This article was downloaded by: [Eindhoven Technical University]On: 22 November 2014, At: 05:51Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Journal of Current Issues & Research inAdvertisingPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ujci20

Old Songs Never Die: Advertising Effectsof Evoking Nostalgia With Popular SongsHsuan-Yi Chou a & Nai-Hwa Lien ba Institute of Communications Management , National Sun Yat-senUniversity , Kaohsiung City , Taiwan , R.O.C.b Department and Graduate Institute of Business Administration ,National Taiwan University , Taipei City , Taiwan , R.O.C.Published online: 10 Feb 2014.

To cite this article: Hsuan-Yi Chou & Nai-Hwa Lien (2014) Old Songs Never Die: Advertising Effectsof Evoking Nostalgia With Popular Songs, Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, 35:1,29-49, DOI: 10.1080/10641734.2014.866845

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10641734.2014.866845

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as tothe accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinionsand views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Contentshould not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sourcesof information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever orhowsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arisingout of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, 35: 29–49, 2014Copyright © American Academy of AdvertisingISSN: 1064-1734 print/2164-7313 onlineDOI: 10.1080/10641734.2014.866845

Old Songs Never Die:Advertising Effects of Evoking Nostalgia

With Popular Songs

Hsuan-Yi Chou

Institute of Communications Management, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Nai-Hwa Lien

Department and Graduate Institute of Business Administration, National Taiwan University, Taipei City, Taiwan, R.O.C.

This article investigates the effects of using auditory cues (i.e., popular songs) to evoke consumer nostalgia in response to TV commercials. Possible moderation of the song familiarity and the lyr-ics’ relevance to the advertised product are also explored. Experimental results indicate that even if the product and other ad design elements are not related to nostalgic themes, placing an old song in an ad evokes nostalgic feelings among viewers and elicits more positive nostalgia-related thoughts. Additionally, old songs could generate positive emotions and better advertising effectiveness only under the more familiar song and more relevant lyrics conditions.

Nostalgia refers to a yearning for the past or a taste for possessions and activities from days gone by (Holbrook 1993). In recent years, nostalgia has been promoted in popular culture and has been massively used in store decoration, product design, and advertising appeals for various product categories, such as food, beverages, personal products, automobiles, and restaurants. However, is nostalgia advertising effective for any products, including essentially nonnostalgic products?

In advertising, many elements can make ads nostalgic. For example, in 2009, Heinz and Guinness released campaigns that included “clips of previous ads,” while Comic Relief pulled together many famous “advertising characters from the past” for a campaign called “Brand Aid” (Williams 2009). Additionally, period-oriented music, such as golden oldies, also offers a rec-ognizable element of the past and could make particular ads nostalgic (Unger et al. 1991). For example, in 1987, Mercedes-Benz used Marlene Dietrich’s version of “Falling in Love Again” (released in 1930) in an ad portraying the milestones of the car’s history (Braun-LaTour 2007). Many companies such as Nike, Microsoft, and Mercedes-Benz are willing to pay large sums of money for the rights to incorporate popular songs into their commercials. Should companies pay to license old, popular songs? Should the song be more familiar to consumers or have more

This article was accepted by Claude Martin and James Leigh, previous editors of the Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising.

Address correspondence to Hsuan-Yi Chou, PhD, Institute of Communications Management, National Sun Yat-sen University, 70, Lien-hai Rd., Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, R.O.C. E-mail: hsuanyi@mail.nsysu.edu.tw

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Ein

dhov

en T

echn

ical

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

5:51

22

Nov

embe

r 20

14

30 H.-Y. CHOU AND N.-H. LIEN

relevant lyrics to the advertised product? These are important questions to practitioners but still have not been resolved by scholars.

With the rising use of nostalgia in marketing practices, academic research attention has been focused on the definition, classification, and measurement of nostalgia and its impact on consumer behavior (Pascal et al. 2002; Rindfleisch and Sprott 2000). However, only a small number of empirical studies have examined nostalgia’s influence within an advertising context (e.g., Baker and Kennedy 1994; Pascal et al. 2002; Muehling and Sprott 2004), and their research scope has been confined to printed ads, verbal nostalgic cues, and products with an inherent nostalgic component. The effects of other types of nostalgic cues for other advertising media in other product contexts remain unknown.

Havlena and Holak (1991) point out that nostalgic feelings and effects evoked by different kind of stimuli (e.g., music, images, objects, or flavors) are also worthy of further exploration. Among possible nostalgia cues, music is regarded as an important background characteristic of advertising. When watching TV, it is almost impossible not to be inundated by the profusion of popular music in ads (Allan 2007). Therefore, this article intends to fill the research gap in nostalgia-related advertising studies by examining the effects of auditory nostalgic cues (i.e., old songs) in the context of TV advertising. The authors aim to empirically investigate whether the use of old songs in ads can evoke consumer nostalgic feelings and thoughts by retrieving past memories, to explore the influence of evoked nostalgia on advertising effectiveness, and to focus on recollection-unrelated products to expand the functional scope of nostalgia in this regard.

On the other hand, previous nostalgia advertising scholars have only compared the effects of nostalgic and nonnostalgic ads (e.g., Pascal et al. 2002; Muehling and Sprott 2004). Whether there exist some advertising elements that can moderate the effects of nostalgic ads remains unknown. This article treats the period in which the songs were released as the possible nostal-gia-evoking cue. However, a song may simultaneously have other additional attributes that may change the level or the effects of nostalgia it induces. Therefore, the authors select two important but less studied characteristics of songs (i.e., the song’s familiarity and its lyrics’ relevance to the product) as possible moderators. Understanding the moderating effects of song familiarity helps marketers to select suitable songs (Hahn and Hwang 1999). Although previous nostalgia stud-ies (e.g., Holbrook and Schindler 1989; Baker and Kennedy 1994) imply that nostalgia objects should have some level of familiarity, they do not empirically demonstrate this. Additionally, in past research on advertising music, most scholars have neglected the role of lyrics, unable to recognize the importance of their semantic content (Scott 1990; Hung 2000). However, lyrics have many substantial functions in ads; for example, they can develop empathy, transmit news, and communicate product attribute and benefit information (Murray and Murray 1996), which may provide a link between the memory evoked by old songs and the product (Sujan et al. 1993). Because both song familiarity and lyrics’ relevance may interact with other characteristics (i.e., the song period), this study explores their moderating effects in an attempt to create a more thor-ough understanding of the effects of song period.

In summary, this article uses auditory cues (i.e., old songs) to evoke nostalgic feelings in advertising contexts and explore their effects as well as possible interaction with song familiarity or the relevance of song lyrics. The authors hope that the findings will provide useful sugges-tions for companies and ad agencies seeking to feature appropriate popular songs in ads to reach optimal efficiency and to use different ad-appeal strategies to attract the younger generation.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Ein

dhov

en T

echn

ical

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

5:51

22

Nov

embe

r 20

14

ADVERTISING EFFECTS OF NOSTALGIA WITH SONGS 31

NOSTALGIA AND RELATED STUDIES

Nostalgia is a desire for the past and refers to the mixed emotions generated by past-related things, persons, and experience. It can evoke an earlier time in one’s personal life and can cause the selective recall of past recollections and emotions (Holbrook 1993; Baker and Kennedy 1994). Stern (1992a) separates nostalgia into two types: personal and historical nostalgia. The nostalgic object in personal nostalgia is past times that individuals have enjoyed. Although peo-ple do not necessarily have a truly joyful childhood or life, they may reconstruct an idealized past. In contrast, the nostalgic object in historical nostalgia corresponds to the age before the individual’s birth, inspiring or playing on a desire to escape from modern life and return to a past that is perceived as having been better. This article just focuses on personal nostalgia.

Based on a review of the nostalgia-related literature, one can see that nostalgia has some important properties. (1) Belk (1990) posited that nostalgia involves an affective memory pro-cess. It is a wistful emotion that may be evoked by an object, a scene, or a smell. However, the empirical study of Muehling and Sprott (2004) extended past nostalgia research efforts by exam-ining individuals’ cognitive thought processes and found that nostalgia also involves a cognitive process. This could influence the type of thoughts generated by consumers. Therefore, nostalgia may include both processes. (2) Nostalgic memories are usually filtered through “rose-colored glasses” that screen out negative elements (Holak and Havlena 1992). (3) Though nostalgic memories are essentially unreal and imaginary, people nevertheless insist on their authenticity (Belk 1990). (4) Nostalgic targets must no longer be as available, accessible, or widely circulated as they once were. Thus, it does not make sense to speak of nostalgia for objects from one’s youth if those objects have continued to be commonly or easily experienced (Schindler and Holbrook 2003).

