Endorser and Bodily Addressing in Public Service Announcements: Effects and Underlying Mechanisms

Media psychology literature suggests that both celebrity and peer endorsers can be effective in persuasion when taking certain bodily addressing styles but via different mechanisms. To understand the psychological mechanisms underlying audiences’ reactions toward print public service announcements (PSAs) and to design effective PSAs accordingly, we explored this issue by conducting a 2 (endorser: peer vs. celebrity) x 2 (bodily addressing style: front vs. side) between-subjects online experiment (N = 423). Findings suggest that celebrity endorsers with a frontal bodily addressing style induced more parasocial interaction experience (PSE) with the endorser from the audiences, whereas peer endorsers with a side bodily addressing elicited a higher level of empathy toward the endorser. Both enhanced PSE and empathy contribute to effectiveness of the PSAs. Implications and limitations are discussed.