American Academy of Advertising's 2025 Annual Conference

Brand activism describes that brands actively join in sociopolitical conversations by taking stances on pressing issues, such as civil rights and geopolitical conflicts. While brands have been responding emotionally to various causes, little is known about how the stereotyping of emotions (e.g., “men don’t cry”, “women don’t fume”) affects message efficacy and audience engagement in brand activism. This research examines the interplay between brand gender traits (masculinity vs. femininity) and emotions in activism (anger vs. sadness) and the moderating influence of political ideology on audience responses. We conducted two experiments using contemporary sociopolitical events as contexts (i.e., the Russia-Ukraine war and the Fukushima wastewater release). Our findings consistently revealed that anger expression (sadness expression) was perceived to be more stereotypically congruent with masculine brands (feminine brands). Moreover, stereotype-congruent expressions improved conservatives’ perceived appropriateness and message attitudes more profoundly, while non-stereotypical expressions were more effective at enhancing liberals’ advocacy intentions.

Please note: Speakers are automatically alphabetized by last name in SCHED. The speaker order here does not necessarily reflect the true authorship order of the presentation.