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Religio-spiritual insights affecting the attitude toward advertising during religious festival: Comparison between an irritating and a religious advertisement

Insights religioso-espirituais que afetam a atitude em relação à publicidade durante festas religiosas: Comparação entre uma propaganda irritante e uma religiosa

Abstract

Purpose:

This study aims to measure the religio-spiritual insights of consumers during religious festivals and compare the results considering the stimuli of two advertisements, i.e., religious and irritating advertisements. When the religio-spiritual insights of the consumers are neglected in the designing of a TV advertisement for a religious festival, in particular, it can lead to irritation and affect the consumers’ attitude toward advertising. Based on the theory of reasoned action (TRA), the mediating effect of religio-spiritual insights was measured between consumers’ attitude toward advertising and independent variables (irritation, credibility, information, good for the economy, and entertainment).

Originality/value:

This study uses the newly developed instrument of religio-spiritual insights to measure their influence on consumers’ attitudes toward advertising and confirms the mediating effect of religio-spiritual insights between the consumers’ attitude and other constructs, such as credibility, entertainment, information, irritation, and good for the economy.

Design/methodology/approach:

Two hundred and fifty-five household consumers were selected using the non-probability convenience sampling techniques to collect the responses using the survey method. Each respondent was asked to fill out two questionnaires after watching the attached stimulus advertisement, i.e., one religious and one irritating advertisement. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was used to test the hypothesis based on the bootstrapping test.

Findings:

The results show that religio-spiritual insights significantly mediate attitude toward advertising and other constructs when there was a religious advertisement that depicted religious cues, symbols, and visuals. Contrarily, a non-significant effect of irritation was identified on religio-spiritual insights when there was an irritating advertisement.

Keywords:
consumers’ religio-spiritual insights; religious festivals; irritation; attitude toward advertising; PLS-SEM

Resumo

Objetivo:

Este estudo tem como objetivo mensurar os insights religioso-espirituais dos consumidores durante festas religiosas e comparar os resultados considerando os estímulos de duas propagandas: uma propaganda religiosa e uma irritante. Quando os insights religioso-espirituais dos consumidores são negligenciados na concepção de um anúncio de TV para um festival religioso, em particular, isso pode levar à irritação e afetar a atitude dos consumidores em relação à propaganda. Com base na teoria da ação racional (TAR), o efeito mediador dos insights religioso-espirituais foi medido entre a atitude em relação à propaganda e as variáveis independentes (irritação, credibilidade, informação, bom para a economia e entretenimento).

Originalidade/valor:

Este estudo usa o instrumento recém-desenvolvido de insights religioso-espirituais para medir sua influência na atitude em relação à propaganda e confirma o efeito mediador dos insights religioso-espiri-tuais entre a atitude dos consumidores e outros construtos, como credibilidade, entretenimento, informação, irritação e bom para a economia.

Design/metodologia/abordagem:

Duzentos e cinquenta e cinco consumidores domésticos foram selecionados usando a técnica de amostragem de conveniência não probabilística para coletar as respostas por meio do método de survey. Cada respondente preencheu dois questionários após assistir ao anúncio de estímulo em anexo, um anúncio religioso e um anúncio irritante. A abordagem de mínimos quadrados parciais – modelagem de equações estruturais (partial least squares – structural equation modeling [PLS-SEM]) – foi usada para testar as hipóteses com base no teste de bootstrapping.

Resultados:

Os resultados mostram que insights religioso-espirituais mediaram significativamente a relação entre a atitude em relação à propaganda e outros construtos quando havia um anúncio religioso que retratava sinais, símbolos e visuais religiosos. Contrariamente, um efeito não significativo de irritação foi identificado nos insights religioso-espirituais quando havia um anúncio irritante.

Palavras-chave:
insights religioso-espirituais dos consumidores; festivais religiosos; irritação; atitude em relação à publicidade; PLS-SEM

INTRODUCTION

Brands execute extensive advertising campaigns during religious festivals that are celebrated by consumers with high religio-spiritual contemplations (Keenan & Yeni, 2003Keenan, K. L., & Yeni, S. (2003). Ramadan advertising in Egypt: A content analysis with elaboration on select items. Journal of Media and Religion, 2(2), 109–117. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15328415JMR0202_04
https://doi.org/10.1207/S15328415JMR0202...
; Moran & Curtis, 2004Moran, C. D., & Curtis, G. D. (2004). Blending two worlds: Religio-spiritua-lity in the professional lives of student affairs administrators. NASPA Journal, 41(4), 631–646. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.2202/1949-6605.1391
https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.2202/...
). The religio-spiritual contemplations are based on the concepts of religiosity and spirituality that have been extensively covered in the literature (Dasti & Sitwat, 2014Dasti, R., & Sitwat, A. (2014). Development of a Multidimensional Measure of Islamic Spirituality (MMS). Journal of Muslim Mental Health, 8(2), 1556–4908. https://doi.org/10.3998/jmmh.10381607.0008.204
https://doi.org/10.3998/jmmh.10381607.00...
; Weiss, 2009Weiss, D. (2009). Religiosity/spirituality as a protective factor for posttraumatic stress disorder among African American students at Jackson State University. The George Washington University.). These religio-spiritual insights are often targeted in advertisements by depicting religious symbols, messages, visuals, and different religious events. However, these religio-spiritual insights of consumers can be negatively affected if irritating content is depicted in the advertisements that conflict with these insights. When considering the high viewership of television advertisements, this study selected TV advertisements aired during a religious festival to measure the religio-spiritual insights and their influence on consumers’ attitudes toward advertising (Cartwright et al., 2016Cartwright, J., McCormick, H., & Warnaby, G. (2016). Consumers’ emotional responses to the Christmas TV advertising of four retail brands. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 29, 82–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2015.11.001
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.201...
).

Consumers often get irritated when they see inappropriate content in advertisements that conflicts with their religio-spiritual insights, eventually influencing the consumers’ attitude toward advertising. Consumers start lodging complaints against such advertisements to media regulating authorities, which may even lead to the banning of such advertisements (Propakistani, 2015Propakistani. (2015, July 31). PEMRA asks TV channels to stop vulgarity, excessive ADs. https://propakistani.pk/2015/07/31/pemra-asks-tv-channels-to-stop-vulgarity-excessive-ads/
https://propakistani.pk/2015/07/31/pemra...
). For example, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) banned TV advertisements and TV programs during religious festivals such as Ramadan and Muharram, based on complaints lodged by the people (Brandsynario, 2017Brandsynario. (2017). PEMRA Issues Ban on Objectionable Advertisement – Brandsynario. http://www.brandsynario.com/pemra-issues-ban-on-objectionable-advertisement/
http://www.brandsynario.com/pemra-issues...
). When offensive content is depicted in a TV advertisement that conflicts with consumers’ religio-spiritual insights, consumers do not like such TV advertisements, and their dislike may hurt the sales of a brand. Consumers’ irritation sometimes leads to a backlash in the form of protests, which may result in loss of advertising investment due to the complaints lodged by consumers (Marmor-Lavie & Stout, 2016Marmor-Lavie, G., & Stout, P. A. (2016). Consumers’ insights about spirituality in advertising. Journal of Media and Religion, 15(4), 169–185. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2016.1248182
https://doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2016.12...
; Zabadi et al., 2012Zabadi, A. M. A., Shura, M., & Elsayed, E. A. (2012). Consumer attitudes toward SMS advertising among Jordanian users. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 4(1), 77–94. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v4n1p77
https://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v4n1p77...
).

