Damn dirty ads: the impact of explicit and implicit profanity in advertisements
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Though profanity is inherently taboo, it seems to be appearing in more advertisements, but does it help or hurt sales? In three studies, participants were shown mock-up advertisements with varying degrees and instances of profane and non-profane intensifiers and varying spokespeople. Across all studies, only implicit, low-intensity profanity was found to be more persuasive than the non-profane control; additional intensifiers decreased persuasiveness in each condition except the control. Furthermore, spokesperson dress did not influence persuasiveness, but a significant interaction between spokesperson sex and explicitness of the profanity was found. Sense of humor did not impact perceived persuasiveness of ads in Study 2 but was found to increase perceived persuasiveness in Study 3. Findings and implications are discussed.
Source: Social Influence
Authors: Cody T. Gibson, Paul Wiele, Jeremy Marshall, John E. Edlund
Language: English
Subfield: Communication
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4408787016