Comparative Magazine Advertisements Revisited: A Content Analysis

A content analysis of magazine advertising spanning a ten year time period was undertaken for the dual purpose of investigating the prevalence of negative advertising in a print format, and delineating the nature of comparative consumer goods and services magazine advertising. Several findings of note occurred. While only a single ad of the 3,800 plus analyzed was classified as being negative in nature, the proportion of comparative to non-comparative full page print ads declined significantly between 1980 and 1990 contrary to industry predictions. However, of those ads deemed to be comparative in nature, the proportion of ads making explicit comparisons to those using implicit comparisons remained constant between the years of 1980 and 1990. Overall, services were found to make significantly less usage of the comparative advertising format than either durable or non-durable goods. Finally, the use of a comparative advertising format was found to be significantly related to the size of the advertisement