Consumers’ religio-spiritual insights are often ignored in the marketing literature (Marmor-Lavie & Stout, 2016Marmor-Lavie, G., & Stout, P. A. (2016). Consumers’ insights about spirituality in advertising. Journal of Media and Religion, 15(4), 169–185. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2016.1248182
https://doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2016.12...
). Although religiosity has been covered extensively in the literature, there is a dearth of empirical evidence related to spirituality (Marmor-Lavie, 2010Marmor-Lavie, G. (2010). Understanding consumers’ responses to spiritual advertising [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. The University of Texas at Austin.; Marmor-Lavie & Stout, 2016Marmor-Lavie, G., & Stout, P. A. (2016). Consumers’ insights about spirituality in advertising. Journal of Media and Religion, 15(4), 169–185. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2016.1248182
https://doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2016.12...
). Literature also lacks in providing the applications of religio-spirituality during religious festivals, such as Ramadan, Christmas, and Easter. Moreover, existing instruments for measuring religiosity and spirituality are inappropriate for measuring the religio-spirituality of the consumers, due to which these constructs are often ignored in marketing research. Consumers’ Religio-Spiritual Insights scale has been recently developed to measure the religio-spirituality of consumers during religious festivals considering a religious advertisement (Ansari, 2020Ansari, J. (2020). Measuring religio-spiritual insights that infuence attitude towards advertising during religious festivals [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Institute of Business Management.). This study aims to measure the religio-spiritual insights of the consumers during the religious festival and compare the results considering the stimuli of two advertisements – religious and irritating advertisements. Hence, this study sets the following research objective:

  • To investigate the mediating effect of consumers’ religio-spiritual insights during the religious festival between:

    • a) credibility and attitude toward advertising;

    • b) information and attitude toward advertising;

    • c) entertainment and attitude toward advertising;

    • d) good for the economy and attitude toward advertising;

    • e) irritation and attitude toward advertising.

This study uses the newly developed instrument of religio-spiritual insights to measure their influence on consumers’ attitudes toward advertising and confirm the mediating effect of religio-spiritual insights between the consumers’ attitude and other constructs, such as credibility, entertainment, information, irritation, and good for the economy. The results of this study will help marketing managers understand consumers’ religio-spiritual insights so that they can design relevant TV advertisements for religious festivals. In this way, brands can avoid the risk of losses because a significant proportion of the advertising budget is usually allocated for popular religious festivals, such as Ramadan, Christmas, and Easter.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Religion has been defined as the relationship of a human with a divine power/God that has become a code of ethics that explains some moral obligations (Yastion, 2009Yastion, L. (2009). Pause now: Handbook for a spiritual revolution. Hamilton Books.). Spirituality has been defined as an individual’s intrinsic relationship with God/divine power (Nelson, 2009Nelson, J. M. (2009). Psychology, religion and spirituality. Springer.) that transforms an individual’s experiences of life (Khanna & Greyson, 2014Khanna, S., & Greyson, B. (2014). Daily spiritual experiences before and after near-death experiences. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 6(4), 302–309. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037258
https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037258...
). Religio-spiritual insights are based on religiosity and spirituality that have a unique conceptualization in mythology, religion, folklore, and traditions that have evolved gradually over centuries. Religiosity and spirituality have been used across cultures, fashioned by the unique experiences of humans through wars, peace, famine, migrations, calamities, affluence, and crises (Leonard & Carlson, 2017Leonard, B., & Carlson, D. (2017). Introduction to spirituality. http://www.touroinstitute.com/1Introduction to Spirituality.pdf
http://www.touroinstitute.com/1Introduct...
; Motak, 2009Motak, D. (2009). Postmodern spirituality and the culture of individualism. Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis, 21, 149–161. https://doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67348
https://doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67348...
; Sharabi, 2012Sharabi, A. (2012). “Teshuvah baskets” in the Israeli teshuvah market. Culture and Religion, 13(3), 273–293. https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2012.706227
https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2012.70...
; Sheldrake, 2007Sheldrake, P. (2007). A brief history of spirituality. Blackwell.).

Religiosity and spirituality in advertising

Religiosity and spirituality have been explored and extensively modeled in several domains, such as medicine, health, nursing, work environment, employee happiness, and well-being (Azarsa et al., 2015Azarsa, T., Davoodi, A., Khorami Markani, A., Gahramanian, A., & Vargaeei, A. (2015). Spiritual well-being, attitude toward spiritual care and its relationship with spiritual care competence among critical care nurses. Journal of Caring Sciences, 4(4), 309–320. https://doi.org/10.15171%2Fjcs.2015.031
https://doi.org/10.15171%2Fjcs.2015.031...
; Bauer & Johnson, 2019Bauer, A. S., & Johnson, T. J. (2019). Conceptual overlap of spirituality and religion: An item content analysis of several common measures. Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health, 21(1), 14–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/19349637.2018.1437004
https://doi.org/10.1080/19349637.2018.14...
; Benefiel et al., 2014Benefiel, M., Fry, L. W., & Geigle, D. (2014). Spirituality and religion in the workplace: History, theory, and research. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 6(3), 175–187. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036597
https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036597...
; Zinnbauer & Pargament, 2005Zinnbauer, B. J., & Pargament, K. I. (2005). Religiousness and Spirituality. In R. F. Paloutzian, & C. L. Park (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality (pp. 21–42). Guilford Press.). For example, religiosity and spirituality have been studied for the treatment of incurable patients (Aukst-Margetić et al., 2005Aukst-Margetić, B., Jakovljević, M., Margetić, B., Bišćan, M., & Šamija, M. (2005). Religiosity, depression, and pain in patients with breast cancer. General Hospital Psychiatry, 27(4), 250-255. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2005.04.004
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2...
; Balboni et al., 2007Balboni, T. A., Vanderwerker, L. C., Block, S. D., Paulk, M. E., Lathan, C. S., Peteet, J. R., & Prigerson, H. G. (2007). Religiousness and spiritual support among advanced cancer patients and associations with end-of-life treatment preferences and quality of life. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 25(5), 555–560. https://doi.org/10.1200/JCO.2006.07.9046
https://doi.org/10.1200/JCO.2006.07.9046...
). However, religiosity and spirituality in marketing/advertising domains received comparatively lesser attention (Marmor-Lavie & Stout, 2016Marmor-Lavie, G., & Stout, P. A. (2016). Consumers’ insights about spirituality in advertising. Journal of Media and Religion, 15(4), 169–185. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2016.1248182
https://doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2016.12...
).

Although constructs of religiosity have been used in marketing research (Niazi et al., 2019Niazi, M. A. K., Ghani, U., & Aziz, S. (2019). Impact of Islamic religiosity on consumers’ attitudes towards Islamic and conventional ways of advertisements, attitude towards brands and purchase intentions. Business & Economic Review, 11(1), 1–30. https://dx.doi.org/10.22547/BER/11.1.1
https://dx.doi.org/10.22547/BER/11.1.1...
; Zehra & Minton, 2019Zehra, S., & Minton, E. (2019). Should businesses use religious cues in advertising? A comparison of consumer perceptions across Christianity and Islam. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 44(5), 393–406. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijcs.12512
https://doi.org/10.1111/ijcs.12512...
), spirituality has been largely ignored in comparison to religiosity. One of the initial studies discussed spirituality in advertising by proposing spirituality in advertising framework (SAF) (Marmor-Lavie, 2010Marmor-Lavie, G. (2010). Understanding consumers’ responses to spiritual advertising [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. The University of Texas at Austin.), but it was a qualitative research in which spirituality in advertising was explored among the students of religious, non-religious, and new-age orientations in the United States. Moreover, several instruments of spirituality are domain-specific, such as spirituality at the workplace (Benefiel et al., 2014Benefiel, M., Fry, L. W., & Geigle, D. (2014). Spirituality and religion in the workplace: History, theory, and research. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 6(3), 175–187. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036597
https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036597...
) and spiritual experience in healthcare (Underwood & Teresi, 2002Underwood, L. G., & Teresi, J. A. (2002). The daily spiritual experience scale: Development, theoretical description, reliability, exploratory factor analysis, and preliminary construct validity using health related data. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 24(1), 22–33. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15324796ABM2401_04
https://doi.org/10.1207/S15324796ABM2401...
).

