GERALD J. GORN MARVIN E.

GOLDBERG AMITAVA CHATTOPADHYAY AND DAVID LITVACK

MUSIC AND INFORMATION IN COMMERCIALS: THEIR EFFECTS WITH AN ELDERLY SAMPLE

number of recent empirical investigations (Cole and Gaeth, 1990; Cole and Houston, 1987; Davis and French, 1989; Gaeth and Heath, 1987; Milliman and Erffmeyer, 1990) as well as an insightful literature review (Roedder-John and Cole, 1986) provide evidence of a growing interest in the consumer behavior of the elderly. This interest appears well-warranted, given that the elderly are heavy users of mass media; that they rely on sources such as television and newspapers for information to aid in purchase decisions; and that there are significant differences between young adults and the elderly in their ability to process information (Phillips and Sternthal, 1977). From a practical perspective as well, the growing elderly segment is worth considering. With over 25 million people in the United States, the over-65 group constitutes more than 11 percent of the population and is growing at a more rapid rate than the general population. The elderly segment accounts for over $60 billion in annual consumer spending in the United States (Lumpkin and Hite, 1988). As Zaltman, Perloff, and Valle (1980) note, traditional consumer communication efforts may not be effective for the elderly. In this study we use an experimental paradigm to compare the potential effectiveness of three types of advertising strategies on older viewers: (1) an informa-

tion-oriented appeal that presented explicit product benefits; (2) a music-oriented appeal that presented little in the way of explicit product benefits; and (3) an appeal that stressed both explicit product benefits and music. We investigate their effects on various levels of the communication hierarchy including choice behavior, a dependent variable often ignored in laboratory studies of advertising effects.

Conceptual Background
Informational Appeals. Consumer and psychological models of attitude formation and change have emphasized the importance of information processing in attitude formation and change (e.g., Fishbein, 1967; Greenwald, 1968; Howard and Sheth, 1969; McGuire, 1968). Fishbein and Ajzen (1975), in fact, go as far as to say that all theories of attitudes imply providing a communication containing necessary information to develop or change beliefs regarding the attributes of an object and/or the evaluation of those attributes.

1. GERALD J. GORN is Advisory Council Professor of Consumer Behavior at the University of British Columbia. Vancouver, B C . Canada, 2. MARVIN E. GOLDBERG is Bard Professor of Business Administration at The Pennsylvania State University. 3. AMITAVA CHATTOPADHYAY is associate professor of marketing at McGili University. Montreai, Quebec. Canada, 4. DAVID LITVACK is associate professor of marketing at the University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada,

This research was supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. The help of the following individuals and institutions is gratefully acknowledged: Charles B. Weinberg of the University of British Columbia, The Golden Age Association of Montreal, and the West Island Senior Citizens Group of Pointe Claire, Quebec.

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Others have suggested that not all attitude formation and change occurs in the manner described above. Petty and Cacioppo (1981, 1985), for example, posit a second route to attitude formation that may be based on cues and associations that are not directly relevant to the decision. According to this perspective, attractive visuals, music, etc., in an advertisement, though not directly related to specific attributes of the product, may, nonetheless, influence brand attitude. This latter route to persuasion has been labeled the peripheral route (e.g.. Petty and Cacioppo, 1981, 1985; Petty, Cacioppo, and Schumann, 1983). Consistent with this direction of thought, a body of marketing

Research on attention . . . suggests that the elderly experience difficulty with selective attention.
literature has recently emerged that examines the role of affective reactions to the advertisement on brand attitude. The construct, attitude toward the advertisement, has been posited as a mediator of the impact of an ad on brand attitude (e.g., Lutz, 1985; Mitchell and Olson, 1981; Shimp, 1981). Research focusing on the elderly supports the former perspective, that is, the importance of information in advertising to the elderly. Several studies suggest that informational advertisements may be most effective with the elderly. Mason and Bearden (1978), in a survey of elderly consumers, report that over two-thirds of their respondents indicated significant use of retail advertisements as informa24

