expression “fight the patriarchy” could have provoked negative attitudes among male participants due to its directness, probable aggressiveness and political

connotation. Furthermore, both of the sexes’ reaction also depends on the congruence between the product and the cause (Goldsmith & Yimin, 2015). Bottled water and women’s empowerment are

not concepts that are easily complementary or logically associated, therefore this incongruence can provoke discomfort among consumers and prevent from campaign attitudes being significantly

higher after Femvertising exposure than after neutral ad exposure (Goldsmith & Yimin, 2015) and lead to campaign attitudes that do not differ between the conditions. Such unusual combination can

be perceived as simply using feminism for marketing purposes, called commodity feminism (Goldman, 1991), where feminism just becomes a tool to benefit companies instead of benefitting

the actual cause, what might limit campaign attitudes from being more positive.

Concerning the moderation effect showing that women did not have significantly higher

campaign attitudes when exposed to Femvertising compared to men fuels discussion about the social identity theory (Tajfel, 1974). Indeed, it is possible that not all women necessarily perceive

the importance of their identity of being a woman to be positively distinguished, or they are not all particularly emotionally involved with being part of the female social group, or they do not

acknowledge the competition with the other group (Tajfel, 1974), that is men. In a research conducted by Jalakas (2016), the ambivalence that each woman has towards Femvertising has been

highlighted. The research points out that women’s positive approach towards Femvertising cannot be assumed for all women, as each of them has different experiences, knowledge, and their own contexts, leading to critical thinking among female consumers as well (Jalakas, 2016). In the

researches mentioned theretofore (Dolich, 1969; Akestam et al., 2017), the studies were conducted in the same countries respectively, what might explain the more or less homogeneous positive

reactions of women to ads that empower them due to their similar backgrounds. In the case of this research, the diversity in terms of nationalities of this experiment’s sample can explain the different

experiences that women have and therefore different approaches towards Femvertising.

Finally, the results concerning political orientation not moderating the effects of Femvertising

but having a main effect on campaign attitudes in both conditions provoke discussion regarding the theory of basic human values (Schwartz, 1992) that still proved to be useful to explain those results.

Rightist participants’ campaign attitudes were significantly lower than the ones of leftists participants, in both conditions. As heretofore explained, the importance that people give to values

in their lives determine their beliefs, attitudes, or choices, including political orientations (Schwartz, 1992). When it comes to Left-oriented individuals, they give more importance to values such as

universalism or benevolence, which are highly based on tolerance, understanding, or protection of the people (Caprara et al., 2006). Due to the fact that even though the control condition did not

present an ad that empowers women, some characteristics in the neutral ad could be associated with leftist views, that is universalist values: the name of the brand being “Equa” implies “equality”, a

value of great importance for leftist individuals, especially leftist millennials (Fosse, 2015); a Black woman and a White man portrayed together could imply the promotion of intersectionality and

diversity (Milkman, 2017) which are also on leftist parties’ agendas; but also young characters dressed in a fashionable way representing trendy Millennials (Anshari et al., 2019), the latter

generation being considered as the most progressive (Leyden et al., 2007). Similarly, the previously referred-to Nagar’s research (2013) concerning the moderating effects of attitudes towards green

advertising has been confirmed, highlighting that political orientations, in this case Leftist/ universalist/prosocial motivations, do influence attitudes towards campaigns. Thus, we can conclude that there might have been no moderation effect between campaign type and political

orientation in this research, but a main effect of political orientation because campaigns in both conditions can be interpreted as left-oriented. Additionally, such results prove that the theory of

basic human values influence political opinions, and those play a role in individuals’ preferences as well as attitudes or life choices.

Limitations and suggestions for future research.

There are a couple of limitations to the current study. Due to the previously mentioned Leftist features of the ad in the control condition, even though the campaign is not empowering women, the

campaign could be perceived as having a political stance and additionally targeting a specific group with the formerly touched upon characteristics: the name of the brand being “Equa”, a Black

woman and a White man being portrayed together, but also with both characters representing millennials along with their fashionable appearance, and the design of the poster seeming quite

youthful. Such specific type of campaign could have been not neutral enough to reach and appeal to a broader audience. Thus, this could have provoked no significant differences in terms of campaign

attitudes between the control and experimental condition as participants could have possibly (dis)liked both campaigns. Therefore, it is advised for future research to use a more neutral,

non-political type of campaign for the control condition if the sample is meant to be diverse in terms of age besides political orientation and sex. The materials should also be pre-tested in order to increase

internal validity.

Another limitation encountered during this research concerns the sample. The sampling error

due to random sampling is quite important. Female participants represent almost the double size of male participants, with 121 women and 69 men. The same issue goes for political orientation, as 23

participants happened to be Rightist and 167 Leftist. In addition, the average age of participants who took part in the online survey was 25 years old, and were also social media users, the latter being said to be more educated (Couper, 2000). Those numbers can be the outcome of the chosen

snowball sampling method, which often results in a sample not being representative of the population (Bryman, 2016), making the results difficult to generalise to the population as it, for

instance in this case, disregarded older as well as minority ethnic groups (Couper, 2000). A future study should include a sampling method that is not random and contributes to groups being of more

or less equal sizes, and ensures the representation of the population as this could lead to more valid and generalisable effects.

Finally, even though it is not a limitation, as a suggestion for future research a different product choice could be made in further experiments. Despite a conducted pre-test to choose the

right product, a certain number of participants have directly mentioned post experiment that even when their brand and campaign attitudes were positive, they would not purchase the product as it

was bottled water. The topics of sustainability and plastic use are increasingly important issues in politics, especially among the Leftist community (Neumayer, 2004). Therefore, future research

should take into consideration a product that is more eco-friendly.

Practical implications.

Femvertising is an increasingly used tool within the cause-related marketing strategy. Even

though women generally react positively and seem quite sensitive to this method, marketers should take into consideration the fact that Femvertising does not necessarily appeal to all female

audiences due to increasing critical approaches and individual factors such as life experiences, backgrounds, education, etc. To appeal, Femvertising should be applied with care, that is present

itself with legitimacy, and avoid all types of incongruences between the brand, product, partnerships, or the cause (Goldsmith & Yimin, 2015), as scepticism is playing an important role in

cause-related marketing and negatively affects attitudes, which directly affect purchase intentions. As the campaign attitudes determine the results of the ultimate goal of marketers that is to increase purchases, all characteristics of the ad should be manipulated with caution to please a given target

audience. In this case, factors such as political orientation do indeed play a role in campaign attitudes, and each feature of the ad was altogether reflecting one entire concept, that is Leftist

politics. Therefore, when intending to sell a product, not only socio-demographic data should be taken into consideration by marketers, but also less often considered factors such as political

orientation that result in being of high importance.

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