Another limitation of the existing instruments is the complex relationship between religiosity and spirituality (Bauer & Johnson, 2019Bauer, A. S., & Johnson, T. J. (2019). Conceptual overlap of spirituality and religion: An item content analysis of several common measures. Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health, 21(1), 14–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/19349637.2018.1437004
https://doi.org/10.1080/19349637.2018.14...
; Hill & Maltby, 2009Hill, P. C., & Maltby, L. E. (2009). Measuring religiousness and spirituality: Issues, existing measures, and the implications for education and well-being. In M. Souza, L. J. Francis, J. O’Higgins-Norman, & D. Scott (Eds.), International handbook of education for spirituality, care and wellbeing (Vol. 3, pp. 33–50). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9018-9
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9018-...
). When considering the complex relationship between religiosity and spirituality, a consolidated instrument of religio-spiritual insights was identified. This is a higher-order construct based on the subconstructs beliefs and practices, self-actualization, interconnectedness, association with higher power, heart and mind involvement, and knowledge and meaning (Ansari, 2020Ansari, J. (2020). Measuring religio-spiritual insights that infuence attitude towards advertising during religious festivals [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Institute of Business Management.). Literature supports the conceptualization of these constructs. For example, Christians believe in the teachings of the Bible and practice the rituals of service at church, fasting during Lent, and celebrating the festivals of Christmas and Easter (Salamone, 2004Salamone, F. A. (2004). Encyclopedia of religious rites, rituals, and festivals. Routledge.; Tynan & McKechnie, 2006Tynan, C., & McKechnie, S. (2006). Sacralising the profane: Creating meaning with christmas consumption in the UK. European Adavances in Consumer Resarch, 7, 182–188. https://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/13830/eacr/vol7/E-07
https://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/13830...
). Religion teaches people that having a good relationship with the Crea tor will help them in their daily matters of life (Sheldrake, 2007Sheldrake, P. (2007). A brief history of spirituality. Blackwell.), while spirituality is more focused on developing and maintaining a relationship with an ultimate power, which can guide human beings in their daily lives (Mattis, 2000Mattis, J. S. (2000). African American women’s definitions of spirituality and religiousity. Journal of Black Psychology, 26(1), 101–122. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798400026001006
https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798400026001...
). Religion provides a bond between its followers to develop a community, and people of this community practice the same teachings provided by religion (Cohen & Hill, 2007Cohen, A. B., & Hill, P. C. (2007). Religion as culture: Religious individualism and collectivism among American catholics, jews, and protestants. Journal of Personality, 75(4), 709–742. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2007.00454.x
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2007...
; Gulevich, 2004Gulevich, T. (2004). Understanding Islam and Muslim traditions. Omnigraphics.).

Religiosity and spirituality are defined as the feelings, sentiments, and emotions that arise when one tries to find sacred meaning to existence (Motak, 2009Motak, D. (2009). Postmodern spirituality and the culture of individualism. Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis, 21, 149–161. https://doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67348
https://doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67348...
; Rinallo et al., 2012Rinallo, D., Scott, L., & Maclaran, P. (2012). Consumption and spirituality. Routledge.). Spirituality as a construct can be divided into three parts: naturalistic, humanistic, and religious. The naturalistic part of spirituality is derived from the human curiosity to search for a greater meaning to life and existential thoughts (Chida et al., 2009Chida, Y., Steptoe, A., & Powell, L. H. (2009). Religiosity/spirituality and mortality: A systematic quantitative review. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 78(2), 81–90. https://doi.org/10.1159/000190791
https://doi.org/10.1159/000190791...
). The humanistic perspective is linked to the theory of self-actualization, put forth by Abraham Maslow, which refers to humans reaching their highest potential (Elkins et al., 1988Elkins, D. N., Hedstrom, L. J., Hughes, L. L., Leaf, J. A., & Saunders, C. (1988). Toward a humanistic-phenomenological spirituality. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 28(4), 5–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167888284002
https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167888284002...
). Finally, the perspective of religion is related to the people’ beliefs in the existence of a superior being (Agarwala et al., 2019Agarwala, R., Mishra, P., & Singh, R. (2019). Religiosity and consumer behavior: A summarizing review. Journal of Management, Spirituality, and Religion, 16(1), 32-54. https://doi.org/10.1080/14766086.2018.1495098
https://doi.org/10.1080/14766086.2018.14...
; Liu & Robertson, 2011Liu, C. H., & Robertson, P. J. (2011). Spirituality in the workplace: Theory and measurement. Journal of Management Inquiry, 20(1), 35–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492610374648
https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492610374648...
; Marmor-Lavie & Stout, 2016Marmor-Lavie, G., & Stout, P. A. (2016). Consumers’ insights about spirituality in advertising. Journal of Media and Religion, 15(4), 169–185. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2016.1248182
https://doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2016.12...
).

The influence of religiosity in advertising has been reported often in the literature. Rinallo et al. (2012)Rinallo, D., Scott, L., & Maclaran, P. (2012). Consumption and spirituality. Routledge. suggest that there is an intrinsic difference between spirituality and consumption. Spirituality refers to a sublime concept of humans being good, whereas consumption refers to a phenomenon that is mundane, materialistic, and ultimately soulless. To reconcile these two concepts, many advertisers have frequently used religious symbols such as religious places, religious scholars, and holy books in advertisements (Naseri & Tamam, 2012Naseri, A., & Tamam, E. (2012). Impact of Islamic religious symbol in producing favorable attitude toward advertisement. The Public Administration and Social Policies Review, I(8), 61–77. https://revad.uvvg.ro/files/nr8/7.%20Naseri.pdf
https://revad.uvvg.ro/files/nr8/7.%20Nas...
; Taylor et al., 2010Taylor, V. A., Halstead, D., & Haynes, P. J. (2010). Consumer responses to Christian religious symbols in advertising. Journal of Advertising, 39(2), 79–92. https://doi.org/10.2753/JOA0091-3367390206
https://doi.org/10.2753/JOA0091-33673902...
). By this means, advertisers have regularly tried to create a connection between internal spirituality and the external materialist nature of consumption.

Religio-spirituality in festivals of different religions

Different religious festivals, such as Christmas, Easter, Ramadan, and Diwali, are celebrated across the globe. Religious communities celebrate such festivals to practice their beliefs and increase their association with the divine power, i.e., God (Dasti & Sitwat, 2014Dasti, R., & Sitwat, A. (2014). Development of a Multidimensional Measure of Islamic Spirituality (MMS). Journal of Muslim Mental Health, 8(2), 1556–4908. https://doi.org/10.3998/jmmh.10381607.0008.204
https://doi.org/10.3998/jmmh.10381607.00...
; Keenan & Yeni, 2003Keenan, K. L., & Yeni, S. (2003). Ramadan advertising in Egypt: A content analysis with elaboration on select items. Journal of Media and Religion, 2(2), 109–117. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15328415JMR0202_04
https://doi.org/10.1207/S15328415JMR0202...
). Some of these festivals are long-lasting, while others are celebrated for a short time. This study compared four different religious festivals based on common attributes, i.e., duration, fasting, gifts/charity/donations, prayer, scriptures, and family/congregation time. Table 1 depicts a summary of common attributes and advertising spending. The comparison suggests that Ramadan and Lent are the two long-duration festivals celebrated across the globe. However, the Muslim community has high religio-spiritual contemplations while celebrating the religious festival of Ramadan, as they follow the same recurring schedule of strict fasting for 30 consecutive days (Koku & Jusoh, 2016Koku, P. S., & Jusoh, O. (2016). On commercialisation of Ramadan: Some preliminary evidence from the USA. International Journal of Islamic Marketing and Branding, 1(4), 356–365. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJIMB.2016.081314
https://doi.org/10.1504/IJIMB.2016.08131...
; Touzani & Hirschman, 2008Touzani, M., & Hirschman, E. C. (2008). Cultural syncretism and ramadan observance: Consumer research visits Islam. Advances in Consumer Research, 35, 374–380. https://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/13141/volumes/v35/NA-35
https://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/13141...
). Moreover, there is a high advertising budget allocated by different brands for extensive advertising campaigns during the festival of Ramadan (Maqsood, 2014Maqsood, A. (2014). ‘Buying Modern’: Muslim subjectivity, the West and patterns of Islamic consumption in Lahore, Pakistan. Cultural Studies, 28(1), 84–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2013.771691
https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2013.77...
; Odabas & Attar, 2018Odabas, Z. Y., & Attar, E. G. (2018). Celebratıon of Ramadan: The case of Turkey. In A. Beniwal, R. Jain, & K. Spracklen (Eds.), Global leisure and the struggle for a better world (pp. 75–94). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70975-8_4
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70975-...
).