tion to aid in retail shopping. In addition, 84 percent of their respondents believed that they attempted to be rational in their decisions and undertook product comparisons prior to purchases. One survey investigating how the elderly perceive television commercials reports that twothirds of those surveyed found television commercials to be a useful source of information (Schreiber and Boyd, 1980)- Recommendations based on a more recent survey by Donnelley Marketing Inc. included the following: "Base the selling message on facts, not emotions. Mature consumers are scientists of purchasing" (Graham, 1988). More generally, a number of surveys suggest that the elderly exhibit a strong preference for informational television programs. Older viewers consistently report news, documentaries, and public affairs broadcasts as their most preferred program types (e.g., Davis, 1971; Wenner, 1976). This may be because one function of television is to enable the elderly to scan their environment for information. As people age, there is a decline in the sources of information available to them due to a reduction in the number of roles they play and the amount of social interaction they have (Rosow, 1967). As a result, compared to younger adults, the elderly rely more heavily on mass media, especially television, for information about their environment (e.g., Korzenny and Neuendorf, 1980; Wenner, 1976). Taken together, these results suggest that the elderly are more likely to be persuaded by commercials containing explicit product information. While the elderly appear to prefer information-oriented commercials and programming, literature in marketing (e.g.. Cole and Houston, 1987) and geron-

tology (e.g., Perlmutter, 1978, 1979) suggests that the elderly also experience difficulty in processing information. This is especially true when information is rapidly paced, as in broadcast advertisements (e.g., Stephens, 1982). Research on attention further suggests that the elderly experience difficulty with selective attention. That is, they are either unable to, or minimally, have difficulty selectively attending to some elements of a stimulus to the exclusion of other elements (Rabbitt, 1965; see Layton, 1975, for an in-depth discussion). Recently, Farakas and Hoyer (1980) have replicated the findings of Rabbitt (1965). Finally, Hoyer, Rebok, and Sved (1979) have shown that irrelevant contextual information disproportionately affects the speed and accuracy with which older adults can solve problems. To the extent the elderly experience information-processing difficulties, any distraction, such as music, would make it especially hard for them to attend to and process relevant information. These difficulties may, or may not, be critical to the commercial's overall effectiveness. The literature discussed above emphasizes the importance of the central route to persuasion, i.e., the importance of information in a commercial directed at the elderly. This does not mean, however, that music cannot also have some positive effect on the elderly's beliefs, attitudes, and behavior through the peripheral route to persuasion. Therefore, while music may inhibit learning, it is more difficult to predict its effect on beliefs, attitudes, and behavior. It is not clear whether the increased level of difficulty the elderly may have in processing information in a commercial with music added will or will not be offset by the positive, independent impact

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that music may have as a peripheral cue.

Table 1 Demographic Profile of Sampie

Demographics Age 60-64 65-69 70-74 75-79 80 + Sex Male Female Work status Working Retired Other Size of household Living alone One other person Two or more other persons Education Elementary school Some high school Completed high school Some college Completed college Post graduate %of respondents 18.7 17.6 25.7 18.1 19.9 42.9 57.1
3.2

Hypotheses
HI: Given the literature reported above suggesting the relevance and salience of informational appeals for the elderly, informational commercials emphasizing explicit product benefits are hypothesized to have a greater influence on the elderly's attitudes and choice behavior than commercials without these explicit product benefits. H2: When music is added to the explicit product benefits presented in an informational commercial, the elderly's recall and recognition of these claims will be less than when the commercials do not contain music. Given the discussion above, no a priori prediction is made regarding the effect on beliefs, attitudes, and behavior of adding music to the explicit product benefits.

veloped for this study. A senior professional editor at a local TV station was hired to ensure that the commercials would be as professional as those that appear on air. One of the coauthors was at the TV station at all times during the editing to ensure that the commercials were prepared as intended.
Informational Version (/). Vi-

