ABSTRACT Despite the importance and the growing use of avatars in online and offline advertising, investigations on the effectiveness of avatar-based advertising remains scant. This article attempts to narrow this gap by examining several factors that influence consumers’ evaluations of human-like avatar-based ads. Based on mental schema theory, the authors theorize that avatars elicit categorization tension, a feeling of incongruence between avatar and expected human features. This tension is reflected in negative attitudes toward the ad and low purchase intention. Two experiments supported these contentions and demonstrated how product category knowledge and imagery moderate these effects. This investigation contributes to theory by employing a mental schema framework to explain and predict how and when consumers form positive evaluations of human-like avatar-based ads. The research findings also offer several recommendations for advertising professionals. The findings suggest that human-like avatars are more likely to generate negative evaluations among novice or less knowledgeable consumers. To minimize this effect, advertisers can encourage consumers to imagine the consumption experience.

中文翻译：

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消费者对广告中类人头像的态度：类别知识和图像的影响

摘要 尽管在线和离线广告中化身的重要性和使用越来越多，但对基于化身的广告有效性的调查仍然很少。本文试图通过检查影响消费者对类人头像广告评价的几个因素来缩小这一差距。基于心智图式理论，作者推测化身会引起分类紧张，即化身与预期人类特征之间不一致的感觉。这种紧张反映在对广告的消极态度和低购买意愿上。两个实验支持了这些论点，并展示了产品类别知识和图像如何调节这些影响。这项调查通过采用心理图式框架来解释和预测消费者如何以及何时对基于人的化身广告形成积极评价，从而为理论做出贡献。研究结果还为广告专业人士提供了一些建议。研究结果表明，类人头像更有可能在新手或知识较少的消费者中产生负面评价。为了尽量减少这种影响，广告商可以鼓励消费者想象消费体验。