Table 1
Festivals celebrated by different religious communities and their respective advertising expenditures

The duration of the fasting is from Suhur (before dawn) to Iftar (after sunset), and Muslims do not eat/drink during this time. However, Muslims make special arrangements for Suhur and Iftar, which often consist of parties in which immediate family, extended family, relatives, friends, neighbors, and others are invited to enjoy these spiritual moments (Keenan & Yeni, 2003Keenan, K. L., & Yeni, S. (2003). Ramadan advertising in Egypt: A content analysis with elaboration on select items. Journal of Media and Religion, 2(2), 109–117. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15328415JMR0202_04
https://doi.org/10.1207/S15328415JMR0202...
). Moreover, this month is customarily reserved for paying the annual religious obligation of alms, Zakat and Fitrah, to the poor and deserving, and thus a source of increasing spiritual contemplations of Muslims (Müller, 2017Müller, D. M. (2017). From consultancy to critique: The ‘success story’ of globalized zakat management in Malaysia and its normative ambiguities. Globalizations, 14(1), 81–98. https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2016.1200309
https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2016.12...
; Odabasi & Argan, 2009Odabasi, Y., & Argan, M. (2009). Aspects of underlying Ramadan consumption patterns in Turkey. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 21(3), 203–218. https://doi.org/10.1080/08961530802202891
https://doi.org/10.1080/0896153080220289...
). Intensive advertising campaigns have turned this religious festival into a shopping festival (Sandikci & Omeraki, 2007Sandikci, O., & Omeraki, S. (2007). Globalization and rituals: Does Ramadan turn into Christmas? Advances in Consumer Research, 34, 610–615.), affecting the religio-spiritual insights of the Muslim community. Therefore, the religious festival of Ramadan was selected in this study, considering the high religio-spirituality of Muslims.

Theoretical underpinnings and hypotheses development

The theory of reasoned action (TRA) has widely been used to predict the intentions and attitudes of humans based on their beliefs (Fishbein, 1967Fishbein, M. (Ed.). (1967). Readings in attitude theory and measurement. Wiley.). Several studies have also developed conceptual frameworks based on TRA to predict the attitudes of the people (Dincheva & Nikolovska, 2016Dincheva, D., & Nikolovska, M. (2016). Consumers’ attitudes towards mobile advertising and its effectiveness comparative study of three products [Unpublished master’s thesis]. Aarhus University.; Ramish et al., 2019Ramish, M. S., Jalees, T., & Bashir, A. (2019). Visual appeal of stock photographs affecting the consumers’ attitude towards advertising. Global Management Journal for Academic & Corporate Studies, 9(1), 1–7.; Terlutter et al., 2010Terlutter, R., Diehl, S., & Okazaki, S. (Eds.). (2010). Advances in advertising research: Cutting edge international research (Vol. 1). Gabler. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-8349-6006-1
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-8349-6006-...
; Ting & Run, 2015Ting, H., & Run, E. C. (2015). Attitude towards advertising: A young generation. Asian Journal of Business Research, 5(1), 83–96. https://doi.org/10.14707/ajbr.150012
https://doi.org/10.14707/ajbr.150012...
). Consumers’ attitudes have been studied by applying TRA in the context of religious beliefs associated with Muslim consumers (Amin, 2013Amin, H. (2013). Factors influencing Malaysian bank customers to choose Islamic credit cards: Empirical evidence from the TRA model. Journal of Islamic Marketing, 4(3), 245-263. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIMA-02-2012-0013
https://doi.org/10.1108/JIMA-02-2012-001...
; Amin et al., 2011Amin, H., Rahman, A. R. A., Sondoh, S. L., Jr., & Hwa, A. M. C. (2011). Determinants of customers’ intention to use Islamic personal financing: The case of Malaysian Islamic banks. Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research, 2(1), 22-42. https://doi.org/10.1108/17590811111129490
https://doi.org/10.1108/1759081111112949...
; Lada et al., 2009Lada, S., Tanakinjal, G. H., & Amin, H. (2009). Predicting intention to choose halal products using theory of reasoned action. International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management, 2(1), 66–76. https://doi.org/10.1108/17538390910946276
https://doi.org/10.1108/1753839091094627...
). Another study used TRA and concluded that advertising value and perceived levels of entertainment affect the consumers’ attitude toward web advertising. Other variables such as entertainment, information, and irritation have also been studied to predict the consumers’ attitude toward advertising (Usman et al., 2010Usman, M., Ilyas, S., Hussain, M. F., & Qureshi, T. M. (2010). General attitude towards advertising: Cultural influence in Pakistan. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 2(2), 124–133. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v2n2p124
https://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v2n2p124...
; Wang et al., 2002Wang, C., Zhang, P., Choi, R., & D’Eredita, M. (2002). Understanding consumers attitude toward advertising. Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS Proceedings), 1143–1148. https://jiad.org/files/hci/amcis02_minitrack/rip/wang.pdf
https://jiad.org/files/hci/amcis02_minit...
; Zabadi et al., 2012Zabadi, A. M. A., Shura, M., & Elsayed, E. A. (2012). Consumer attitudes toward SMS advertising among Jordanian users. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 4(1), 77–94. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v4n1p77
https://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v4n1p77...
). The conceptual framework of this study was developed by selecting variables such as entertainment, information, credibility, irritation, good for the economy, religio-spiritual insights, and consumers attitude toward advertising. These variables are discussed in detail below:

  • Attitude toward advertising: Consumers’ attitude toward advertising refers to a favorable or unfavorable response to an advertisement. Previous studies used TRA and suggested that people like advertisements that are informative, entertaining, and credible. Consumers’ attitude toward advertising has been studied using different means, such as T V, radio, newspaper, magazines, yellow pages, and direct mail (Park & Kim, 2003Park, C.-H., & Kim, Y.-G. (2003). Identifying key factors affecting consumer purchase behavior in an online shopping context. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 31(1), 16–29. https://doi.org/10.1108/09590550310457818
    https://doi.org/10.1108/0959055031045781...
    ; Mehta, 2000Mehta, A. (2000). Advertising attitudes and advertising effectiveness. Journal of Advertising Research, 40(3), 67–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.2501/JAR-40-3-67-72
    http://dx.doi.org/10.2501/JAR-40-3-67-72...
    ; Petrovici & Marinov, 2007Petrovici, D., & Marinov, M. (2007). Determinants and antecedents of general attitudes towards advertising: A study of two EU accession countries. European Journal of Marketing, 41(3/4), 307–326. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090560710728354
    https://doi.org/10.1108/0309056071072835...
    ; Cope et al., 2005Cope, J., Fifrick, A., Holl, D., Martin, M., Nunnally, D., Preston, D., Roszkowski, P., Schiess, A., & Tedesco, A. (2005). Image impact in print media: A study of how pictures influence news consumers. Impact of News Images, 1–40. http://www.ou.edu/deptcomm/dodjcc/groups/05B/paper.pdf
    http://www.ou.edu/deptcomm/dodjcc/groups...
    ; Cartwright et al., 2016Cartwright, J., McCormick, H., & Warnaby, G. (2016). Consumers’ emotional responses to the Christmas TV advertising of four retail brands. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 29, 82–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2015.11.001
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.201...
    ). However, this study used TV advertisements aired during the religious festival of Ramadan to measure consumers’ attitudes toward advertising.

