Abstract
Public health advertisements often focus on being active to improve overall health. Commercial advertisements tend to focus on attractiveness and fast "results." How such advertisements are interpreted is not known. The purpose of this study was to examine thoughts generated while viewing physical activity advertisements. Participants (N=240) were randomly assigned to view four public health or four commercial advertisements and asked to list five thoughts they had while viewing the ads. Comments were coded as positive about physical activity, negative about physical activity or other (e.g., comments about the advertisements themselves). Interrater reliability was checked and some re-coding was conducted until consensus was reached (final Kappa (K) = 0.96 commercial; K= 0.94 public health). More positive comments were made about physical activity (N = 98) in the public health condition than in the commercial condition (N = 21; ??=55.74; p<.001).There were no comments about the believability of the public health advertisements however, there were 35 comments questioning the believability of the commercial advertisements (??=36.719; p<.001). More reference was made to guilty feelings, laziness and needing to go to the gym in the public health condition then the commercial condition (??=12.857, p < .001). Viewing public health advertisements may have influenced exercise-related cognitions because the message was more believable and attainable. Participants who saw the commercial advertisements may have dismissed them as unrealistic and unattainable (e.g. "it isn't this easy to lose weight and get fit"). Future research should examine the believability and impact of such ads.Acknowledgments: Social Sciences and Humanitites Research Council