84.1 12.7 31.8 56.4 11.8 20.5 31.4 21.2 16.0

6.4 6.5

Research Design
There were three experimental conditions and one control condition in our study. In the experimental conditions, subjects were exposed to one of three professionally prepared commercials in the context of a 20minute segment of OverEasy, a PBS TV program targeted at seniors. For the control condition, subjects were exposed to the same program without any commercials. Subjects. For purposes of external validity we chose to use a group of noninstitutionalized rather than institutionalized elderly. Though this presented increased logistical problems, it was felt that an institutionalized sample might be too prone to information-processing deficits. Since the advertised brand was sold only on the west coast, an

eastern sample was used to ensure that the sample would be unfamiliar with the advertised brand. Two groups of elderly (n = 176), each consisting of members of senior citizens' organizations catering to noninstitutionalized elderly, participated in the study. The age of the elderly subjects ranged from 60 to 84. The study was conducted at the general meetings of the two groups, where subjects were randomly allocated to experimental conditions (see Table 1). Stimuli. Three different commercials for apple juice were de-

sual segments from several apple juice commercials (some taped off-air, others obtained from the company which marketed the advertised brand) were edited to create the visual part of a 30-second commercial. The segments selected contained scenes of the apple juice being poured at length into a glass, waterfalls, apple orchards, etc. A professional announcer, who had done many commercials, was used to do a voiceover in which five product benefits were mentioned. Four claims (developed in consultation with two nutritionists) were shown visually via "superscripts," i.e., lines superimposed at the bottom of the screen. They were done by an audiovisual firm that prepares superscripts for commercials. The four claims were: "relieves irregularity," "promotes healthier gums," "fights infections," and "recommended by doctors." As each claim was being verbalized, the relevant phrase was superimposed in large letters at the bottom of the screen. The advertising copy was written by a professional copywriter of a major advertising agency in a large west coast city. When editing the commercial, the editor was instructed to keep each claim on the screen for the same length of time. Since the voiceover in the apple juice commercial also mentioned that the brand had a lot of vitamin C, we also considered that as a fifth claim mentioned in the commercial. However, in the
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editor's opinion, we were unable to add a fifth overlay of written information on the screen in the 30-second commercial without sacrificing the professional quality of the commercial. The name of the advertised brand of apple juice was stated at the end of the commercial. Musical Version {M). In the musical version, the voiceover and the benefit claim overlays were eliminated. The audio portion of the commercial, the music, was selected by a professional studio from their music library, in order to closely resemble the music in actual juice commercials. We had taped juice commercials with music so that the studio could match the typically soft, relaxing music as closely as possible. The music was edited so that it fit the commercial, i.e., so it ended when the commercial ended. At the end of the commercial, the brand name of the apple juice was stated, just as in the informational version. Information Plus Music Version (Ml). A third version was also created which combined the music and information versions. The musical soundtrack was added to the informational commercial (voiceover plus superscripts) to create the combined version. It should be noted that the musical version contained the same visuals as the informational or informational plus music commercials. Although the music-only commercial was selected to communicate as little product information as possible, it inevitably contained some indirect product information; however, unlike the versions with information, the musical version did not explicitly link the brand with particular benefits. A pretest using nine elderly subjects assessed the degree to which each commercial con26

veyed product-specific information. To familiarize the subjects with the procedures, they were first shown two irrelevant commercials, one highly informational in orientation, the other highly musical in orientation. Subjects responded to one commercial at a time using two 6-point semantic differential scales. The first was anchored by the terms: "Provides a lot of information . . . Provides little information." The second was anchored by the terms "Provides a lot of details . . . Doesn't provide a lot of details." Each of the three test commercials for apple juice were then shown to the subjects. They used the same two scales to respond to the informational commercial, then the music-only commercial, and finally the informational plus music commercial. The mean scores for each of the commercials on each of the two scales suggest that the subjects perceived a considerable difference (almost maximally so) on these measures, between the music-only commercial and the two containing product-specific information. Where "Provides a lot of information . . . " was scored as 6 and "Provides a little information . . ." was scored as 1, the mean scores were as follows: music-only version: 1.7; informational version: 5.7; informational plus music version: 5.7. Means for the second scale, where "Provides a lot of details . . ." was scored as 6 and "Doesn't provide a lot of details" was scored as 1, were as follows; music-only version: 1.8; informational version: 5.2; informational plus music version: 5.4. Procedure. For each of the two elderly groups, the experiment was conducted at their normal meeting place, following a business meeting. Special programs tended to follow their business meetings, and they had