  • Irritation: Consumers get irritated when watching an advertisement because of annoying messages, inappropriate stimuli, or offensive content displayed in that advertisement (Aslam et al., 2016Aslam, W., Batool, M., & Ul Haq, Z. (2016). Attitudes and behaviors of the mobile phones users towards SMS advertising: A study in an emerging economy. Journal of Management Sciences, 3(1), 63-80. https://doi.org/10.20547/jms.2014.1603105
    https://doi.org/10.20547/jms.2014.160310...
    ; Ducoffe, 1995Ducoffe, R. H. (1995). How consumers assess the value of advertising. Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, 17(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/10641734.1995.10505022
    https://doi.org/10.1080/10641734.1995.10...
    ; Zabadi et al., 2012Zabadi, A. M. A., Shura, M., & Elsayed, E. A. (2012). Consumer attitudes toward SMS advertising among Jordanian users. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 4(1), 77–94. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v4n1p77
    https://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v4n1p77...
    ). Advertising messages that contradict religious beliefs and practices may be considered offensive by consumers and will not be effective in attitude change (Michell & Al-Mossawi, 1999Michell, P., & Al-Mossawi, M. (1999). Religious commitment related to message contentiousness. International Journal of Advertising, 18(4), 427–443. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.1999.11104772
    https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.1999.11...
    ; Yaseen et al., 2020Yaseen, S., Hyder, S. I., Ansari, J., & Mazahir, M. I. (2020). Empirical evidence of factors affecting attitude towards the advertising of socially sensitive products in digital media. Media Education (Mediaobrazovanie), 60(4), 764–773. https://doi.org/10.13187/me.2020.4.764
    https://doi.org/10.13187/me.2020.4.764...
    ). Advertisements that contain offensive messages and upsetting themes may induce irritation among consumers, which they tend to recall over time (Abbasi et al., 2011Abbasi, A. S., Akhter, W., & Umar, S. (2011). Ethical issues in advertising in Pakistan: An Islamic perspective. World Applied Sciences Journal, 13(3), 444–452. https://ssrn.com/abstract=1866800
    https://ssrn.com/abstract=1866800...
    ; Waller & Fam, 2000Waller, D. S., & Fam, K. S. (2000). Cultural values and advertising in Malaysia: Views from the industry. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, 12(1), 3–16. https://doi.org/10.1108/13555850010764613
    https://doi.org/10.1108/1355585001076461...
    ). Consumers may belong to different sociocultural factors, such as various religious groups, which may require advertisers to produce creative advertisements that suit all religious groups (Naseri & Tamam, 2012Naseri, A., & Tamam, E. (2012). Impact of Islamic religious symbol in producing favorable attitude toward advertisement. The Public Administration and Social Policies Review, I(8), 61–77. https://revad.uvvg.ro/files/nr8/7.%20Naseri.pdf
    https://revad.uvvg.ro/files/nr8/7.%20Nas...
    ; Taylor et al., 2010Taylor, V. A., Halstead, D., & Haynes, P. J. (2010). Consumer responses to Christian religious symbols in advertising. Journal of Advertising, 39(2), 79–92. https://doi.org/10.2753/JOA0091-3367390206
    https://doi.org/10.2753/JOA0091-33673902...
    ). Significant effects of irritation have been proven in the literature (Ansari et al., 2017Ansari, J., Khalid, F., Jalees, T., & Ramish, M. S. (2017). Consumer’s attitude towards Ramadan advertising. South Asian Journal of Management Sciences, 11(1), 14-31. https://doi.org/10.21621/sajms.2017111.02
    https://doi.org/10.21621/sajms.2017111.0...
    ; Zabadi et al., 2012Zabadi, A. M. A., Shura, M., & Elsayed, E. A. (2012). Consumer attitudes toward SMS advertising among Jordanian users. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 4(1), 77–94. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v4n1p77
    https://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v4n1p77...
    ). Consumers may get irritated if they see elements that involve objectifying the female body, seminudity, and music (Niazi et al., 2019Niazi, M. A. K., Ghani, U., & Aziz, S. (2019). Impact of Islamic religiosity on consumers’ attitudes towards Islamic and conventional ways of advertisements, attitude towards brands and purchase intentions. Business & Economic Review, 11(1), 1–30. https://dx.doi.org/10.22547/BER/11.1.1
    https://dx.doi.org/10.22547/BER/11.1.1...
    ).

  • Entertainment: Consumers are attracted to advertisements that depict fun, enjoyment, entertainment, and pleasure – elements that make consumers happy (Ramish et al., 2019Ramish, M. S., Jalees, T., & Bashir, A. (2019). Visual appeal of stock photographs affecting the consumers’ attitude towards advertising. Global Management Journal for Academic & Corporate Studies, 9(1), 1–7.). Entertainment positively influences viewers’ attitudes toward advertisements, and this is evident in the literature (Bauer et al., 2005Bauer, H. H., Barnes, S. J., Reichardt, T., & Neumann, M. M. (2005). Driving consumer acceptance of mobile marketing a theoretical framework and empirical study. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, 6(3), 181–192.; Ducoffe, 1995Ducoffe, R. H. (1995). How consumers assess the value of advertising. Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, 17(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/10641734.1995.10505022
    https://doi.org/10.1080/10641734.1995.10...
    ; Aslam et al., 2016Aslam, W., Batool, M., & Ul Haq, Z. (2016). Attitudes and behaviors of the mobile phones users towards SMS advertising: A study in an emerging economy. Journal of Management Sciences, 3(1), 63-80. https://doi.org/10.20547/jms.2014.1603105
    https://doi.org/10.20547/jms.2014.160310...
    ; Hastings et al., 2004Hastings, G., Stead, M., & Webb, J. (2004). Fear appeals in social marketing: Strategic and ethical reasons for concern. Psychology and Marketing, 21(11), 961–986. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.20043
    https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.20043...
    ). Advertisements often have visual, auditory/sensory hedonic, entertaining, and amusing elements that stimulate a consumer’s attitude toward such advertisements. Consumers will be more receptive and drawn to hedonic or entertaining advertisements that are aligned with the consumer’s desired lifestyle (Ramish et al., 2019Ramish, M. S., Jalees, T., & Bashir, A. (2019). Visual appeal of stock photographs affecting the consumers’ attitude towards advertising. Global Management Journal for Academic & Corporate Studies, 9(1), 1–7.; Ting & Run, 2015Ting, H., & Run, E. C. (2015). Attitude towards advertising: A young generation. Asian Journal of Business Research, 5(1), 83–96. https://doi.org/10.14707/ajbr.150012
    https://doi.org/10.14707/ajbr.150012...
    ).

  • Credibility: The credibility of an advertisement refers to the presence of any emotional cues that can be undertaken as reliable sources for that advertisement. Such emotional cues can be in the form of a spokesperson, celebrity, or religious cues, such as religious scholars and places or objects of worship (Hameed et al., 2016Hameed, F., Rehman, H., & Awan, Y. (2016). Measuring the determiniants of consumer perception regarding mobile advertisng in Pakistan: A comparison between private and public sector universities. Science International, 28(1), 735–741. http://www.sci-int.com/pdf/636911000957790377.pdf
    http://www.sci-int.com/pdf/6369110009577...
    ). Credibility positively influences consumers’ attitudes, which has been noticed in several advertisements studies (Zabadi et al., 2012Zabadi, A. M. A., Shura, M., & Elsayed, E. A. (2012). Consumer attitudes toward SMS advertising among Jordanian users. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 4(1), 77–94. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v4n1p77
    https://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v4n1p77...
    ). Religion is considered a credible social factor as it is one of the cultural institutions that influence consumers’ attitudes at an individual and collective level (Zehra & Minton, 2019Zehra, S., & Minton, E. (2019). Should businesses use religious cues in advertising? A comparison of consumer perceptions across Christianity and Islam. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 44(5), 393–406. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijcs.12512
    https://doi.org/10.1111/ijcs.12512...
    ). Religion-rooted cultures have widely accepted the role religion plays in making advertisements more credible and enhancing the delivered message (Mansour & Fathelrahman, 2013Mansour, I. H. F., & Fathelrahman, I. H. (2013, February). The impact of religiosity commitments on attitude towards celebrities endorsed tv advertising and buying behavior [Conference paper]. The Proceedings of the Annual Conference of Postgraduate Studies & Scientific Research, Humanities and Educational Studies, University of Khartoum. University of Khartoum. http://khartoumspace.uofk.edu/bitstreams/1e6c8b24-c71b-4b38-acc6-0fe65d1989da/download
    http://khartoumspace.uofk.edu/bitstreams...
    ).

