The literature on the evaluation of characters in advertising shows that the identification of social groups with ethnics varies according to the investigated object. With the aim of contributing to this field a survey was carried out with 4200 university students, in order to identify their reactions to a watch advertisement. The analysis considered three dependent variables, evaluating advertising, product and character; and three independent variables, evaluating the color of the respondent as well as the color and the educational level of the character perceived by the respondents. The results showed that the color of the skin of the character had little effect on the evaluation of the advertisement or the product, even among respondents who were of the same skin color. However, the perception of the educational level of the character was significant to explain the different ratings of the advertising and the product.
Racial identification in advertising; consumer behavior; assessment of the character in the advertisement; product evaluation; evaluation of the advertisement