been told that there would be a special program following this meeting but not the nature of the program. As planned, once the business portion of the meeting was over, one of the authors was introduced and indicated that members of the audience were going to evaluate a TV program aired only in some areas but not in others. It was suggested that their opinions would be used to help in the decision on whether the program would receive a wider airing. They were told that it would obviously be impossible for everyone in the large audience to see the TV screen. They would therefore go to smaller rooms where they would be able to get closer to the TV screen and be more comfortable. They were then randomly assigned to each of four separate rooms/conditions. Subjects were randomly assigned to the four experimental conditions in the following way: Each person was handed a piece of paper randomly containing the names of one of the four female experimenters who ran the study. The experimenters had been trained beforehand and had gone through several "dress rehearsals." They were randomly assigned to the experimental conditions and, while aware that the major purpose of the study was to assess the impact of commercials on the elderly, they were not aware of the hypotheses associated with the specific experimental conditions. Moreover, as noted earlier, there were no directional hypotheses. Each experimenter was then introduced to the audience and held up a large sign with their name on it. Subjects were told to follow the person whose name they had on their piece of paper. Once in the room which contained two TV monitors, they were told that they would be

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seeing an uncut segment of the program just the way it was aired and would be asked for their opinions. Then, depending on the experimental condition to which they had been randomly assigned, subjects saw either the Informational (I), Musical (M), or Information plus Music (MI) commercial twice. The commercials were inserted toward the beginning and end of the program by a professional editor. The control group did not see any commercials. After the program, subjects were first asked four questions related to the program. This was followed by questions regarding the major dependent measures related to the commercials. An assistant was available in each room to help the experimenter with the administration of the questionnaire. Pilot testing had suggested that it was useful to have the experimenter read each question aloud, with the subjects following along and then responding. In no case was any discussion between any of the subjects noted. Dependent Variables. There were four broad categories of dependent variables: learning, beliefs, attitudes, and choice. Learning. There were two measures of learning: free recall and recognition. To measure free recall, subjects were first asked to write down what they remembered about the commercial. Several blank lines were placed below the recall question for their responses. The recognition measure came on the next page. The measure consisted of eight benefit claims. Five of these claims had actually been made in the commercials (italicized claims): helps you
sleep, relieves irregularity, promotes healthier gums, keeps skin healthy, recommended by doctors,

helps control body weight, fights

infections, and good source of vita-

min C. Subjects were asked to indicate which claims had been made in the commercial. Since the claims were only made in the I and MI commercials, the M group did not respond to the recognition measure. Belief. For the belief measures, all subjects rated the eight claims presented in the recognition test along a 5-point Likerttype rating scale. The scale was anchored at the two ends by the statements "agree completely (5)" and "disagree completely (1)." Attitude. Apple juice is viewed by many largely as a commodity. In fact, the commercial stressed the value of apple juice rather than the brand per se (e.g., "Apple juice helps fight infections, is high in vitamin C," etc.). As a result, the main attitudinal measure developed was attitude toward the product. It was measured by obtaining a response to the statement "I like apple juice" along a 5-point Likert-type scale anchored at the ends by the statements "agree completely (5)" and "disagree completely (1)." Attitude toward the commercial was also measured on a 5-point scale. Subjects in the three groups who viewed a commercial were asked to indicate how much they liked the advertisement they had seen, along a scale anchored by the statements "much more than other commercials (5)" and "much less than other commercials (1)." In the next part of the questionnaire subjects were told that they would be answering questions related to a "Government Recreation Study." This break in the main section of the questionnaire dealing with the advertised product was intended to minimize any carryover effects from responses to the attitude questions to the behavioral measure that followed the break. There

were nine questions in this "recreation study," relating to issues such as amount of TV watched and the subject's health. Coupon Choice. Subjects were informed that as a token of appreciation they would receive a $1.00 coupon toward the purchase of either Seven-Up, Libby's Tomato Juice, Salada Tea Bags, or the advertised apple juice. Respondents indicated their choice by checking one of the four response categories. Subjects then responded to a projective question attempting to assess the potential for experimental demand. They were told that this project was being conducted across the country in order to see whether or not to air the program nationally. They were then asked whether they thought: (a) people would give us their honest opinions about the apple juice commercial or (b) whether people would try to be nice and say they liked the commercial simply to convince advertisers to sponsor the program. The more typical openended question asking subjects for their perception of the study's intent might have been preferable, but a pilot study indicated that most elderly subjects were not capable of responding to this type of question. Finally, subjects answered a few demographic questions related to their sex, age, and level of education.

