Look Once, Look Twice: Measuring the Effects of Advertising Polysemy on Branding

Advertising polysemy is defined as a subjective decoding of an advertisement shaped by the individual’s sociocultural milieu (McCracken 1986; Ringberg and Reihlen 2008). Puntoni et al. (2010) defined advertising polysemy as the existence of at least two distinct interpretations for the same advertising message across audiences, or across time and situations. There are two broader types of polysemy–synchronic polysemy and diachronic polysemy, as discussed in the research by Puntoni et al. (2010). The synchronic aspect of advertising polysemy can be explained through an example of the ad that means one thing to one group of consumers and something different to another group (Grier and Brumbaugh 1999; Puntoni et al. 2010). For example, a thumbs-up sign, which signifies affirmation in most Western nations, has offensive meaning in some countries, such as Russia and Poland if the palm of the hand is visible but is acceptable if the back of the hand is shown (Belch and Belch 2009). As against synchronic polysemy, a diachronic dimension of advertising polysemy can also characterize multiplicity of meanings during an advertising reception, especially when exposed to the advertisement on multiple times – first impression of the ad and then subsequent impression about the same ad on repeated viewings (Kirmani 1997; Puntoni et al. 2010).