Controversial use of Religious Symbols in Advertising

In the field of consumer research, religiosity is found to result in significant consumer behavior differences between those of different religious affiliations or levels of religiosity (e.g. Hirschman 1981, 1982, 1983; LaBarbera and Gurhan 1997; Essoo and Dibb 2004). While where there is a number of definitions of religiosity (for measurement issues see McDaniel and Burnett 1990; Clarke and Byrne 1993; Holdcroft 2006; Mohklis 2009), the current study refers to the definition provided by McDaniel and Burnett (1990), who see religiosity as a “belief in God accompanied by a commitment to follow principles believed to be set forth by God” (p. 103). We follow the theoretical approach proposed by Allport and Ross (1967, p. 434) who identified two basic dimensions of religiosity: extrinsic (utilitarian outlook) and intrinsic (internalization of faith). Current research focuses the attention on the religious symbols' effects that are used as cues in marketing communication. Findings from this research field are mixed, and there is no firm agreement in what cases religiosity has a positive versus negative impact. For example, religiosity is found to be related to the evaluation of controversial products advertising such as gender/sex-related, health care and addictive products (Kim et al. 2004; Fam, Waller and Erdogan 2004). Several authors proposed that evangelicals are relatively more positive toward advertising compared to the general public (LaBarbera 1987; McDaniel and Burnett 1991). Whereas Dotson, Hyatt (2000) found that low-involvement and highly dogmatic consumers have a less favorable attitude towards brands and lower purchase intention when exposed to an advertisement with the cross. The study results were supported by Taylor et. al (2010): despite the author's suggestion that the Christian fish symbol usage in advertising increases the purchase intention in highly religious evangelists, the second experiment showed a backlash effect on purchase intentions. At the same point Henley et al. (2009) found that relevant Christian cross and product linkage generates a positive attitude towards the advertisements and irrelevance causes a negative effect.