  • Information: The advertising message is based on verbal, visual, and execution-related content (Cope et al., 2005Cope, J., Fifrick, A., Holl, D., Martin, M., Nunnally, D., Preston, D., Roszkowski, P., Schiess, A., & Tedesco, A. (2005). Image impact in print media: A study of how pictures influence news consumers. Impact of News Images, 1–40. http://www.ou.edu/deptcomm/dodjcc/groups/05B/paper.pdf
    http://www.ou.edu/deptcomm/dodjcc/groups...
    ; Zabadi et al., 2012Zabadi, A. M. A., Shura, M., & Elsayed, E. A. (2012). Consumer attitudes toward SMS advertising among Jordanian users. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 4(1), 77–94. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v4n1p77
    https://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v4n1p77...
    ). Text, symbols, and images are used in advertisements to provide certain information to consumers related to a product/brand. Consumers’ repetitive exposure to informative advertisements can create a positive or negative attitude toward advertising (Shih et al., 2015Shih, H.-P., Lai, K.-H., & Cheng, T. C. E. (2015). A dual-process model to assess user attitudes and the likelihood of electronic word-of-mouth adoption [Conference paper]. PACIS 2015 Proceedings, 226. https://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2015/226/
    https://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2015/226/...
    ; Taylor et al., 2010Taylor, V. A., Halstead, D., & Haynes, P. J. (2010). Consumer responses to Christian religious symbols in advertising. Journal of Advertising, 39(2), 79–92. https://doi.org/10.2753/JOA0091-3367390206
    https://doi.org/10.2753/JOA0091-33673902...
    ). The use of informative advertisements religiously in dominating religious cultures has been a significant means of advertising. Similarly, the globalized and hedonic advertising information, which, at some level, contrasts with Islamic values, is negatively evaluated by religious individuals (Cader, 2015Cader, A. A. (2015). Islamic challenges to advertising: A Saudi Arabian perspective. Journal of Islamic Marketing, 6(2), 166–187. https://doi.org/ https://doi.org/10.1108/JIMA-03-2014-0028
    https://doi.org/ https://doi.org/10.1108...
    ; Naseri & Tamam, 2012Naseri, A., & Tamam, E. (2012). Impact of Islamic religious symbol in producing favorable attitude toward advertisement. The Public Administration and Social Policies Review, I(8), 61–77. https://revad.uvvg.ro/files/nr8/7.%20Naseri.pdf
    https://revad.uvvg.ro/files/nr8/7.%20Nas...
    ). Advertisements have been using religious statements or phrases, such as quotes from the Quran (Koran) or Holy Bible, as informational cues to enhance the influence of that advertisement and make it more appealing for individuals having high religious contemplations (Maqsood, 2014Maqsood, A. (2014). ‘Buying Modern’: Muslim subjectivity, the West and patterns of Islamic consumption in Lahore, Pakistan. Cultural Studies, 28(1), 84–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2013.771691
    https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2013.77...
    ; Naseri & Tamam, 2012Naseri, A., & Tamam, E. (2012). Impact of Islamic religious symbol in producing favorable attitude toward advertisement. The Public Administration and Social Policies Review, I(8), 61–77. https://revad.uvvg.ro/files/nr8/7.%20Naseri.pdf
    https://revad.uvvg.ro/files/nr8/7.%20Nas...
    ).

  • Good for the economy: It has been observed that advertisements help increasing consumption patterns, due to which consumers accept innovative products and adopt new technologies. This is the concept of good for the economy, which positively influences consumers’ attitudes toward advertising (Ling et al., 2010Ling, K. C., Piew, T. H., & Chai, L. T. (2010). The determinants of consumers’ attitude towards advertising. Canadian Social Science, 6(4), 114–126.; Petrovici & Marinov, 2007Petrovici, D., & Marinov, M. (2007). Determinants and antecedents of general attitudes towards advertising: A study of two EU accession countries. European Journal of Marketing, 41(3/4), 307–326. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090560710728354
    https://doi.org/10.1108/0309056071072835...
    ). Advertisements that are good for the economy are generally used to instigate false wants and superficial living standards for consumers. Such advertisements promote materialism and the thought of having “more than before” (Pollay & Mittal, 1993Pollay, R. W., & Mittal, B. (1993). Here’s the beef: Factors, determinants, and segments in consumer criticism of advertising. Journal of Marketing, 57(3), 99–114. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.2307/1251857
    https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.2307/...
    ). The concept of materialism, which promotes consumption, is considered a distraction from inner spirituality and search for a higher deity. Hence, materialism is opposite to religio-spiritual practices (Veer & Shankar, 2011Veer, E., & Shankar, A. (2011). Forgive me, Father, for I did not give full justification for my sins: How religious consumers justify the acquisition of material wealth. Journal of Marketing Management, 27(5–6), 547–560. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2010.517707
    https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2010.51...
    ).

  • Mediating effect of religio-spiritual insights: Religiosity and spirituality have been studied as mediating constructs in different works. The mediating role of religiosity was studied considering the relationship between celebrity credibility and advertising effectiveness, and a partial mediating effect on the relationship was found (Mansour & Diab, 2016Mansour, I. H. F., & Diab, M. E. D. (2016). The relationship between celebrities’ credibility and advertising effectiveness: The mediation role of religiosity. Journal of Islamic Marketing, 7(2), 148–166. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIMA-05-2013-0036
    https://doi.org/10.1108/JIMA-05-2013-003...
    ). Since religiosity is directly connected to religion, it has also been used as a religious commitment in several studies (Worthington et al., 2003Worthington, E. L., Jr., Wade, N. G., Hight, T. L., Ripley, J. S., McCullough, M. E., Berry, J. W., Schmitt, M. M., Berry, J. T., Bursley, K. H., & O’Connor, L. (2003). The religious commitment inventory-10: Development, refinement, and validation of a brief scale for research and counseling. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 50(1), 84–96. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.50.1.84
    https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.50.1.8...
    ; Michell & Al-Mossawi, 1999Michell, P., & Al-Mossawi, M. (1999). Religious commitment related to message contentiousness. International Journal of Advertising, 18(4), 427–443. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.1999.11104772
    https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.1999.11...
    ). Religiosity has been studied as a mediating construct for advertising effectiveness (Michell & Al-Mossawi, 1995Michell, P. C., & Al-Mossawi, M. (1995). The mediating effect of religiosity on advertising effectiveness. Journal of Marketing Communications, 1(3), 151–162. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527269500000015
    https://doi.org/10.1080/1352726950000001...
    ). There is no construct specifically measuring the religio-spiritual insights of the consumers in marketing research. In other domains, such as patients’ treatment, spirituality has already been well-researched. For example, in a study of treatment of patients with cancer, spirituality played a mediating role between psychological distress and mental adjustments (Jimenez-Fonseca et al., 2018Jimenez-Fonseca, P., Lorenzo-Seva, U., Ferrando, P. J., Carmona-Bayonas, A., Beato, C., García, T., Muñoz, M. M., Ramchandani, A., Ghanem, I., Rodríguez-Capote, A., Jara, C., & Calderon, C. (2018). The mediating role of spirituality (meaning, peace, faith) between psychological distress and mental adjustment in cancer patients. Supportive Care in Cancer, 26, 1411–1418. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-017-3969-0
    https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-017-3969-...
    ). In a model proposed by scholars, spirituality has been found with religiosity as a mediating variable (Shek, 2012Shek, D. T. L. (2012). Spirituality as a positive youth development construct: A conceptual review. The Scientific World Journal, 2012, 458953. https://doi.org/10.1100/2012/458953
    https://doi.org/10.1100/2012/458953...
    ). Since spirituality is not a well-defined construct in marketing, few studies have discussed its mediating role. However, it has been considered a mediating variable in a study of spiritual well-being, which is mediated between religiosity (intrinsic) and voluntary simplicity (Alexander & Ussher, 2012Alexander, S., & Ussher, S. (2012). The voluntary simplicity movement: A multi-national survey analysis in theoretical context. Journal of Consumer Culture, 12(1), 66-86. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540512444019
    https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540512444019...
    ; Chowdhury, 2018Chowdhury, R. M. M. I. (2018). Religiosity and voluntary simplicity: The mediating role of spiritual well-being. Journal of Business Ethics, 152, 149–174. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3305-5
    https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/...
    ). Based on this discussion, the following hypothesis was developed for this study:

  • Hypothesis 1 (H1): Religio-spiritual insights have a mediating influence between

    • (a) credibility and consumers’ attitude toward advertising;

    • (b) entertainment and consumers’ attitude toward advertising;

    • (c) good for the economy and consumers’ attitudes toward advertising;

    • (d) information and consumers’ attitude toward advertising;

    • (e) irritation and consumers’ attitude toward advertising.