Most previous nostalgia research has used exploratory studies and research topics related to the definition of nostalgia (Holbrook and Schindler 1991), nostalgic objects (e.g., Holak and Hovlena 1992; Holbrook and Schindler 2003), classifications (e.g., Unger et al. 1991; Stern 1992a; Havlena and Holak 1996), purposes (Havlena and Holak 1991), related scales (e.g., Holbrook 1993; Baker and Kennedy 1994), and nostalgia’s relationship with other constructs like materialism (Rindfleisch et al. 2000), nostalgia proneness (Schindler and Holbrook 2003), nostalgic intensity (Reisenwitz et al. 2004), and attachment-related avoidance (Tim et al. 2010). Fewer empirical studies have focused on the effects of nostalgia-themed ads on consumer atti-tudes. Among them, the following two studies are representative. Muehling and Sprott (2004) chose roll films and changed copy and headlines in print ads to explore the effects of nostalgic ads on consumers’ thoughts and attitudes. They found that nostalgic cues can influence the types of thoughts generated by consumers, ad attitudes, and brand attitudes. In the Pascal et al. (2002) study, the stimuli were roll films and DVD players. They also changed the copy and headlines in print ads to manipulate the degree of nostalgia. Their results revealed that increases in adver-tising-evoked nostalgia led to more favorable ad attitudes, brand attitudes, and purchase inten-tion; the ad attitudes mediated the effects of nostalgia on brand attitudes and purchase intention. Outside the advertising context, Sierra and McQuitty (2007) explored why consumers purchase nostalgic products and found that consumers’ purchase intentions are simultaneously affected by yearning for and attitudes about the past.

This article is designed to extend past nostalgia research efforts by expanding the func-tional scope of nostalgia. The authors focus on TV commercials without nostalgia-relevant

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Ein

dhov

en T

echn

ical

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

5:51

22

Nov

embe

r 20

14

32 H.-Y. CHOU AND N.-H. LIEN

themes and copy, use auditory cues (i.e., old songs) to evoke nostalgic feelings, and select non-recollection-related products to be advertised. Consumers’ cognitive, affective, and attitudi-nal responses, as well as the possible interactive effects of song familiarity and lyrics’ relevance, are empirically explored.

THE EFFECTS OF MUSIC IN ADVERTISING

Music is considered to be the most used executional cue in commercials (Yalch 1991). Many advertisers use music in their ads to resonate with consumers, get them to attend to the ads, help differentiate the brand, and boost sales. There are two dominant theory approaches to the study of advertising music: the classical conditioning approach (e.g., Gorn 1982; Kellaris and Cox 1989), and the affective response approach (e.g., Mitchell 1986; Park and Young 1986). Although these conceptualizations of music are different, both imply that exposure to advertis-ing music may evoke automatic, affective responses. However, Scott (1990) suggests that previ-ous research in advertising music has overlooked the syntax of the verbal and visual elements of music. Therefore, Scott (1990) explored advertising music in an alternative theory based on a rhetorical approach and postulated that music is a functional component contributing to the rhetorical task in ways as various as language. It can be informative or affective; it can denote or connote. Music can structure time, simulate motion, and support repetition.

Ads with music that is well known or that has a high personal significance for the listener will lead to greater attention to the ad and greater memory for the ad and brand information than ads with less known or low-personal-significance music (Kellaris et al. 1993; Allan 2006). Hung (2000) found that viewers could read music-evoked meanings from ads. Music works with other ad ele-ments to help cue a cultural context that frames the meanings communicated to a viewer. Music in congruent ads reduces noise by reinforcing the connecting cultural context to communicate mean-ings. However, music in incongruent ads helps enact an alternative context that is meaningful to the viewer to communicate the ad message. Oakes (2007) reviewed studies focusing upon the cognitive and affective response to advertising music and classified previous studies into 10 original defini-tions of music/advertising congruity (e.g., valence, genre, and image). The result was a coherent pattern in which increased music/advertising congruity contributed to the enhancement of brand attitudes, purchase intent, and recall facilitation. However, Lavack et al. (2008) found that the posi-tive ad effects of congruent music only occurred in high-cognition ads, not in low-cognition ads.

RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

The Period of Songs

There are many possible visible objects (e.g., clothes, jewelry, toys, books, and automobiles) and invisible stimuli (e.g., music, records, and movies) that can constitute subjects of nostalgia (Holak and Hovlena 1992). The Unger et al. (1991) qualitative study found that period-oriented music is one of the most common nostalgic elements of TV advertising, providing the prelimi-nary supposition for this article: The period of a song is an important factor in whether a song can evoke feelings of nostalgia among consumers and be used as a possible nostalgic trigger.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Ein

dhov

en T

echn

ical

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

5:51

22

Nov

embe

r 20

14

ADVERTISING EFFECTS OF NOSTALGIA WITH SONGS 33

Popular music is highly favored among ordinary people for a fixed period of time (Allan 2008), which gives popular music higher indexicality as compared with other types of advertis-ing music (e.g., needle drops or jingles) and makes it easier to connect period-related memo-ries or certain events in an individual’s life (Baumgartner 1992; Baker and Kennedy 1994). Consequently, the playing of a strain of music or a song from the past may inspire memories of an earlier time. The authors of the current article, therefore, infer that an old song featured in an ad may link to some past memories and thus evoke more nostalgic feelings and thoughts than a new song.

When people hear a piece of music that links to an event from their lives and therefore retrieve previous memories (Baumgartner 1992), they experience significant bias in that they only tend to remember pleasant rather than unpleasant memories/associations because of the hyperreality feature of nostalgia, in which people’s memories are selective and fanciful in nature (Belk 1991). Unpleasant thoughts are automatically filtered out to maintain or enhance individual self-identity (Stern 1992b; Muehling and Sprott 2004). Therefore, based on previous inference, this article has hypothesized that old songs evoke more nostalgic thoughts than do new songs. The authors also further hypothesize that most of the nostalgic thoughts evoked by old songs are positively valenced.

According to the cognitive resource theory (Fiedler and Garcia 1987), consumers’ cognitive resources are limited. When they have invested cognitive resources to generating nostalgia-related thoughts, the residual cognitive resources that can be assigned to the processing of prod-uct information and the generation of product-related thoughts should decrease. Additionally, a nostalgic cue in an ad can act as a distractor; the focus on the nostalgic elements may have a cost for the product message (i.e., less attention to it) (Sujan et al. 1993). The affect evoked by nostalgia may also provide an easier and faster route to product evaluation, thus reducing the need to analyze product messages (Baumgartner et al. 1992). Therefore, consumers may gener-ate fewer product-related thoughts. In light of the preceding discussion, the authors hypothesize the following:

H1: When a popular song is used in an ad, as compared with a similar but new song, an old song will elicit (a) more nostalgic thoughts, (b) more positively valenced nostalgia-related thoughts, and (c) fewer product-related thoughts.

A piece of music may arouse emotional reactions in consumers through its association with sig-nificant personal experiences (Baumgartner 1992). The emotional tone evoked by the music is a function of the affective characteristics of the associated personal experiences. Most retrieved personal experiences are pleasant because there is a bias toward remembering positive episodes/experiences from one’s life (Stern 1992b; Sujan et al. 1993). These retrieved experiences are often described as vivid and emotional, and people usually relive the original experiences and emotion and therefore experience positive emotions (Baumgartner 1992; Baumgartner et al. 1992). In addition, because nostalgia is a longing for an idealized past (Holbrook 1993), nostalgic cues (e.g., old songs) are capable of eliciting a variety of positive emotional responses, including warmth, joy, affection, and innocence (Holak and Havlena 1998).

In addition to positive emotions, nostalgia can also elicit a few negative emotions related to a sense of loss, such as sadness and anxiety (Holak and Havlena 1998). That is, although people retrieve the happiness of past times, they can never reexperience them and thus feel disappointed. Therefore, the positive emotions evoked by an old song may be linked with some slightly negative

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Ein

dhov

en T

echn

ical

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

5:51

22

Nov

embe

r 20

14

34 H.-Y. CHOU AND N.-H. LIEN

emotions, thereby producing some degree of mixed/bittersweet emotions (Baker and Kennedy 1994). In light of the preceding discussion, the authors hypothesize the following:

H2: When a popular song is used in an ad, as compared with a similar but new song, an old song will elicit (a) more positive emotions and (b) more mixed emotions.

