Annual Conference 2019

Rising support for the LGBT community, paired with the considerable buying power of this group, has triggered increasing interest from marketers in the gay and lesbian market. Several companies have developed advertising with homosexual imagery to better target this group, thereby risking alienating most heterosexual consumers. The findings on the persuasive effects of homosexual imagery are mixed and do not provide insights on whether and when homosexual imagery in advertising supports or hampers persuasion. To resolve the inconsistencies in findings of prior research, this paper presents a meta-analysis on the effects of homosexual imagery. The integrated effect size suggests that the overall persuasive effect between homosexual and heterosexual imagery does not differ. Contrary to the assumption, we find “reverse alienation”: heterosexual consumers are not alienated by homosexual portrayals, but homosexual consumers are alienated by heterosexual imagery. Furthermore, the moderator analysis suggests that incongruence between imagery, consumer characteristics, cultural values, explicitness of imagery, endorser gender, and product type result in unfavorable responses to homosexual advertising imagery. These findings provide guidelines for future research and implications for advertisers who intend to address consumers of various sexual orientations.