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The purpose of this paper is to propose the self-presentation styles of advertising influence consumer self-image, which in turn influence purchase intention.

Using virtual brands as stimuli in a series of experiments, this study collects data on consumer self-image and purchase intention in the conditions of different advertising styles.

While consumer self-image mediates the relationship between advertising self-presentation style and purchase intention, the consumption situation (public vs private) moderates the relationship between self-presentation style, consumer self-image and purchase intention. That is, self-enhancing advertising promotes customers’ ideal self, which in turn increases their purchase intention for publicly consumed products, whereas self-deprecating advertising solicits customers’ real self, which in turn increases their purchase intention for privately consumed products.

This study informs product/brand managers and marketers of the importance of aligning the self-presentation style of advertising with the consumption situation of the product being advertised.

Based on self-consistency theory, this study not only finds a relationship between the self-presentation style of advertising and purchase intention, but also uncovers the mediating role of self-image in this relationship. Furthermore, the relationship chain of “self-presentation style of advertising – self-image – purchase intention” is moderated by the consumption situation of the product. This is one of the first studies to explore the intricacies of these relationships.

Brands have increasingly used self-mockery in advertisements. Although previous insights from the social science literature assert that self-mockery is an effective strategy to boost brand closeness, the paper aims to show a more contigent view of self-mockery efficiency in an advertising context.

Two experiments were conducted.

This study shows that self-mockery helps build brand purchase intention through brand closeness only when self-mockery is based on a weak negative claim rather than a strong negative claim and that this influence occurs only for consumers with prior positive brand attitudes.

Marketing managers should consider self-mockery as a valuable brand-building strategy, especially if the main goal of the brand is to develop brand closeness among consumers with prior positive brand attitudes.

First, the current research is the first to provide empirical support for the mediating role of brand closeness to explain how self-mockery influences brand purchase intention. Second, this study qualify previous results and the popular idea that self-mockery may systematically help build brand closeness. This study demonstrates that this effect is conditional on the strength of the negative attribute claim disclosed and consumers’ prior brand attitudes.

The monograph argues that American racism has two colours (white and black), not one; and that each racism dresses itself not in one clothing, but in four: (1) “Minimal” negative, when one race considers another race inferior to itself in degree, but not in nature; (2) “Maximal” negative, when one race regards another as inherently inferior; (3) “Minimal” positive, when one race elevates another race to a superior status in degree, but not in nature; and (4) “Maximal” positive, when one race believes that the other race is genetically superior. The monograph maintains that the needs of capitalism created black slavery; that black slavery produced white racism as a justification for black slavery; and that black racism is a backlash of white racism. The monograph concludes that the abolition of black slavery and the civil rights movement destroyed the social and political ground for white and black racism, while the modern development of capitalism is demolishing their economic and intellectual ground.

Fashion advertising as a contemporary ideological form has the power to deliver semiotic messages, which frames individuals' perception. Promoting perfection in consumer culture has resulted in the creation of unrealistic self-image and negative effects that led to psychological illnesses and pathological behaviours. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ideology behind the contemporary fashion advertising that embraces imperfection and is linked to consumer subjective well-being.

Nine fashion ads were selected based on the WGSN consumer report Embracing Imperfection. A sample of images was analysed applying semiotic analysis combined with the criteria of content analysis.

The results supported the notion that some contemporary fashion communication brands are challenging the conventional idea of perfection. Five themes were identified as the characteristics that bridged the visual surface of advertising with its hidden ideologies of imperfection. By supporting “anonymity”, fashion brand communication is against excessive self-focus and helps reducing anxiety due to being imperfect. By promoting “rawness”, it encourages authenticity and uniqueness. “Banality” rejects materialism and promotes the beauty of the boring day. “Ugliness” advocates for removal of the single standards and celebrate individual differences, and “spontaneity” is interchangeable for humanity, freedom, openness and acceptance of self.

This study is among the few attempts to conduct semiotic analysis of fashion advertising images aiming to identify the visual components and ideologies that could potentially be linked to subjective well-being in fashion communication.

An individual's advancement in a meritocratic hierarchy may depend on his or her willingness to ingratiate themselves with others.

Orthodox management science has underestimated the power of creative thinking and the use of mental imaging techniques in goal achievement. In the world of sport a range of techniques involving creative visualisation have long been used by top achievers, but have only more recently been understood in terms of the working of the right brain hemisphere, and an inbuilt “cybernetic” facility for achieving clearly envisioned goals. Such an understanding has added significantly to dated “positive thinking” concepts in changing self‐image along with shorter term mental approach, and is more readily practically applicable then “lateral thinking”. Results claimed are not marginal; dramatic performance improvements are cited in various fields of endeavour, including selling, interviews, and career enhancement. The impact of the embryonic science of psycho‐cybernetics into the next century can only be postulated, but from increasing evidence the inbuilt, vestigial, untapped managerial resource of creative visualisation awaits exploitation. Only the familiar but blinkered logic of the left brain will limit the horizon of achievement for tomorrow′s managers.

In this paper I analyze Sex and the City as performances of contemporary post-modern culture of femininity and engage in a multi-modal, semiotic reading of their socio-cultural significance. In particular, I argue that the same discursive formation underlies the ideology of the show: a discourse largely coinciding with the Standard North American Family Code (Smith, 1999) and therefore a discourse that stigmatizes single women and reinforces the value of marriage as both symbolic and material capital. Drawing in part from Goffman, I argue that an oppositional reading of the show also yields another interesting connotation: the show offers its viewers techniques and scripts of stigma resistance.

The purpose of this paper is to test whether individuals possess personal consumption norms and idiosyncratic reference points to which they target behaviour. These personal consumption norms are related to the amount of food consumed independent of industry influences, specifically the size of the package offered and the perceived healthiness of the food. We also examine the extent to which one’s commitment to adhere to their personal consumption norm (referred to as “commitment to norm”) influences food consumption volume.

Three experiments are presented, two involve estimates of food consumption and the third examines actual food consumption.

All studies demonstrate that participants can provide a personal consumption norm for how much food they would typically consume that is independent of manipulated industry influences and that actual consumption is significantly related to their personal consumption norms. Furthermore, commitment to norm is negatively related to the absolute difference between their personal consumption norm and the amount of food consumed; however, supporting evidence was only realized in the case of actual food consumption, suggesting that commitment to norm does not have an effect on the formation of intentions.

The authors demonstrate that at a point in time, personal norms are fixed. However, it is possible that norms may be shaped by industry influences over time. The authors suggest further research into how these personal norms evolve over time, as well as assessing how these norms affect the likelihood of going from zero consumption to some positive amount.

Many studies indicate that marketers can easily influence food consumption volume. However, their ability to influence actual consumption volume is circumscribed by factors beyond their control, namely idiosyncratic personal consumption norms.

Over time, it is likely that personal consumption norms have emanated from a variety of antecedents, almost certainly including prior industry experience and situational/social influences. Repeated exposure to external influences is likely to shift the personal norm reference point over time.

Personal consumption norms are carefully disentangled from industry influences and are shown to significantly relate to food consumption volume, independent (but not to the exclusion) of industry influences.