Communication Studies
Presenter(s): Kayla Slack, Brooklyn O'Neill
Advisor(s): Dr. Riva Tukachinsky
Should advertisers be concerned about the type of music they use behind their visuals in advertisements? How does music that elicits emotion in advertisements affect a consumer's purchase intention? This study observes how music that is considered happy and sad affects an individual's perception of an ad and their purchasing behaviors. Participants will view the same video with predetermined happy vs. sad stimuli as determined by researchers. Participants will be exposed to the stimuli using either Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 Presto IV playing in the background or Frédéric Chopin's Prelude in E-Minor. The viewers then give us some insight into their emotions, attitudes toward the product, brand of the product, and intentions to buy the product. Then we will analyze the viewer's answers compared to the music used in the video they observed. We expect viewers that view the happy video will be more likely to see the brand and product as something they would purchase, whereas the viewers who view the sad video will have more negative feelings towards the brand and product.