关键词: 网络语言, 产品卷入度, 语言态度, 广告效果

Abstract: The popularization of the Internet slang has encouraged the emergence of Internet slang ads. However, few theoretical explanations have been developed in literature regarding its impacts on persuasion. The exploration on this question will help understand the mechanism of persuasion by Internet slang ads. Previous researches discovered product involvement influences ad persuasion through ELM. Moreover, literature review shows that consumers’ attitude toward the Internet slang will also have a significant impact on ad persuasion. Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effectiveness of embedding Internet slang words in ads. The two manipulated variables of the first experiment were as follows: (a1) for the types of ads: ads with Internet slang words vs. ads with standard language; (a2) for the product involvement: high vs. low. The two manipulated variables of the second experiment were as follows: (b1) for the types of ads: ads with Internet slang words vs. standard language; (b2) for the attitude of Internet slang: positive vs. negative. The participants of the experiments involve 564 college students. The results indicate that: 1)there is no significant impact on persuasion for high involvement products, while for low involvement products, such practice has a significant positive influence on consumers’ attitude toward ads (F (1, 156) = 9.764, p = .002 < .05, η2 = .0596) and product (F (1, 156) = 4.157, p = .043 < .05, η2 = .0263), but its impact on willingness-to-pay is limited; 2) for low involvement products, with the positive attitude toward the Internet slang, ad slogans using Internet slang outperformed the ads without Internet slang by measures of consumers’ attitude toward ads (F (1, 131) = 6.976, p = .043 < .05, η2 = .0313) and product (F (1, 131) = 6.976, p = .009 < .05, η2 = .0513), but its impact on willingness-to-pay is limited. However, if consumers’ attitude toward the Internet slang is negative, the ads without Internet slang outperformed ads using Internet slang by measures of consumers’ attitude toward ads (F (1, 99) = 5.461, p = .022 < .05, η2 = .0533), product (F (1, 99) = 4.019, p = .048 < .05, η2 = .0398) and willingness-to-pay(F (1, 99) = 4.019, p = .048 < .05, η2 = .0398). This research investigates the impact of using Internet slang on persuasion, especially the moderating effects of product involvement and language attitude. The results extend the existing theories regarding Internet slang advertising by explaining how product category characteristics and consumer characteristics may help to produce positive attitude toward advertisements and products and increase consumers’ willingness-to-pay. Future researches may explore more effects based on other product-related variables such as luxuries and non-luxury goods. Moreover, aspects like endorsers and different forms of advertising (such as audio or video ads) may also serve as moderators. Methods like fMRI could be used to explore the neural mechanisms through which advertisements using Internet slang work.

Key words: Internet slang, product involvement, language attitude, advertising effectiveness