An old song may arouse autobiographical memories, which are memories of past events/informa-tion related to oneself (Brewer 1986). One important component of autobiographical memories is emotion or affect (Baumgartner et al. 1992), which is more likely to be positive (Sujan et al. 1993). This article infers that old songs in ads will influence the evaluation of the ad and product by evoking autobiographical memories (Baumgartner 1992) as well as more favorable nostal-gia-related thoughts (as posited in H1b), both of which evoke positive emotions in consumers. Scholars have shown that emotions evoked by ads strongly influence ad attitudes (Aaker et al. 1986; Batra and Ray 1986) and brand/product attitudes (Edell and Burke 1987) through affect transfer models of persuasion. Besides, according to the affect-as-information model, people tend to use their mood/emotions as information through a “how do I feel about it?” heuristic when they are evaluating a stimulus (Petty et al. 1993). Emotional states appear to bias evalua-tions in a direction similar to that of the emotion; simple pleasant (or unpleasant) emotions could yield a more (or less) favorable attitude. Generally speaking, old songs can evoke more positive emotions (as posited in H2a), so they can generate better advertising effectiveness. On the other hand, the retrieval of autobiographical memories and the generation of nostalgia-related thoughts change consumers’ thought processes so that there is more of a focus on personal memories and the associated affect, thus reducing the analysis and memory of product information in the ad (Baumgartner 1992) and restricting the generation of possible negative product-related thoughts. Therefore, positive emotions evoked by positive retrieved memories and positive nostalgia-related thoughts dominate the formation of attitudes. Thus, H3 is posited:

H3: When a popular song is used in an ad, as compared with a similar but new song, an old song will produce better advertising effects, including more favorable ad attitudes, product attitudes, and purchase intention.

Moderating Effects of Song Familiarity

Nostalgia objects are often more popular or widely circulated when an individual is younger (Holbrook and Schindler 1989). Additionally, the definition of nostalgia reveals that it is gener-ated by past-related things, persons, and experiences (Baker and Kennedy 1994). Both imply that nostalgia objects (e.g., old songs) should have some level of familiarity. This article considers song familiarity as a moderator of the effects of old songs. Past memories and experiences associ-ated with old songs are the nostalgic triggers. Because song familiarity with old songs affects the accessibility of those past memories and experiences, it would affect the nostalgic effects of old songs. According to Campbell and Keller (2003) and Low and Lamb (2000), when consumers are familiar with an object (e.g., a brand in their research), they have stronger and more diverse memories associated with the object. The associated memory structure is tight and easily acces-sible. Based on the same reason, this article infers that when consumers are familiar with an old song, associated past memories and experiences are easier to retrieve upon hearing the song. Because song familiarity helps to retrieve past memories, which are the main nostalgic trigger, it

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Ein

dhov

en T

echn

ical

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

5:51

22

Nov

embe

r 20

14

ADVERTISING EFFECTS OF NOSTALGIA WITH SONGS 35

should enhance the nostalgic effects of old songs. Moreover, a song that makes a deep impression on the mind is more likely to be connected to special events or a stronger affective-laden experi-ence, so the memories evoked by that song will generate stronger nostalgic effects. In contrast, when consumers are unfamiliar with an old song, even though they may have had associated memories about it before, the memory structure of the song is loose. Consequently, it is difficult for them to recollect song-related past memories, thus weakening or eliminating the nostalgic effects of the old song. Therefore, the authors hypothesize that song familiarity will positively moderate the effects of old songs.

H4: The impact of an old song on advertising effects is positively moderated by the degree of song familiarity; that is, under a more familiar song condition, compared to a less familiar song condition, the gap of advertising effects generated by old songs and new songs will be greater.

Moderating the Effects of Lyrics Relevance

The lyrics’ relevance indicates the degree of matching between the lyrics and the advertised product, that is, the extent to which the lyrics communicate product-related information. In an advertising context, the fit between the central ad messages and the lyrics of the advertising songs affects the message processing (MacInnis and Park 1991). It has been found that when more product information is sung in the moving melody, more information can be retained (Roehm 2001). Olsen and Johnson (2002) also suggested that the presence of meaningful background lyrics has a significant positive impact on the recall of product information through enhancing attention to the advertisement.

Besides its recall effect, this article postulates that lyrics’ relevance has another function: It could provide a link between the memory and the product, thereby determining whether ad effects are influenced by autobiographical memories and affect.

Ad and product evaluations are affected by autobiographical memories if autobiographical affect is accessible as the basis for evaluation and the extent of carryover or transfer of this affect to the judgment at hand is high (Baumgartner et al. 1992; Escalas 2004). Sujan et al. (1993) suggested that the extent of transfer is determined by the perceived “link” between the memory and the object of judgment. Thus, better ad/product attitudes resulting from the transfer of affect from the memory to the ad/product only occur when the link is made explicit in the ad (Escalas 2007). The strength/explicitness of the link is contingent on many factors, such as the type of judgment to be made (e.g., ad or product judgment) and possible triggers of autobiographical memories. For example, when the characters or situations portrayed in an ad serve as explicit cues to stimulate autobiographical memories, the link between the retrieved memory and the ad is direct and is perceived as natural by consumers. In other words, encouraging the retrieval of autobiographical memories during the exposure to product information could result in a stronger link between the memory and product. The authors infer that because autobiographical memories in this article are evoked by old songs, if the songs themselves feature more relevant lyrics for the advertised product, the link between retrieved autobiographical memory/affect and product is naturally strengthened. Thus, autobiographical affect in such a context will display the antici-pated impact on advertising effectiveness; that is, old songs will improve ad attitudes, product attitudes, and thus purchase intention. Conversely, if the songs feature less relevant lyrics, the link is weaker; therefore, the extent of transfer of autobiographical affect to the product is low,

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Ein

dhov

en T

echn

ical

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

5:51

22

Nov

embe

r 20

14

36 H.-Y. CHOU AND N.-H. LIEN

weakening the effects of such an affect. Thus, lyrics’ relevance should be a functional prerequi-site of old songs, as hypothesized:

H5: The impact of an old song on advertising effects is positively moderated by the degree of the lyrics’ relevance; that is, under a more relevant lyrics condition, compared to a less relevant lyr-ics condition, the gap of advertising effects generated by old songs and new songs will be greater.

EXPERIMENT 1

Method

Subjects and Design

The purpose of Experiment 1 was to examine the advertising effects of song period and the possible moderating role of song familiarity. This study selected undergraduate students as the sample because students are the major target market and are the heavy listeners of the popular songs that are the focus of this article; ads targeting students often feature popular music (Shea 2004). In addition, the targets of nostalgia and the general levels of nostalgic consumption expe-rienced by different consumers may change over time and are therefore associated with age (Holbrook 1993). Therefore, the homogeneity of students, particularly with regard to their age, helps to clarify the effects of the experimental variables. Finally, nostalgia is not a term reserved for elderly consumers (Braun-LaTour 2007); this article, as a result, empirically explores the effects of nostalgia advertising on these young generations.

Experiment 1 featured a 2 (song release period: old song vs. new song) × 2 (song familiarity: more vs. less familiar) between-subject design. Eighty-nine convenience-sampled Taiwanese undergraduates (64% male, 36% female), ranging in age from 18 to 26 years (M = 20.38), partici-pated in the study for extra credit.

Stimuli Development

Experiment 1 created four versions of a TV commercial for a cookie product with a fictitious brand name, Smile. The commercials were identical except for the popular songs used as the background music. The volume, tempo, mode, and tonality of the songs were similar for each condition to eliminate confounding effects (Alpert et al. 2005). The songs aired throughout the duration of the commercial (30 seconds). The verbal message of the commercial was “Fill your life with surprises,” displayed on the screen as a caption.

The commercial and the songs that were used to vary song period/nostalgia and song famili-arity were selected through two rounds of pretests. In the first pretest, 47 undergraduates rated their familiarity with 26 Mandarin pop songs and the songs’ abilities to induce nostalgic feelings. Because this study focused on personal nostalgia and Stern (1992a) has suggested that the subject of personal nostalgia needs to be from at least 10 years prior, based on the participants’ ages, this study selected an initial 26 songs that were released either at the time of the experiment (i.e., new songs) or 10 years prior (i.e., old songs). Participants assessed each song’s nostalgia-inducing ability by assessing five items using a 7-point scale (strongly disagree/strongly agree). The five

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Ein

dhov

en T

echn

ical

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

5:51

22

Nov

embe

r 20

14

ADVERTISING EFFECTS OF NOSTALGIA WITH SONGS 37

items were “reminds me of the past,” “makes me feel nostalgic,” “makes me think about when I was younger,” “brings back memories of good times from the past,” and “reminds me of good times in the past” (Pascal et al. 2002). Familiarity was assessed with three items using a 7-point scale; the items were “not at all familiar/highly familiar, “don’t know it well at all/know it very well,” and “don’t recognize it right away/recognize it right away” (Roehm 2001).

Based on the results of the first pretest, four songs were selected. “OREA” was used to repre-sent the old song with more familiarity (M = 4.20 for nostalgia-inducing ability, M = 3.67 for song familiarity). “Standard Lover” was used for the old song with less familiarity (M = 3.79, 1.98). The new song with more familiarity was “No See” (M = 3.05, 4.56), whereas the new song with less familiarity was “Chance” (M = 2.60, 2.35).

