Abstract:

Scientific research provides various opinions and evaluations, yet not many research results to support the dependency of consumer response to shocking advertisements on the advertising context. The aim of the article is to provide empirical evidence on the impact of shocking advertising on Lithuanian consumers in the context of commercial and social advertising.  The article also presents a conceptual model of consumer response to shocking advertising in the context of commercial and social advertising, integrating the constructs of antecedents, shocking stimuli, advertising context as a moderating factor, consumer emotional and behavioral responses.  The results of the research on Lithuanian consumer responses to shocking commercial and social advertising revealed the strongest shocking stimuli for Lithuanian consumers, namely aggression, vulgarity, and disgusting images, as well as personal factors affecting consumer acceptance of shocking stimuli. The developed methodological attitudes allowed to find out how different shocking stimuli affect consumers on the emotional level, depending on the advertising context, and assess the links between emotions evoked by shocking advertisements and consumer behavioral intentions. The implications of the further findings are discussed in the paper.