Advertisements: the effects of sensory language descriptions of products and second language use (L2) on attitude, desirability and purchase intention.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the type of descriptions of the product (neutral language descriptions vs. sensory language descriptions) and the effect of language (L1 vs. L2) on the effectiveness of advertisements, which was executed in terms of advertisements for plant-based meat replacements. The effectiveness of advertisements was investigated in terms of attitude, desirability of the product and purchase intention. The results revealed that in L1, the type of description had a significant effect on purchase intention, where sensory language descriptions were more effective than neutral language descriptions. However, the type of description in L1 had no effect on all other dependent variables. In L2, there were no significant effects of the type of description on the effectiveness of advertisements, which suggests that neutral language descriptions were as effective as sensory language descriptions in L2 advertisements.