The purpose of the second pretest was to pick a commercial for which the lyrics of all the songs would have similar relevance to the advertised product. As suggested by Unger et al. (1991), this study initially selected nine foreign (Japanese or Korean) 30-second commercials for food or bever-ages (e.g., cookies, chocolate, tea, and soft drinks). The 39 undergraduates participating in the second pretest received one sheet of lyrics for the four songs. They were asked to read the lyrics while the four songs were playing. Then the nine commercials were aired one by one in silent mode. While each commercial was playing, the participants wrote down the advertised product and evaluated its relevance to the lyrics of each song on a four-item, 7-point scale (strongly disagree/strongly agree). The items were “It makes sense for the lyrics to be featured with this product,” “I think that pairing the lyrics with this product is appropriate,” “I think that the lyrics are relevant for this product,” and “Together, the lyrics and this product represent a very good fit” (Garretson and Niedrich 2004).

A Korean commercial for cookies was selected as the experimental stimulus on the basis of the second pretest results. The relevance scores of the four songs for the commercial ranged from 3.17 to 3.28 and were not significantly different (p > .1). The original soundtrack of the cookie com-mercial was replaced with the songs selected from the first pretest to create four versions of the ad.

Procedure and Measures

The experiment was run in several sessions. Only one version of the commercial was played in each session. In a classroom-style setting, the participants were instructed to evaluate a commer-cial for a new brand of cookie. After viewing the ad, the participants completed a questionnaire containing measures, manipulation checks, and demographics.

Based on Wright’s (1980) thought-listing procedure, cognitive responses to the advertising were measured by asking participants to spend 1 to 3 minutes listing all of their thoughts that came to mind as they viewed the ad and to evaluate their listed thoughts as positively, negatively, or neutrally valenced. Two independent judges then assigned each thought to one of the following categories: product-related, ad execution-related, nostalgia-related, or miscellaneous (Muehling and Sprott 2004). Interjudge reliability (Perreault and Leigh 1989) for the four categories was .88, with disa-greements resolved by discussion. The valenced index of nostalgic thoughts was calculated by sub-tracting the number of negative nostalgic thoughts from the number of positive nostalgic thoughts.

Ad-induced positive emotions were measured using four items and a 7-point scale (not at all/very); the items included happy, joyful, pleased, and cheerful (α = .84). Mixed emotions were assessed by a two-item, 7-point scale (strongly disagree/strongly agree) consisting of “This ad makes me feel bittersweet” and “This ad was a little pleasant and a little unpleasant” (α = .86).

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Ein

dhov

en T

echn

ical

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

5:51

22

Nov

embe

r 20

14

38 H.-Y. CHOU AND N.-H. LIEN

Ad attitudes were measured using four items and a 7-point scale; the items were bad/good, unfavorable/favorable, negative/positive, and unpleasant/pleasant (α = .94; Pascal et al. 2002). Product attitudes were also assessed in this way, with the items as bad/good, dislike very much/like very much, unfavorable/favorable, and worthless/valuable (α = .92; Pascal et al. 2002). The likelihood of purchasing the advertised product on the next purchase occasion was assessed using three items and the same 7-point scale; the items were unlikely/likely, improbable/probable, and impossible/possible (α = .96; Pascal et al. 2002).

The manipulation checks of the nostalgia-inducing ability of the song period (α = .88) and the song familiarity (α = .97) used the same measurement items as described in the first pretest. Song likeability was also measured to control for possible confounding effects using one item and a 7-point scale; the item was “I dislike it a lot/I like it a lot” (Holbrook and Schindler 1989).

This study controlled for participants’ nostalgia proneness levels (i.e., their attitudes toward the past) to eliminate possible moderating effects, as people with different nostalgia proneness levels have different preferences/responses toward nostalgia (Schindler and Holbrook 2003). Participants were asked to indicate their degree of agreement (strongly disagree/strongly agree) using a 7-point scale for eight items (α = .68; Holbrook 1993), such as “Things used to be better in the good old days,” “Products are getting shoddier and shoddier,” and “We are experiencing a decline in the quality of life.”

Results

Manipulation Checks and Covariates

A series of analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedures suggested that participants who viewed the commercial with an old song rated the ad song as more nostalgic (M = 4.36) than did those who viewed the commercial with a new song (M = 3.06, p < .01). Participants exposed to the familiar song rated the ad song as more familiar (M = 4.60) than did those exposed to the unfamil-iar song (M = 2.77, p < .01). Old songs, however, were evaluated as marginally more likeable than new songs (M = 4.27 vs. 3.73, p = .076 < .1), so this study treated song likeability as a covariate in the subsequent analyses.

Subjects’ nostalgia proneness levels ranged from 2.50 to 6.38, with a mean value of 4.30, a standard deviation of .714, a skewness of .384, and a kurtosis of .510. Because no reliable effects of nostalgia proneness were observed for any measures (all p > .1) and because the pattern of results was the same when the authors conducted analyses with and without the consideration of this factor, it was dropped from further analyses for the sake of simplicity.

Cognitive Responses

Table 1 (the statistics for the control variable were omitted from the table) reveals that old songs generated more nostalgic thoughts (M = .59 vs .06, p < .01) and more positively valenced thoughts about nostalgia (M = .32 vs .08, p < .1), supporting H1a and H1b. The song period did not influence the number of product-related thoughts (p > .1) but instead reduced the ad-related thoughts (M = 1.54 for old songs, M = 2.54 for new songs, p < .05), so H1c was not supported.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Ein

dhov

en T

echn

ical

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

5:51

22

Nov

embe

r 20

14

ADVERTISING EFFECTS OF NOSTALGIA WITH SONGS 39

Affective Responses

Old songs evoked more positive emotions (M = 5.21) than new songs (M = 4.60, p < .01) but had no effect on mixed emotions (p > .1). Hence, H2a was supported, but H2b was not.

Attitudes and Purchase Intention

Consistent with H3, old songs yielded more favorable ad attitudes (M = 4.48), better product attitudes (M = 3.78), and greater purchase intention (M = 3.97) than did new songs (M = 3.77, 3.42, and 3.13, for Aad, Ap, and PI, respectively; p < .01, < .1, and < .01, respectively). Individuals who listened to more familiar songs held more favorable product attitudes (M = 3.79 vs. 3.41, p < .05) and higher purchase intentions (M = 3.91 vs. 3.20, p < .05), but their ad attitudes were not influenced by song familiarity (p > .1).

There were no significant interactive effects between song period and familiarity (all p > .1). Because a related hypothesis was posited in H4 and an influential direction of the vari-able was assumed, the use of lower level analysis (i.e., simple main effect; Stockburger 1997) to test the interaction was accepted (Winer et al. 1991). The simple main effect revealed that under the more familiar song condition, old songs generated more favorable ad attitudes (M = 4.77, p < .01) and greater purchase intentions (M = 4.64, p < .01) than did new songs (M = 3.76 and 3.33, respectively). Although the difference between product attitudes did not achieve statistical significance (p > .1), the direction of the difference was as expected, with M = 3.99 for old songs and M = 3.71 for new songs. In contrast, under the less-familiar song condition, the advertising effects of the song period diminished (all p > .1). These results largely supported H4.

TABLE 1Means and ANCOVA Results in Experiment 1

More familiar Less familiar ANCOVA F-values

Old song New song Old song New song Song period Song

familiarityPeriod ×

familiarity

Number of product thoughts 1.302 1.698 1.585 1.526 .373 (.543)b .000 (.993) .268 (.606)Number of ad thoughts 1.682 3.168 1.469 1.863 6.616 (.012)** 3.746 (.056)* 1.534 (.219)Number of N thoughtsa .554 .000 .597 .160 11.875 (.001)*** .715 (.400) .004 (.948)Valenced N thoughts .200 .000 .409 .193 2.920 (.091)* 2.939 (.090)* .117 (.733)Positive emotions 5.573 4.627 4.774 4.643 7.992 (.006)*** 1.249 (.267) 2.081 (.153)Mixed emotions 2.269 2.556 3.034 2.956 .238 (.627) 2.881 (.093)* .107 (.733)Ad attitudes 4.767 3.758 4.137 3.853 9.830 (.002)*** .036 (.851) 1.547 (.217)Product attitudes 3.994 3.706 3.478 3.213 3.839 (.053)* 4.341 (.040)** .346 (.558)Purchase intention 4.638 3.329 3.229 3.007 8.338 (.005)*** 6.008 (.016)** 2.207 (.141)

aN: Nostalgia.bF value (significant).*p < .1. **p < .05. ***p < .01.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Ein

dhov

en T

echn

ical

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

5:51

22

Nov

embe

r 20

14

40 H.-Y. CHOU AND N.-H. LIEN

EXPERIMENT 2

Method

Subjects and Design

Experiment 2 aimed to replicate the findings of the first experiment with a different product/CF and to test the moderating role of lyrics’ relevance (H5). A 2 (song period: old vs. new) × 2 (the lyrics’ relevance to the product: more vs. less relevant) design was used. Ninety-three under-graduates (54.8% male, 45.2% female) ranging in age from 17 to 23 years (M = 19.58) partici-pated in the study for extra credit.

