Purpose – This paper aims to test whether a structured application of persuasion principles might help improve advertising decisions. Evidence-based principles are currently used to improve decisions in other complex situations, such as those faced in engineering and medicine....

Disclaimers are widely used by firms to warn customers of dangers and limitations of their products, and are persuasive when the issue is important. We examine the effects of mandatory disclaimers. Speech restrictions conflict with basic economic incentives. Sellers are motivated by profit to...

In his book, Where the Suckers Moon: An Advertising Story, Randall Rothenberg, a former advertising columnist for the New York Times, describes how Subaru of America selected a new agency in 1991. This behind-the-scenes account was made possible by his sitting in on the meetings that led to the...