METHODOLOGY

Subjects and sample size

The conceptual framework of this study was developed based on theoretical grounds. Therefore, a positivist deductive approach was followed to test the hypothesis. The religious festival considered for this study is Ramadan, which is one of the important Islamic months when Muslims experience obligatory fasting for 30 consecutive days (Odabasi & Argan, 2009Odabasi, Y., & Argan, M. (2009). Aspects of underlying Ramadan consumption patterns in Turkey. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 21(3), 203–218. https://doi.org/10.1080/08961530802202891
https://doi.org/10.1080/0896153080220289...
). The significance of Ramadan among Muslims has already been discussed in the literature review section. Two hundred and fifty-five household consumers that had TV in their houses were selected using the non-probability convenience sampling because the sample frame is not available (Bryman & Bell, 2012Bryman, A., & Bell, E. (2012). Business research methods (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.) for the population of approximately 32 million households in Pakistan (Samaa, 2017Samaa. (2017). Provisional census results put Pakistan’s population at 207. 774 million. https://www.samaa.tv/news/2017/08/provisional-census-results-put-pakistans-population-at-207-774-million/
https://www.samaa.tv/news/2017/08/provis...
). Household consumers were selected because they are more exposed to advertisements that can inspire as well as irritate them while watching TV programs (Cartwright et al., 2016Cartwright, J., McCormick, H., & Warnaby, G. (2016). Consumers’ emotional responses to the Christmas TV advertising of four retail brands. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 29, 82–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2015.11.001
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.201...
).

As the approach of the study was based on theory testing and model comparison, the partial least squares – structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was used to test the hypothesis. A sample of 250 respondents is enough for this type of study (Hair et al., 2011Hair, J. F., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2011). PLS-SEM: Indeed a silver bullet. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 19(2), 139–152. https://doi.org/10.2753/MTP1069-6679190202
https://doi.org/10.2753/MTP1069-66791902...
; Hair et al., 2014Hair, J. F., Jr., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2014). Multi-variate data analysis (7th ed.). Pearson.), as it is suggested at least 30 respondents for each construct to conduct a multi-variate analysis (Onwuegbuzie et al., 2010Onwuegbuzie, A. J., Bustamante, R. M., & Nelson, J. A. (2010). Mixed research as a tool for developing quantitative instruments. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 4(1), 56–78. https://doi.org/10.1177/1558689809355805
https://doi.org/10.1177/1558689809355805...
; Sekaran et al., 2016Sekaran, U., Bougie, R., & Roger, B. (2016). Research methods for business: A skill building approach. John Wiley & Sons.). Based on the reviews collected from a panel discussion of five marketing scholars, one irritating and one religious advertisement were selected and attached as a stimulus with each questionnaire. Ratings were given by the panel to each advertisement (Varan et al., 2015Varan, D., Lang, A., Barwise, P., Weber, R., & Bellman, S. (2015). How reliable are neuromarketers’ measures of advertising effectiveness? Data from ongoing research holds no common truth among vendors. Journal of Advertising Research, 55(2), 176–191. https://doi.org/10.2501/JAR-55-2-176-191
https://doi.org/10.2501/JAR-55-2-176-191...
). Marketing experts rated each TV advertisement from 1 to 5, with five being the highest value based on religio-spirituality and irritation. Religious advertisement belonged to a leading milk brand that portrayed celebrities, poetry, and different religious symbols. In turn, the irritating advertisement belonged to a mobile phone brand that was banned by the regulatory authority (PEMRA) in Pakistan. Two hundred and seventy respondents were approached and asked to fill out these two questionnaires with different stimuli so that unbiased opinions could be collected. Out of the 270 questionnaires distributed, 255 were found valid after deleting the empty and outlier responses.

Measurement and data analysis

A five-point Likert scale was used for the measurement of the constructs, which were adopted from previous studies with the established reliabilities. These constructs include 19 items for religio-spiritual insights (Ansari, 2020Ansari, J. (2020). Measuring religio-spiritual insights that infuence attitude towards advertising during religious festivals [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Institute of Business Management.), four items for information, three items for good for the economy, four items for entertainment, four items for irritation, four items for credibility, and four items for attitude toward advertising (Ramish et al., 2019Ramish, M. S., Jalees, T., & Bashir, A. (2019). Visual appeal of stock photographs affecting the consumers’ attitude towards advertising. Global Management Journal for Academic & Corporate Studies, 9(1), 1–7.). After data collection, several statistical analyses, including descriptive statistics, reliability, validity, and structural equation model, were used for data evaluation. Due to the complexity of the conceptual framework, a structural equation model was executed to comprehend the latent constructs and analyze the mediation effect through SmartPLS (Garson, 2016Garson, G. D. (2016). Partial Least Squares: Regression and structural equation models. Statistical Associates Publishing.; SmartPLS, 2015SmartPLS. (2015). Goodness of Fit (GoF). http://www.smartpls.com
http://www.smartpls.com...
).

RESULTS

Profile of the respondents

The total size of the sample is 255 respondents, out of which 127 (50%) were male, and 128 (50%), female. The age ranges from 18 to 59 and above. In terms of educational level, 51 (20%) were high school graduates, 52 (20%) had their educational level up to an undergraduate degree, 78 (31%) had a graduate degree, 62 (24%) had a postgraduate degree, and the rest of them, 12 (5%), had other professional degrees. As far as occupational status is concerned, 35 (14%) were students, 56 (22%) were housewives/ househusbands, 75 (29%) were employed, 46 (18%) were unemployed, and 43 (17%) were self-employed. Out of them, 135 (53%) respondents reported watching TV between one and three hours daily; 59 (23%), between four and six hours; 44 (17%), between seven and nine hours; and 17 (7%), above nine hours.

Reliability, validity, and correlation analyses

Responses were collected using two different stimuli, i.e., one was a religious advertisement, and the other was an irritating advertisement. Several statistical tests were conducted using Smart PLS – version 3.2, which includes reliability and validity analyses. Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability tests were conducted to ascertain the reliability of the constructs. Table 2 shows that Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability values were found to be greater than 0.7, which is considered acceptable (Garson, 2016Garson, G. D. (2016). Partial Least Squares: Regression and structural equation models. Statistical Associates Publishing.; Hair et al., 2011Hair, J. F., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2011). PLS-SEM: Indeed a silver bullet. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 19(2), 139–152. https://doi.org/10.2753/MTP1069-6679190202
https://doi.org/10.2753/MTP1069-66791902...
). Average variance extracted (AVE) values were found to be greater than 0.5, which is considered acceptable, confirming the convergent validity tests (Garson, 2016Garson, G. D. (2016). Partial Least Squares: Regression and structural equation models. Statistical Associates Publishing.; Kim et al., 2016Kim, H., Ku, B., Kim, J. Y., Park, Y. J., & Park, Y.-B. (2016). Confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis for validating the phlegm pattern questionnaire for healthy subjects. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2016, 2696019. https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/2696019
https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/2696019...
; Kline, 2015Kline, R. B. (2015). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (4th ed.). Guilford.). Discriminant validity was confirmed by checking the maximum shared variance (MSV), which is found to be less than the corresponding AVE values (Hair et al., 2006Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2006). Multivariate data analysis (6th ed.). Pearson.; Kundu et al., 2019Kundu, S. C., Kumar, S., & Gahlawat, N. (2019). Empowering leadership and job performance: Mediating role of psychological empowerment. Management Research Review, 42(5), 605–624. https://doi.org/10.1108/MRR-04-2018-0183
https://doi.org/10.1108/MRR-04-2018-0183...
). The square root of the variance extracted is also found to be greater than the corresponding correlation coefficients, confirming another discriminant validity test (Fornell & Larcker, 1981Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Structural equation models with unob-servable variables and measurement error: Algebra and statistics. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(3), 382–388. https://doi.org/10.2307/3150980
https://doi.org/10.2307/3150980...
). Table 2 shows the summary of reliability, validity, and correlation analyses conducted for the responses collected for irritating and religious advertisements.