Stimuli, Procedures, and Measures

The ad stimuli were four versions of a TV commercial for a cookie bar with a fictitious brand name, Fran. The commercials were adapted from a foreign cookie bar ad with the message, “Tease your lips.” The ad and songs were selected in a similar fashion as in Experiment 1. The four songs ultimately selected to replace the original soundtrack of the cookie bar commercial were “Love Me Longer” (old song with more relevant lyrics, M = 3.70, 3.95), “OREA” (old song with less relevant lyrics; M = 4.20, 1.55), “Love You Without a Reason” (new song with more relevant lyrics; M = 2.90, 4.89), and “No See” (new song with less relevant lyrics; M = 3.05, 1.99).

The experimental procedure and the methods of coding thoughts and measuring variables were identical to those in Experiment 1. Interjudge reliability for thought categorization (Perreault and Leigh 1989) was .87. Manipulation checks included each song’s nostalgia-evoking ability and the lyrics’ relevance. Song familiarity and likeability were also measured to ensure that there were no significant differences between the four songs. Measurement items were the same as those used in Experiment 1. The Cronbach’s alpha reliabilities for all variable scales were larger than .77. Experiment 2 controlled for the melody’s fit (i.e., a consumer’s subjective evaluation of the degree of matching between the melody and the ad; MacInnis and Park 1991), as this factor may influence the communicative effects of the ad (Kellaris et al. 1993). Participants were asked to evaluate the following items using a 7-point scale: “I think this song’s melody and this ad … (do not fit together/fit together, do not go together/go together, and do not belong with/belong with)” (α = .97; Till and Busler 2000).

Results

Manipulation Checks and Covariates

Old songs evoked more nostalgic feelings among the participants (M = 4.24) than did new songs (M = 2.92, p < .01). The lyrics in the more relevant condition were rated as more relevant to the product (M = 3.85) than those in the less relevant condition (M = 2.38, p < .01). The song period and the relevance of lyrics did not influence the song likeability (all p > .1). However,

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Ein

dhov

en T

echn

ical

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

5:51

22

Nov

embe

r 20

14

ADVERTISING EFFECTS OF NOSTALGIA WITH SONGS 41

the melody fit of old songs was marginally different from that of new songs (M = 2.85 vs. 2.20, p < .1). Additionally, participants were marginally more familiar with songs exhibiting more relevant lyrics (M = 4.50) than with songs possessing less relevant lyrics (M = 3.68, p < .1). Therefore, the melody fit and song familiarity were treated as covariates in the subsequent analyses.

Cognitive and Affective Responses

A series of analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) procedures (shown in Table 2, in which the statistics for the control variables were omitted) revealed that old songs elicited a greater number of nostalgia-related thoughts (M = .56 vs .10, p < .01), a more positively valenced set of nostalgic thoughts (M = .54 vs .03, p < .01), and fewer ad-related thoughts (M = 3.36 vs. 4.12, p < .05) than did new songs, supporting H1a and H1b. The number of product-related thoughts, however, did not differ between the old and new song conditions (p > .1), so H1c was not supported.

Nostalgia’s effects on affective responses showed quite a different pattern. No main effect of song period was found (all p > .1); instead, an interaction between song period and lyrics’ rel-evance in their effect on positive emotions (p < .05) and mixed emotions (p < .01) emerged. When the lyrics were perceived as more relevant to the product, the old songs evoked more positive emotions (M = 4.43, p < .05) and a higher degree of mixed emotions (M = 4.12, p < .1) than did the new songs (M = 3.76 and 3.04, respectively). Under the less relevant lyrics condition, old songs did not influence positive emotions or mixed emotions (all p > .1). Thus, H2a and H2b were sup-ported under the more relevant lyrics condition.

TABLE 2Means and ANCOVA Results in Experiment 2

More relevant Less relevant ANCOVA F-values

Old song New song Old song New song Song period Lyrics relevance Period × relevance

Number of product thoughts

1.416 .692 .173 .287 .934 (.336)b 16.935 (.000)*** 2.541 (.115)

Number of ad thoughts 3.133 3.653 3.622 4.556 4.133 (.045)** 2.100 (.151) .242 (.624)Number of N thoughtsa .622 .103 .460 .115 17.391 (.000)*** .421 (.518) .941 (.335)Valenced N thoughts .587 .055 .465 .015 21.956 (.000)*** .211 (.647) .260 (.611)Positive emotions 4.428 3.763 3.390 3.572 1.808 (.182) 5.929 (.017)** 5.038 (.027)**

Mixed emotions 4.117 3.044 3.159 3.826 .914 (.342) .315 (.576) 8.156 (.005)***

Ad attitudes 5.355 4.485 3.797 4.270 .457 (.501) 8.170 (.005)*** 6.292 (.014)**

Product attitudes 5.092 4.602 3.899 4.182 .333 (.565) 8.972 (.004)*** 4.500 (.037)**

Purchase intention 5.125 4.120 3.428 3.754 2.248 (.137) 5.037 (.027)** 5.653 (.020)**

aN: Nostalgia.bF value (significant).*p < .1. **p < .05. ***p < .01.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Ein

dhov

en T

echn

ical

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

5:51

22

Nov

embe

r 20

14

42 H.-Y. CHOU AND N.-H. LIEN

Attitudes and Purchase Intention

The song period did not have any significant effects on attitude measures (all p > .1), so H3 was not supported. The manipulation of the lyrics’ relevance had a significant impact on the advertising effectiveness. When subjects listened to the songs with more relevant lyrics, com-pared to less relevant lyrics, they generated more favorable attitudes toward the ad (M = 4.86 vs. 4.11, p < .01) and the product (M = 4.74 vs. 4.16, p < .01), as well as a higher likelihood to buy the advertised product (M = 4.48 vs. 3.75, p < .05)

More importantly, there was an interactive relationship between the song period and the lyrics’ relevance for ad attitudes (p < .05), product attitudes (p < .05), and purchase intention (p < .05). Under the more relevant lyrics condition, old songs led to more favorable attitudes toward the ad (M = 5.36, p < .05) and greater purchase intention (M = 5.13, p < .05) than did new songs (M = 4.49 and 4.12, respectively). In addition, although the difference between product attitudes did not achieve statistical significance (p > .1), the direction of the difference was as expected, with M = 5.09 for old songs and M = 4.60 for new songs. In contrast, when the lyrics were less relevant, the advertising effects of the song period diminished (all p > .1). These results largely support H5.

Follow-Up Comparisons Between Experiment 1 and Experiment 2

Experiment 1 found that the song period had significant effects on positive emotions, ad atti-tudes, product attitudes, and purchase intention. However, in Experiment 2, only when songs had more relevant lyrics did the song period have such a significant impact. The follow-up analysis found that the scores for the lyrics’ relevance in Experiment 1 were significantly higher than those of the less relevant lyrics in Experiment 2 (M = 3.24 vs. 2.27, p < .05). That is, the relevance in Experiment 1 was relatively high, and this explains why the old songs had significant effects (as H5 predicted). In summary, the results of both experiments were consistent, proving that the lyrics’ relevance was an important moderator affecting the effects of song period.

DISCUSSION

Conclusions

Several conclusions can be drawn from the results of the two experiments. First, both experiments demonstrate that the use of old songs in TV advertising for products without an inherent recollection component and without the inclusion of a verbal description or a nostalgic ad theme can elicit nostalgic feelings and thoughts among viewers. Compared to new songs, old songs generate more nostalgia-related thoughts, and a higher proportion of these thoughts are positive. Similar to the results of Muehling and Sprott (2004), here the evocation of nostalgic thoughts does not suppress the production of product-related thoughts. Therefore, nostalgia has no adverse effects on product message processing. However, this article finds that nostalgic thoughts reduce ad-related thoughts. Based on the limitations of cognitive resources (Fiedler and Garcia 1987), although the increase in nostalgic thoughts will

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Ein

dhov

en T

echn

ical

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

5:51

22

Nov

embe

r 20

14

ADVERTISING EFFECTS OF NOSTALGIA WITH SONGS 43

decrease the generation of other thoughts, old songs mainly compress the number of ad-related rather than product-related thoughts because the relationship between the songs and the ele-ments of ad execution is closer.

Second, song familiarity has a positive impact on consumer product attitudes and purchase intention, which can be explained by Zajonc’s (1968) mere exposure effect. That is, song famili-arity (i.e., consumers having repeated exposure to a song) could generate positive affective responses, which could transfer to the advertised product and therefore lead to better ad effects. More importantly, this article finds that song familiarity interacts with song period in the latter’s influence on advertising effects, especially for ad attitudes and purchase intention. Old songs positively affect ad attitudes and purchase intention when the songs are more familiar. In contrast, when the songs are less familiar, the advertising effects of song period are diminished.

