I like you, but only if not too successful: male spokespersons effectiveness

Abstract Purpose – This paper aims to examine and compare the simultaneous effect of financially successful appeals and attractiveness for male spokespersons, as well as explain why and when this effect happens based on the viewer’s gender. Design/methodology/approach – Two studies were designed by manipulating the success (vs absent) and attractiveness (vs average looking) of a male spokesperson and compared his marketing effectiveness in terms of purchase intention and advertising attitude. Additionally, the influence of gender through the mediating effect of negative/positive affect was compared. Findings – Participants indicated lower purchase intention and advertising attitude in light of the success appeal in both studies; however, this effect was influenced by attractiveness in case of high involvement product. Additionally, success had a greater effect on ad effectiveness than attractiveness. Only for males, negative affect mediated the relationship between ad effectiveness and exposure to a successful spokesperson. Practical implications – Practitioners should be aware of the negative influence of a financially successful spokesperson overall, especially if he is also very attractive and the product is a high involvement one targeting males. On the contrary, attractiveness of a successful spokesperson might cancel out negative effects for those products targeting females. Originality/value – This study differs from previous studies by considering the simultaneous effect of successful and/or attractive male spokespersons on adult sample instead of college students and examine the effects for high and low involvement product. Keywords Success, Gender, Social comparison theory, Negative affect, Attractiveness