Results
The results for learning are presented first. This is followed by the belief/attitudinal and behavioral measures. Measures of Learning. There were two key measures of learning: recall and claim recognition. Recall. The free-recall data were coded in two categories: recall of visual elements and re27

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call of the verbal elements. The coding schemes for both were developed by two of the authors examining a subset of the responses from the questionnaire. The actual coding was done by one of the authors and a graduate student. They agreed in over 90 percent of their judgments, with the small number of inconsistencies resolved by a second author. After a preliminary screening of 20 percent of the responses, visual recall was categorized as recall of the waterfall, recall of the pouring/drinking of the juice, recall of the apple trees, and a miscellaneous "other" category; no subject recorded more than one "miscellaneous" remark. Subjects received a score of 1 for each category they recalled. The total visual recall score was obtained by summing across all four categories and ranged between 0 and 4. Recall of the verbal elements was classified into eight categories after a preliminary screening of 20 percent of the responses: the four claims made both visually and on the audio track, (e.g., recommended by doctors); the vitamin C claim made in the audio portion; two other elements featured in the copy read by the announcer (i.e., "apple a day" and "healthy"); plus a final miscellaneous category for any other verbal element of the commercial they recalled; no subject recorded more than one "miscellaneous" remark. Subjects received a score of 1 for each item recalled. The total verbal recall score ranged from 0 to 8. Visual Recall. A one-way analysis of variance was performed with the visual recall score as the dependent variable and the three types of ads as a three-level independent factor. The results showed a significant effect of commercial type
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. . . respondents in the M condition recalled more of the visual elements than those in the I and Ml conditions.
(f - 20.18, ;) < 0.001). An examination of the means showed that on average 2.00 visual items were recalled in the M condition, but only 0.42 and 0.65 visual items were recalled in the I and MI conditions, respectively. Post-hoc analyses using the Newman-Keuls test revealed that visual recall was higher in the M commercial condition than in the other two conditions. This might be expected as the I and MI conditions had in addition to the visuals a substantial amount of product-related information in their commercials. Recall of Explicit Product Claims. To examine the pattern of recall of verbal elements, the mean number of verbal elements recalled in the I and MI conditions were compared. The M condition was excluded since it contained no verbal claims. As indicated above, we were interested in whether music, as a distractor, added to the explicit informational-claims-only version of the commercial, would reduce the number of explicit claims recalled in this condition. The ANOVA revealed a significant difference in the amount of verbal recall between the I and MI conditions (f = 3.96, p < 0.05). In the I condition, 2.11 verbal elements were recalled on average compared to only 1.51 verbal elements in the MI condition. In summary, respondents in the M condition recalled more of the visual elements than those in the I and MI conditions. Those in the I condition recalled significantly higher amounts of explicit

verbal information compared to those in the MI condition. In other words, music appeared to interfere with the acquisition of explicit product information about the apple juice. Recognition. Respondents' ability to recognize the claims made in the commercial was measured using an eight-item recognition test that contained five true and three false claims. Using a correction for guessing, the recognition score was derived by subtracting the number of claims incorrectly identified as true from the number correctly identified as true. (A claim-byclaim analysis revealed no significant differences in level of recognition for the various claims.) An ANOVA was conducted to compare respondents' performance on the recognition test in the I and MI conditions. Results showed the respondents in the I condition (mean recognition score = 2.77) correctly recognized significantly more claims than those in the MI condition (mean recognition score = 2.13; f = 4.53, p < 0.05). Thus, the results of the recognition test parallel the results obtained for the recall test, in that music seemed to interfere with learning. Beliefs and Attitude. Beliefs. Following the recognition test, respondents had been asked for their agreement or disagreement with each of the eight claims in the recognition test. Two oneway analyses of variance were conducted with the three ad conditions and the control group forming a four-level independent variable in each case. The dependent variables were: (1) the mean agreement score for the five items presented in the commercials containing information {I and MI); and (2) the mear\ agreement score for the three items not presented in these commercials.