Third, the lyrics’ relevance positively affects the ad attitudes, product attitudes, and purchase intention. Frequently proposed in promotion-related research, if there is more product-related information contained in ad executional elements, this kind of good match could create more favorable object appraisal (Sengupta et al., 1997; Lee and Mason, 1999). Therefore, when lyrics contain more product information, the audience would have more favorable attitudinal responses, as was the case in the findings of the current article. Besides, the relevance of lyrics plays an important role in old songs for producing the effects of nostalgia on positive emotions and adver-tising effectiveness. Old songs have a significantly positive impact on positive emotions, ad atti-tudes, and purchase intention only when the song features more relevant lyrics. If the lyrics are less relevant, the effects of the song period dissipate.

Fourth, the functional pattern of old songs on affecting responses (i.e., positive emotions) compared with that on cognitive responses (i.e., thoughts) is more similar to that on ad effects (i.e., attitudinal indices and purchase intention). This finding implies that affective responses may be more influential than cognitive responses in the attitudinal formation process in nostalgia advertising. Moreover, this finding also echoes Lazarus’s (1991) cognitive appraisal theory of emotions, which posits that people decide what to feel after interpreting what has just happened. The sequence is thus as follows: An event provokes thinking, which then influences simultane-ous arousal and emotion. Therefore, nostalgia-related thoughts, which are induced by the old song and thus a primary cognitive appraisal, will lead to emotional/affective responses. Thus, cognitive precedes affective, so the timings of the generation of affective responses and attitudes are closer, which could explain why the pattern of positive emotions is more similar to that of advertising effects.

Theoretical Implications

This research makes an important contribution to theory development. In prior nostalgia- advertising studies (e.g., Pascal et al. 2002; Muehling and Sprott 2004), the research scope was restricted to printed ads, verbal nostalgic cues, and products with an inherent nostalgic compo-nent. Additionally, although some scholars explored the themes and subjects related to nostalgia using qualitative approaches (e.g., Holak and Havlena 1992; Holbrook and Schindler 2003) and suggested that music could trigger nostalgic feelings, they did not empirically prove its role and effects in advertising contexts. This article is the first to select products without recollection com-ponents (i.e., foods), focus on TV advertisements, and use popular songs (auditory cues) as the

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Ein

dhov

en T

echn

ical

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

5:51

22

Nov

embe

r 20

14

44 H.-Y. CHOU AND N.-H. LIEN

catalyst for nostalgia. Having conducted two experiments with different experimental products, songs, and commercials, this article confirms that song period alone initiates nostalgic feelings among consumers and elicits more positive nostalgic thoughts, expanding the functional scopes of nostalgia advertising.

Previous studies have rarely discussed the possible moderators of nostalgia-advertising effects. Scholars have simply posited that the possible targets of nostalgia and the general levels of nostalgic consumption experienced by different consumers may be determined by consumer-related factors such as age, gender (Holbrook 1993), and nostalgia proneness (Reisenwitz et al. 2004). In contrast, this article explores the moderating roles played by song familiarity and lyr-ics’ relevance. Song familiarity moderates the advertising effects of song period, echoing and empirically proving previous scholars’ suggestions that consumers need to have some level of familiarity towards nostalgia objects (Holbrook and Schindler 1989; Baker and Kennedy 1994). Additionally, the results reveal that more relevant lyrics are an important factor influenc-ing whether a song period produces the expected effects on positive emotions and advertising responses. Oakes (2007) posited that the degree of semantic congruity between music/advertis-ing has a direct impact on advertising effects. This article goes further to demonstrate that such a congruity can play the role of moderator. These findings are important for future nostalgic schol-ars who desire to continue exploring auditory nostalgic cues and provide preliminary evidence that nostalgia-advertising effects may only occur in certain situations. Scholars should pay more attention to locating possible moderators.

Additionally, this article examines both cognitive and affective responses and finds that old songs could affect the valence of nostalgia-related thoughts and the positive emotions generated by consumers. Belk (1990) suggested that nostalgia involves an emotional process. Muehling and Sprott (2004) found that nostalgia also involves a cognitive process. Oakes (2007) reviewed empirical advertising music studies and suggested that music could affect consumer cognitive and affective responses. Because the nostalgia trigger in this article is a popular song, the authors believe that old songs would have both cognitive and affective effects and therefore examine those responses at the same time, providing a more complete picture of consumers’ various reac-tions to nostalgia-themed advertisements.

This research also has implications for research on advertising music and persuasion in general product advertising. With the wide use of music in marketing practices, a rich body of literature has examining the effects of advertising music. The research topics have ranged from musical structural elements such as volume, tempo, and timbre to nonstructural elements such as music fit, likability, and accompanying forms (e.g., Alpert et al., 2005; Oakes, 2007; Lavack et al., 2008). Relatively few studies have focused their discussion on popular music (Oakes, 2007), especially regarding its distinctive characteristic (e.g., song period). Therefore, this article also contributes to fill the research gap and provides a better understanding of the effects of song period.

Sujan et al. (1993) suggest that strong product arguments and autobiographical prompts can both affect judgments regarding the advertised product/brand. If the ad cannot provide strong arguments in favor of the product, it is appropriate to introduce autobiographical prompts because autobiographical retrieval can focus attention away from weak arguments. In fact, more and more advertising uses autobiographical prompts (Advertising Age 1990); however, there has still been less systematic examination of which ad properties/executional elements can generate autobiographical memories and what conditions are necessary for

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Ein

dhov

en T

echn

ical

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

5:51

22

Nov

embe

r 20

14

ADVERTISING EFFECTS OF NOSTALGIA WITH SONGS 45

successfully transferring autobiographical affect to the ad and product. This article finds that old songs in ads could be an effective trigger for autobiographical memories, thus gen-erating more nostalgic thoughts. Sujan et al. (1993) posit that the link between brand/prod-uct and autobiographical memory can be heightened by suggesting how the product helps one to relive a special past experience or by directly reminding consumers of past pleasant experiences with the product. However, those strategies may place some limitations on the design of ad themes and the selection of advertised products because not all products can help consumers relive previous experiences and have previously existing relationships with consumers. In contrast, the current article transfers the focus from the products themselves to triggers of autobiographical memories and finds that the links between the product and autobiographical memory/affect can be enhanced by integrating product information with the trigger (i.e., increasing lyrics’ relevance to the product). This constitutes new insight into how to enhance the link.

Managerial Implications

For practitioners, this study provides several useful suggestions. First, if companies want to add a little nostalgic flavor to an ad, they can try to feature an old song in the ad. The ad theme, product, story, and/or performers do not necessarily need to be seriously related to nostalgia or recollec-tion, and the song does not need to be very old. Songs that were popular 10 years ago may be “old” enough to evoke nostalgic feelings and thoughts.

Second, if companies want to generate positive emotions among their customers along with more favorable ad attitudes, product attitudes, and purchase intention, they can consider featuring an old song in an ad. However, when selecting old songs, practitioners may worry that the audi-ence will be unfamiliar with the song, which would weaken the effects of nostalgia. This con-cern is accurate, as is demonstrated in this article. To generate better effects, companies should select old songs with some degree of familiarity. Additionally, the results herein suggest that the lyrics of the old songs should have at least some degree of relevance to the advertised product. Otherwise, old songs may not evoke better affective and attitudinal responses among consumers than new songs. Huang and Hsu (2002) conducted a content analysis of domestic ads in Taiwan and found that music with lyrics is embedded in 11% of commercials, but, surprisingly, 86% of those lyrics are irrelevant to the advertised product. Thus, it emerges that in choosing advertising songs, many companies have not understood the importance of lyrics’ relevance and have not achieved a close match between the lyrics and the product. This article suggests that companies, especially those that want to use old songs as nostalgia-evoking triggers, should give more weight to lyrics’ relevance.

Popular songs recorded by singers are usually for albums, movies, or dramas (Shuker 1994). Unlike jingles, whose lyrics are written for a particular ad, popular songs’ lyrics are usually writ-ten for love themes, rather than for an ad or product (Shaw and Su 2001). Therefore, it is a little difficult for popular songs to have highly relevant lyrics with the advertised product. Based on the findings of the current article, when companies want to select an old song with enough of a degree of relevant lyrics to the advertised product, the lyrics only need to mention the product category or related adjectives of the product attributes, both of which can constitute the moderate degree of lyrics relevancy and make old songs effective.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Ein

dhov

en T

echn

ical

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

5:51

22

Nov

embe

r 20

14

46 H.-Y. CHOU AND N.-H. LIEN

Third, although Reisenwitz et al. (2004) suggest that a positive relationship exists between age and propensity toward nostalgia and Havlena and Holak (1991) indicate that the current boom in nostalgia-based products and ads is targeted largely toward the baby boomers and the mature consumer group, this article finds that young undergraduates can also feel nostalgic. Nostalgia advertising is effective on them. Therefore, when targeting youth markets, given that common ad-appeal strategies such as sex, humor, warmth, and celebrity have been used massively in practice and may lack freshness, companies could try to use nostalgia advertising to help their commercials break through the advertising clutter on television.

