The Positive Effect of Negative Advertising: It's a Matter of Time

Negative advertising, once found almost exclusively in the domain of political advertising, has become increasingly prevalent in the marketing of goods and services. Although many marketing executives and consumers disavow the suitability or effectiveness of negative advertising, the deployment of this weapon is common across both political and product domains (e.g., Neff, 1999). Definitionally, negative comparative advertising (hereafter called negative advertising) is a form of comparative advertising. The purpose of negative advertising is to degrade perceptions of an opponent by identifying a competitor for the purpose of imputing inferiority (Merritt, 1984). For instance, a new ad for the Lincoln Towncar states, “If our car had 20% less leg room and cost $2000 more, it would be a Cadillac Eldorado.” By imputing inferiority of a competitor’s brand, sponsors believe their own brand will seem more attractive (Merritt, 1984). In contrast, positive comparative advertising identifies a competitor for the purpose of claiming superiority, or at least equality versus a well-established opponent (e.g., Kalra & Goodstein, 1998; Merritt, 1984).