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Results of the ANOVA for the five items actually presented in the advertisement show a significant effect of ad type (F = 7.86, p < 0.001). Post-hoc comparisons using the Newman-Keuls test showed that the mean belief scores (see Table 2) in the two ad conditions which contained information {I and MI) were not different from each other (3.63 and 3.59, respectively) but were significantly different, at the 0.05 significance level, from the mean belief scores in the M and control conditions (3.23 and 3.05, respectively). The latter two groups did not differ from each other. The results of the ANOVA on the mean belief rating for the three items not presented in the ads failed to reach significance (F < 1). Thus, subjects' beliefs about the benefits derived from apple juice were enhanced only when explicit benefit claims were made. Taken together, the recall and recognition results suggest that when explicit informational claims are made, the elderly are able to process at least some of the information. In addition, a purely informative advertisement is better able to communicate the brand benefits than an advertisement containing music as well as benefit claims. Interestingly, however, the lower levels of recall and recognition for the information-plus-music condition as opposed to the information-only condition do not appear to affect brand beliefs. Subjects agreed equally strongly with these belief statements whether they viewed the information-plus-music or information-only commercials. Attitude toward the Product. Table 2 presents the mean attitude toward apple juice score by experimental condition. The ANOVA was significant (f - 4.37, p < 0.01). Those in

Table 2 Mean Attitude and Belief Scores by Experimental Condition

Experimental

condition
Information Music Information/Music Control 48 41 39 48

Correct beliefs 3.63 3.23 3.59 3.05

Incorrect beliefs 2.59 2.77 2.68 2,47

Attitude toward apple juice 4.50 3.97 4.70 4,01

Commercial evaluation 3.38 3.48 3.51 N/A

the explicit-informational-claimsplus-music condition (MI) (4.70) and the explicit-informationalclaims-only condition (4.50) had equally positive attitudes toward apple juice; however, only the former had significantly more

Taken together, the recall and recognition results suggest that when explicit informational claims are made, the elderly are able to process at least some of the information.
positive attitudes toward the product than those in the musiconly (3.97) and no-commercial conditions (4.01; Newman-Keuls, p < .05). The latter two groups did not differ from each other in their attitude toward apple juice. These results parallel those for beliefs with the two explicit claims conditions equal and higher than the conditions without explicit claims. Commercial Evaluation. A one-way ANOVA was conducted with commercial evaluation as the dependent variable and the three commercial conditions forming a three-level independent factor. The results showed no differences in the liking for the three commercials (F < 1).

In sum, all three commercials were equally well-liked, but the two commercials with explicit claims were able to create somewhat more positive beliefs and attitudes toward the product, compared to the control group and the music commercial group. Choice. Coupon Choice. Subjects were offered a choice of a coupon for the advertised brand of apple juice or for three alternatives (Seven-Up, Libby's Tomato Juice, or Salada Tea). The choice of a coupon for the advertised brand of apple juice was scored as one, choice of any other beverage was scored as zero. The chi-square test as a function of experimental condition was significant (chisquare = 14.94, p < .01). The cell frequencies suggested that those in the information-plusmusic condition (48.7 percent) and information-only condition (41.7 percent) were equally likely to pick apple juice (chisquare ^ 0.43, p > .05). Those in the two conditions without information, that is, the musiconly condition (26.8 percent) and the no-commercial condition (14.6 percent), were significantly less likely to pick apple juice (chisquare = 12.16, p < .01) than those in the two informationclaims conditions. The two groups without information did not differ significantly from one another (chi-square = 2.06,
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p > .05). Thus, for choice behavior as well as for product attitude and beliefs, those in the commercial conditions with information were more positive with regard to apple juice than those in the commercial conditions without informationthat is, in the music-only commercial and control conditions. Demand Characteristics. The differences between the three commercial conditions would seem to suggest that demand is not a likely explanation of the results. The product attitudes and behavior of subjects in the two explicit-claim-commercial conditions were more influenced by the commercials than the attitudes and behavior of subjects in the music-only commercial condition, although any felt demand to give more pro apple-juice responses should have been operating in all three commercial conditions. Moreover, there were differences within each experimental condition as a function of the various questions asked. This suggests that subjects were paying attention to the question asked and not simply giving a favorable response to the commercial, irrespective of the question asked. For example, using the control group as a baseline, subjects in the information-only and music-plus-information conditions seemed to change their beliefs only about the specific benefit claims actually in the commercial and not the "incorrect" beliefs which were also listed. In effect, they did not simply respond positively to each and every belief statement, which might have been expected if they thought their task was to respond positively to everything about apple juice. Regarding the projective question related to demand, 97.5 percent responded that subjects "would answer honestly." Only
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2.5 percent suggested that subjects would try to "be nice" and give us the answer we wanted in their responses. Of course, a closed-ended question of this sort is, in itself, open to potential problems of demand-based responses. For example, subjects might wish to appear honest and reply that everyone would respond honestly. While this is a possibility, it should be noted that the projective nature of the question was intended to minimize the influence of demand.

