The Relation between Script Complexity and Commercial Memorability

The relation between script complexity and commercial memorability was assessed using scripts and field data from a copytesting firm. The scripts were coded using the Flesch Reading Ease Formula. In Study 1 (field study), regression analyses revealed that complexity contributes independently (negatively) to advertising recall and recognition (controlling for executional variables). In Study 2, a laboratory experiment replicated the main effects of complexity on recall and recognition, but also showed that product category involvement moderated this effect. Complexity adversely affected a variety of memory measures, but only for those who were less involved with the product category. These findings provide further evidence that psycholinguistic factors should be taken into consideration when developing effective advertising. Tina M. Lowrey (Ph.D., University of Illinois) is a professor of marketing, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio. Portions of this research were funded by a Davis Grant from Rider University. The author thanks Dave Walker and his associates at ASI Market Research, Inc. for providing access to portions of the data and for their technical assistance with data management. The author also thanks L. J. Shrum for his thoughtful assistance throughout this research project. In the competitive, increasingly cluttered environment of television advertising, copywriters and art directors strive to create commercials that are memorable. At the same time, copywriters typically write scripts that are not overly complex (i.e., that are understandable to the majority of target-market members), due to a tendency to believe that complexity might inhibit recall and recognition of the commercial or the brand. Indeed, Craik and Lockhart’s (1972) framework for levels of processing suggests that memory suffers when deeper processing is inhibited. Both lack of ability and lack of motivation can cause disruptions in processing, leading to decreased memory for stimuli. In an advertising context, research on language complexity has focused primarily on print advertising, and has often used copy that is more complex than would be typical of actual broadcast advertising (Bradley and Meeds 2002; Chebat et al. 2003; Lowrey 1998). Findings in print advertising contexts may not be directly relevant to broadcast contexts, however. Print advertising is a self-paced medium (at least for magazines and newspapers) in which consumers are free to take as long as they like to read the copy. Broadcast advertising, by contrast, is externally paced, where consumers have little control over the amount of time they are exposed to the message. The purpose of these studies was to determine whether complexity of television scripts contributes to recall and recognition of commercials, and under what conditions. COMPLEXITY AND ADVERTISING Many measures of text complexity have been proposed, and are often referred to as “readability” measures (for a review, see Metoyer-Duran 1993). These measures were formulated primarily to assist teachers in selecting appropriate educational materials for their students. Despite some controversy in the educational community over the years (Bogert 1985; Olson 1984), readability formulas are still applied worldwide to the analysis of a variety of texts, including marketing communications (Burton 1991; Cullingford et al. 1988; Davis and Kendrick 1989; Trenchard and Crissy 1952), Web-based information on psychiatric disorders (Kisely, Ong, and Takyar 2003), informed-consent forms (Paasche-Orlow, Taylor, and Brancati 2003), and medical information leaflets for various types of patients (Hill and Bird 2003; Rees, Ford, and Sheard 2003; Wong et al. 2003). It is easy to understand why medical practitioners would be interested in assessing the readability of materials in the hopes that readers would understand the material being conveyed and respond to it appropriately. Even two of the marketing communications studies cited above concern health issues— specifically cigarette advertising and warning labels (Cullingford et al. 1988; Davis and Kendrick 1989). A third study, which investigates the readability of bank brochures (Burton 1991), is also primarily concerned with passing on somewhat complicated, yet important, information to consumers. The majority of advertising, however, is not designed to convey complicated information (particularly when it comes to television commercials). Instead, the objective of a significant 8 The Journal of Advertising portion of television advertising is to increase brand awareness, and perhaps to inform consumers of new attributes as well. Furthermore, even when more complicated information is conveyed, it is typically done in the simplest terms possible. Common measures used to determine whether advertising has achieved such objectives are some forms of memory measures (different copytesting firms have their own proprietary forms