Finally, rather than being limited to advertising contexts, popular songs can be heard every-where, such as in retail stores and networks. As a result, the findings of the current article may be also applicable and provide reference value for marketers who want to evoke nostalgic feelings among consumers in other domains.

Limitations and Future Research

This study has certain limitations. First, only undergraduates are sampled, and their responses to nostalgia may be different from those of different-generation consumers. Additional research should replicate the experiments using different demographic samples to increase external validity.

Second, Unger et al. (1991) posit that nostalgic elements occur more frequently in ads for food, beverage, medicines, and automotive products; however, for household cleaning products, cosmetics, and children’s products, companies rarely use nostalgic-appeal ads. This article only explores nostalgia-advertising effects for foods with low product involvement. Future studies can explore the generalizability of the findings by retesting the effects of experimental variables for different products, especially high-involvement products.

Third, this article only considers the moderating effects of song familiarity and lyrics’ relevance. However, in addition to song factors, other elements of ad execution may also affect the nostalgic influence of old songs. For example, highly attractive spokespersons could use up the audience’s cognitive resources and distract them from listening to the ad songs, thus weak-ening the effects of song period. Therefore, further research about other possible moderators in advertising is warranted.

Fourth, this article finds that old songs do not have a direct impact on consumers’ mixed emotions. Although the hypothesis deduces that nostalgia can evoke a sense of loss in addition to positive emotions (Holak and Havlena 1998), producing some degree of bittersweet emotions, there are two possible reasons to explain why such an effect does not exist. (1) Experimental procedure: Because the ad length was short, at only 30 seconds, and after viewing the ad, subjects needed to fill out the questionnaire immediately, in such a short time maybe it was impossible for them to generate enough sense of lost for passed youth. (2) Measurement items: The simple scales used in this article may not completely capture the meaning of mixed emotions. Following Bradley and Lang (2000) and Larson et al. (2001), mixed emotions should be measured by ask-ing, “As you are looking at the ad, describe any feelings or emotions you are experiencing,” or by using a list of “feeling words” (e.g., happy, sad, excited, and depressed) to ask subjects to evaluate the questions, such as “Do you feel happy? Yes or No” and “How happy are you (1–5).” Future research could overcome the limitations already mentioned to retest the effects of old songs on mixed emotions.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Ein

dhov

en T

echn

ical

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

5:51

22

Nov

embe

r 20

14

ADVERTISING EFFECTS OF NOSTALGIA WITH SONGS 47

Fifth, if consumers are not familiar with an old song, it is still possible for them to be able to tell whether a song is from an older period based on the style of the music or the singing. Therefore, they could spontaneously attach contemporary experiences/memories to that song, so the song could still generate nostalgic effects. Thus, a song style may also evoke nostalgia, which may confound the experimental results of the current article. Future research could control for song style to exclude its impact. Moreover, future research could also explore the effect of retro-style/revival-style new songs to see whether they can also evoke nostalgic feelings.

Finally, this article only focuses on personal nostalgia, which is more common in current mar-keting practices. Nevertheless, historical nostalgia could be also utilized in advertising appeals (Stern 1992a). Future research might select songs released before participants’ birth to explore the advertising effects of historical nostalgia and test whether the age of the song in the ad is proportional to the nostalgic feelings and ad effectiveness it evokes.

REFERENCES

Aaker, David A., Douglas M. Stayman, and Michael R. Hagerty. 1986. “Warmth in Advertising: Measurement, Impact, and Sequence Effects.” Journal of Consumer Research 12 (March): 365–81.

Advertising Age. 1990, January 7. “Commercials: Bringing It on Home.” 62:34–35.Allan, David. 2006. “Effects of Popular Music in Advertising on Attention and Memory.” Journal of Advertising Research

46 (December): 434–44.Allan, David. 2007. “Sound Advertising: A Review of the Experimental Evidence on the Effects of Music in Commercials

on Attention, Memory, Attitudes, and Purchase Intention.” Journal of Media Psychology 12 (3): 1–35.Allan, David. 2008. “A Content Analysis of Music Placement in Prime-Time Television Advertising.” Journal of

Advertising Research 48 (September): 404–17.Alpert, Mark I., Judy I. Alpert, and Elliot N. Maltz. 2005. “Purchase Occasion Influence on the Role of Music in

Advertising.” Journal of Business Research 58 (March): 369–76.Baker, Stacey M. and Patricia F. Kennedy. 1994. “Death by Nostalgia: A Diagnosis of Context-Specific Cases.” Advances

in Consumer Research 21:169–74.Batra, Rajeev, and Michael L. Ray. 1986. “Affective Responses Mediating Acceptance of Advertising.” Journal of

Consumer Research 13 (September): 234–49.Baumgartner, Hans. 1992. “Remembrance of Things Past: Music, Autobiographical Memory, and Emotion.” Advances

in Consumer Research 19:613–20.Baumgartner, Hans, Mita Sujan, and James R. Bettman. 1992. “Autobiographical Memories, Affect, and Consumer

Information Processing.” Journal of Consumer Psychology 1 (January): 53–82.Belk, Russell W. 1990. “The Role of Possessions in Constructing and Maintaining a Sense of Past.” Advances in

Consumer Research 17:669–76.Belk, Russell W. 1991. “Possessions and the Sense of Past.” In Highways and Buyways: Naturalistic Research from the

Consumer Behavior Odyssey, edited by Russell W. Belk, 114–30. Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research.Bradley, Margaret M., and Peter J. Lang. 2000. “Measuring Emotion: Behavior, Feeling, and Physiology.” In Cognitive

Neuroscience of Emotion, edited by Richard D. Lane and Lynn Nadel, 242–76. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Braun-LaTour, Kathryn. 2007. “Beyond Nostalgia: Using Childhood Memories as a Means to Emotionally Connect with

Consumers.” International Journal of Advertising 26 (3): 402–5.Brewer, Williams F. 1986. “What Is Autobiographical Memory?” In Autobiographical Memory, edited by David C.

Rubin, 25–49. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.Campbell, Margaret C., and Kevin L. Keller. 2003. “Brand Familiarity and Advertising Repetition Effects.” Journal of

Consumer Research 30 (September): 292–304.Edell, Julie A. and Marian C. Burke. 1987. “The Power of Feelings in Understanding Advertising Effects.” Journal of

Consumer Research 14 (December): 421–33.Escalas, Jennifer E. 2004. “Imagine Yourself in the Product.” Journal of Advertising 33 (Summer): 25–36.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Ein

dhov

en T

echn

ical

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

5:51

22

Nov

embe

r 20

14

48 H.-Y. CHOU AND N.-H. LIEN

Escalas, Jennifer E. 2007. “Self-Referencing and Persuasion: Narrative Transportation Versus Analytical Elaboration.” Journal of Consumer Research 33 (March): 421–29.

Fiedler, Fred E. and Joe E. Garcia. 1987. New Approaches to Leadership: Cognitive Resources and Organizational Performance. New York, NY: Wiley.

Garretson, Judith A. and Ronald W. Niedrich. 2004. “Spokes–Characters: Creating Character Trust and Positive Brand Attitudes.” Journal of Advertising 33 (Summer): 25–36.

Gorn, Gerald J. 1982. “The Effects of Music in Advertising on Choice Behavior: A Classical Conditioning Approach.” Journal of Marketing 46 (Winter): 94–101.

Hahn, Minhi, and Insuk Hwang. 1999. “Effects of Tempo and Familiarity of Background Music on Message Processing in TV Advertising: A Resource-Matching Perspective.” Psychology & Marketing 16 (December): 659–75.

Havlena, William J., and Susan L. Holak. 1991. “The Good Old Days: Observations on Nostalgia and Its Role in Consumer Behavior.” Advances in Consumer Research 18:323–29.

Havlena, William J., and Susan L. Holak. 1996. “Exploring Nostalgia Imagery through the Use of Consumer Collages.” Advances in Consumer Research 23:35–42.

Holak, Susan L., and William J. Havlena. 1992. “Nostalgia: An Exploratory Study of Themes and Emotions in the Nostalgic Experience.” Advances in Consumer Research 19:380–87.

Holak, Susan L., and William J. Havlena. 1998. “Feelings, Fantasies, and Memories: An Examination of the Emotional Components of Nostalgia.” Journal of Business Research 42 (July): 217–26.

Holbrook, Morris B. 1993. “Nostalgia and Consumption Preferences: Some Emerging Patterns of Consumer Tastes.” Journal of Consumer Research 20 (September): 245–56.