Discussion
Taken together, the results of this study have several implica-

. . . the results suggest that when communication of brand benefits is the prime advertising objective, a purely informational appeal is likely to be most effective with elderly consumers.
tions. First, the results suggest that when communication of brand benefits is the prime advertising objective, a purely informational appeal is likely to be most effective with elderly consumers. This is consistent with past research in both consumer behavior (Cole and Houston, 1987) and psychological literatures, suggesting that the elderly have difficulty processing target information, especially when it is presented in the context of other irrelevant information (e.g., Farakas and Hoyer, 1980; Rabbitt, 1965). Notwithstanding the deficits across experimental conditions observed for recall and recognition in this study, the elderly

appeared to process the claims sufficiently in that the commercials with explicit product claims influenced their product beliefs, attitudes, and behavior. As hypothesized, the two commercials containing explicit claims were the most effective. This was the case whether or not these explicit-claim commercials contained music. The absence of a significant difference between the information-only and music-plus-information groups suggests that music did not represent a serious disadvantage in persuading the elderly. In fact, if anything, directional evidence suggests that the commercial with music plus information seemed the most effective in changing product attitudes and choice behavior. For example, those exposed to the music-plus-information commercial were most likely (49 percent) to pick a coupon for the advertised brand of apple juice. Therefore, an additional implication of the present study is that, when the objective of advertising is to generate consumer choice rather than the communication of brand benefits, an appeal that contains both information and music may be most effective. This is consistent with the results obtained by Olson (1985). In that study, Olson analyzed the characteristics of commercials for successful and unsuccessful new products and identified relevance and stimulation as the two key factors that discriminate between commercials that were successful and unsuccessful in generating newproduct trial. He concluded ". . . the best new-product commercials seem to be those which communicate relevant information . . . and, in addition, are seen as stimulating and enjoyable." This suggests that our findings regarding the effects of alternative ad executions

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on choice may be generalizable to nonelderly consumers. The commercial developed in this study made heavy use of superscripts that may have facilitated the information-processing task for the elderly. It would be useful, in future research, to directly test the degree to which superscripts are of value in communicating information via TV commercials to elderly viewers. Superscripts reinforce auditory information, although their potential impact may be lessened by such factors as the declining vision that accompanies the aging process. Of necessity, this study focused on a single product, apple juice, and tested just a single commercial. Caution needs to be exercised in generalizing to other products and commercials, especially those that are highly different in nature. For example, for products that are highly complex (e.g., VCRs), information provided via TV commercials might sufficiently tax the elderly's information-processing capacities, so that (unlike the findings of this study) their attitudes and choice processes might be adversely affected. This hypothesis awaits further testing. While the sample size in this study did not permit it, in future research it might be useful to consider subsegments of the elderly. A number of gerontologists have begun to distinguish between the "young-old," those 65 to 74, and the "old-old," those 75 or over (e,g., Neugarten, 1975). Research has shown that a diminution of physical and mental abilities becomes particularly evident in those 75 and over. In marketing, Lazer (1986) has developed a four-level age breakdown of the elderly. It may also be fruitful to use other differences such as psychographics (Davis and French, 1989; French and Fox, 1985; Day et al..

1987) to help assess the impact of TV commercials on the elderly. One lifestyle factor to be considered, for example, is the degree of isolation experienced by the elderly (e.g., those who live by themselves versus those who live with others). One might hypothesize that those who live alone would react differently to TV commercials compared to those who live with others. As people age, there is generally a reduction in the number of roles they play and the amount of social interaction they have. As their interpersonal sources of information decline, TV may become a more important source of information for the elderly. One could therefore speculate that commercials on TV, especially those containing product information, would have a greater impact on the isolated elderly, since they may have few other sources of information.

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