Holbrook, Morris B., and Robert M. Schindler. 1989. “Some Exploratory Findings on the Development of Musical Tastes.” Journal of Consumer Research 16 (June): 119–24.

Holbrook, Morris B., and Robert M. Schindler. 1991. “Echoes of the Dear Departed Past: Some Work in Progress on Nostalgia.” Advances in Consumer Research 18:330–33.

Holbrook, Morris B., and Robert M. Schindler. 2003. “Nostalgic Bonding: Exploring the Role of Nostalgia in the Consumption Experience.” Journal of Consumer Behavior 3 (December): 107–27.

Huang, Jen-Hung, and Yi Hsu. 2002. “Advertising Constitutive Factors, Cultural Connotation, and Children Development in Taiwan Children Programs.” Advertising Research 18:1–27.

Hung, Kineta. 2000. “Narrative Music in Congruent and Incongruent TV Advertising.” Journal of Advertising 29 (Spring): 25–34.

Kellaris, James J., and Anthony D. Cox. 1989. “The Effects of Background Music in Advertising: A Reassessment.” Journal of Consumer Research 16 (June): 113–18.

Kellaris, James J. and Anthony D. Cox, and Dena Cox. 1993. “The Effect of Background Music on Ad Processing: A Contingency Explanation.” Journal of Marketing 57 (October): 114–25.

Larson, Jeff T., A. Peter McGraw, and John T. Cacioppo. 2001. “Can People Feel Happy and Sad at the Same Time?” Journal of Personality & Social Psychology 81 (October): 684–96.

Lavack, Anne M., Mrugank V. Thakor, and Ingrid Bottausci. 2008. “Music-Brand Congruency in High- and Low-Cognition Radio Advertising.” International Journal of Advertising 27 (4): 549–68.

Lazarus, Richard S. 1991. Emotion and Adaptation. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Lee, Yih H., and Charlotte Mason. 1999. “Response to Information Incongruency in Advertising: The Role of Expectancy,

Relevancy, and Humor.” Journal of Consumer Research 26 (September): 156–69.Low, George S., and Charles W. Lamb, Jr. 2000. “The Measurement and Dimensionality of Brand Association.” Journal

of Product and Brand Management 9 (6): 350–68.MacInnis, Deborah J., and C. Whan Park. 1991. “The Differential Role of Characteristics of Music on High- and Low-

Involvement Consumers’ Processing of Ads.” Journal of Consumer Research 18 (September): 161–73.Mitchell, Andrew A. 1986. “The Effect of Verbal and Visual Components of Advertisements on Brand Attitudes and

Attitude Toward the Advertisement.” Journal of Consumer Research 13 (June): 12–24.Muehling, Darrel D., and David E. Sprott. 2004. “The Power of Reflection: An Empirical Examination of Nostalgia

Advertising Effects.” Journal of Advertising 33 (Fall): 25–35.Murray, Noel M., and Sandra B. Murray. 1996. “Music and Lyrics in Commercials: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Between

Commercials Run in the Dominican Republic and in the United States.” Journal of Advertising 25 (Summer): 51–63.Oakes, Steve. 2007. “Evaluating Empirical Research into Music in Advertising: A Congruity Perspective.” Journal of

Advertising Research 47 (March): 38–50.Olsen, G. D., and Richard D. Johnson. 2002. “The Impact of Background Lyrics on Recall of Concurrently Presented

Verbal Information in an Advertising Context.” Advances in Consumer Research 29:147–48.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Ein

dhov

en T

echn

ical

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

5:51

22

Nov

embe

r 20

14

ADVERTISING EFFECTS OF NOSTALGIA WITH SONGS 49

Park, C. W., and S. M. Young. 1986. “Consumer Responses to Television Commercials: The Impact of Involvement and Background Music on Brand Attitude Formation.” Journal of Marketing Research 23 (February): 11–24.

Pascal, Vincent J., David E. Sprott, and Darrel D. Muehling. 2002. “The Influence of Evoked Nostalgia on Consumers’ Responses to Advertising: An Exploratory Study.” Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising 24 (Spring): 39–49.

Perreault, William D., and Laurence E. Leigh. 1989. “Reliability of Nominal Data Based on Qualitative Judgments.” Journal of Marketing Research 26 (May): 135–48.

Petty, Richard E., David W. Schumann, Steven A. Richman, and Alan J. Strathman. 1993. “Positive Mood and Persuasion: Different Roles for Affect under High and Low Elaboration Conditions.” Journal of Personality & Social Psychology 64 (January): 5–20.

Reisenwitz, Timothy H., Rajesh Iyer, and Bob Cutler. 2004. “Nostalgia Advertising and the Influence of Nostalgia Proneness.” Marketing Management Journal 14 (Fall): 55–66.

Rindfleisch, Aric, Dan Freeman, and James E. Burroughs. 2000. “Nostalgia, Materialism, and Product Preference: An Initial Inquiry.” Advances in Consumer Research 27:36–41.

Rindfleisch, Aric, and David E. Sprott. 2000. “Moving Forward on Looking Backward: Advancing Theory and Practice in Nostalgia.” Advances in Consumer Research 27:34–35.

Roehm, Michelle L. 2001. “Instrumental vs. Vocal Versions of Popular Music in Advertising.” Journal of Advertising Research 41 (May/June): 49–58.

Schindler, Robert M., and Morris B. Holbrook. 2003. “Nostalgia for Early Experience as a Determinant of Consumer Preferences.” Psychology & Marketing 20 (April): 275–302.

Scott, Linda M. 1990. “Understanding Jingles and Needledrop: A Rhetorical Approach to Music in Advertising.” Journal of Consumer Research 17 (September): 223–36.

Sengupta, Jaideep, Ronald C. Goodstein, and David S. Boninger. 1997. “All Cues Are not Created Equal: Obtaining Attitude Persistence under Low-Involvement Condition.” Journal of Consumer Research 23 (March): 351–61.

Shaw, Pin, and Chen S. Su. 2001. “Disclosure of Mist of Romantic Love in Taiwan’s Popular Music: 1989–1998.” Mass Communication Research 70:167–95.

Shea, Felicia. 2004. “Reaching Youth with Music.” B&T Weekly, October 1, p. 16.Shuker, Roy. 1994. Understanding Popular Music. New York, NY: Routledge.Sierra, Jeremy J., and Shaun McQuitty. 2007. “Attitudes and Emotions as Determinants of Nostalgia Purchases: An

Application of Social Identity Theory.” Journal of Marketing Theory & Practice 15 (Spring): 99–112.Stern, Barbara B. 1992a. “Nostalgia in Advertising Text: Romancing the Past.” Advances in Consumer Research

19:388–89.Stern, Barbara B. 1992b. “Historical and Personal Nostalgia in Advertising Text: The Fin De Siecle Effect.” Journal of

Advertising 21 (December): 11–22.Stockburger, David W. 1997. “Multivariate Statistics: Concepts, Models, and Application.” Accessed August 6, 2010.

http://www.psychstat. missouristate.edu/multibook/mlt00.htm.Sujan, Mita, James R. Bettman, and Hans Baumgartner. 1993. “Influencing Consumer Judgments Using Autobiographical

Memories: A Self-Referencing Perspective.” Journal of Marketing Research 30 (November): 422–36.Till, Brian D., and Michael Busler. 2000. “The Match-Up Hypothesis: Physical Attractiveness, Expertise, and the Role of

Fit on Brand Attitude, Purchase Intent and Brand Beliefs.” Journal of Advertising 29 (Fall): 1–13.Tim, Wildschut, Constantine Sedikides, Clay Routledge, Jamie Arndt, and Filippo Cordaro. 2010. “Nostalgia as a

Repository of Social Connectedness: The Role of Attachment-Related Voidance.” Journal of Personality & Social Psychology 98 (April): 573–86.

Unger, Lynette S., Diane M. McConocha, and John A. Faier. 1991. “The Use of Nostalgia in Television Advertising: A Content Analysis.” Journalism Quarterly 68 (3): 345–53.

Williams, Matt 2009. “Advertising Welcomes a New Age of Nostalgia.” Campaign 7:12.Winer, Benjamin J., Donald R. Brown, and Kenneth M. Michels. 1991. Statistical Principles in Experimental Design, 3rd

ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.Wright, Peter. 1980. “Message-Evoked Thoughts: Persuasion Research Using Thought Verbalizations.” Journal of

Consumer Research 7 (September): 151–75.Yalch, Richard F. 1991. “Memory in a Jingle Jungle: Music as a Mnemonic Device in Communicating Advertising

Slogans.” Journal of Applied Psychology 72 (April): 268–75.Zajonc, Robert B. 1968. “Attitudinal Effects of Mere Exposure.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

9 (June): 1–27.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Ein

dhov

en T

echn

ical

Uni

vers

ity]

at 0

5:51

22

Nov

embe

r 20

14