Table 2
Summary of the reliability, validity, and correlation analyses

Hypotheses testing

Two data sets comprised of responses to the religious and the irritating advertisements were uploaded to SmartPLS. Structural models tested using the PLS-SEM approach can be seen in Figure 1 (for religious advertisements) and Figure 2 (for irritating advertisements). Initially, the second-order construct of religio-spiritual insights was validated using the repeated indicator approach in PLS-SEM. All the loadings of the first-order constructs were found to be greater than 0.5 (Garson, 2016Garson, G. D. (2016). Partial Least Squares: Regression and structural equation models. Statistical Associates Publishing.). After validating the second-order construct, direct and indirect effects were tested using the PLS-SEM bootstrapping test.

Figure 1
Structural model tested using the religious advertisement

Figure 2
Structural model tested using the irritating advertisement t

When the hypothesis was tested for the religious advertisement, it was identified that credibility (β = 0.39, t = 6.29, p < 0.05), entertainment (β = 0.20, t = 3.61, p < 0.05), good for the economy (β = 0.09, t = 2.21, p < 0.05), and information (β = 0.32, t = 5.27, p < 0.05) significantly affect religio-spiritual insights. Consequently, religio-spiritual insights (β = 0.75, t = 24.78, p < 0.05) significantly affect attitude toward advertisement. However, it was identified that irritation (β = -0.05, t = 1.38, p > 0.05) has a non-significant effect. The mediating effect of religio-spiritual insights was also confirmed using specific indirect effects. Religio-spiritual insights significantly mediate (i) credibility and attitude (β = 0.2, t = 6.06, p < 0.05), (ii) entertainment and attitude (β = 0.15, t = 3.49, p < 0.05), (iii) good for the economy and attitude (β = 0.07, t = 2.19, p < 0.05), and (iv) information and attitude (β = 0.24, t = 5.22, p < 0.05). The hypothesis related to the mediating effect of religio-spiritual insights between irritation and attitude (β = -0.04, t = 1.38, p > 0.05) was not confirmed.

When hypothesis was tested for the irritating advertisement, it was identified that entertainment (β = 0.28, t = 3.36, p < 0.05), good for the economy (β = 0.31, t = 3.95, p < 0.05), and irritation (β = -0.21, t = 2.99, p < 0.05) significantly affect religio-spiritual insights. Consequently, religio-spiritual insights (β = 0.56, t = 10.55, p < 0.05) significantly affect attitude toward advertisement. However, it was identified that credibility (β = 0.08, t = 1.29, p > 0.05) and information (β = 0.04, t = 0.47, p > 0.05) have a non-significant effect. The mediating effect of religio-spiritual insights was also confirmed using specific indirect effects. It was identified that religio-spiritual insights significantly mediate entertainment and attitude (β = 0.16, t = 2.92, p < 0.05), good for the economy and attitude (β = 0.18, t = 4.09, p < 0.05), and irritation and attitude (β = -0.12, t = 2.82, p > 0.05). The hypothesis related to the mediating effect of religio-spiritual insights between credibility and attitude (β = 0.04, t = 1.26, p > 0.05) and information and attitude (β = 0.02, t = 0.46, p > 0.05) was not confirmed. Table 3 shows the summary of the hypothesis testing results.

Table 3
Hypothesis testing using PLS-SEM

DISCUSSION

This study aimed to analyze the mediating effect of religio-spiritual insights between consumers’ attitudes toward advertising and their determinants. Two different advertisements were selected as stimuli, i.e., one was an irritating advertisement and the other was a religious advertisement. Data were collected using the survey method, and household consumers were approached. The results of this study suggest that TV advertisements aired during a religious festival should contain the religio-spiritual insights of the consumers to avoid irritation. The results of the hypothesis are discussed below:

  • Religio-spiritual insights: Religio-spiritual insights have emerged as a higherorder construct that has a significant effect (β = 0.75, p value < 0.05) on consumers’ attitudes toward advertising in the case of the religious advertisement. When there was an irritating advertisement, religio-spiritual insights (β = 0.56, p value < 0.05) significantly affected the consumers’ attitude toward advertising. Results not only validate the construct but also confirm the religio-spiritual contemplations of the consumers because the responses were taken during the religious festival of Ramadan. Results suggest that marketers should incorporate religio-spiritual contemplations of the consumers in their TV advertisements (Mansour & Diab, 2016Mansour, I. H. F., & Diab, M. E. D. (2016). The relationship between celebrities’ credibility and advertising effectiveness: The mediation role of religiosity. Journal of Islamic Marketing, 7(2), 148–166. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIMA-05-2013-0036
    https://doi.org/10.1108/JIMA-05-2013-003...
    ; Masood, 2018Masood, F. B. (2018). Construction of a scale to measure Muslim religiosity in Pakistan [Unpublished master’s thesis]. University of Karachi.; Minton, 2019Minton, E. A. (2019). Believing is buying: Religiosity, advertising skepticism, and corporate trust. Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion, 16(1), 54–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/14766086.2018.1437764
    https://doi.org/10.1080/14766086.2018.14...
    ). Results also suggest that marketers should design a separate TV advertisement for each religious festival because advertising campaigns designed for other festivals may offend consumers when they celebrate a religious festival with high religious and spiritual contemplations (Badri, 2000Badri, M. (2000). Contemplation: An Islamic psychospiritual study. International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvk8w1xc
    https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.2307/...
    ; Hasnain, 2017Hasnain, A. (2017, June 9). PEMRA bans Fahad Mustafa’s QMobile TVC: Here’s why! Brandsynario. https://www.brandsynario.com/pemra-bans-fahad-mustafas-qmobile-tvc-heres/
    https://www.brandsynario.com/pemra-bans-...
    ; Propakistani, 2015Propakistani. (2015, July 31). PEMRA asks TV channels to stop vulgarity, excessive ADs. https://propakistani.pk/2015/07/31/pemra-asks-tv-channels-to-stop-vulgarity-excessive-ads/
    https://propakistani.pk/2015/07/31/pemra...
    ).

  • Credibility: Credibility (β = 0.39, p value < 0.05) significantly affects consumers’ religio-spiritual insights when there is a religious advertisement. However, it was identified that credibility (β = 0.08, p value > 0.05) has a non-significant effect when there is an irritating advertisement. Although previous literature has substantiated the significant effect of credibility (Ling et al., 2010Ling, K. C., Piew, T. H., & Chai, L. T. (2010). The determinants of consumers’ attitude towards advertising. Canadian Social Science, 6(4), 114–126.; Sallam & Wahid, 2012Sallam, M. A. A., & Wahid, N. A. (2012). Endorser credibility effects on yemeni male consumer’s attitudes towards advertising, brand attitude and purchase intention: The mediating role of attitude toward brand. International Business Research, 5(4), 55–66. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v5n4p55
    https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v5n4p55...
    ), the credibility of the source does not matter when the advertisement irritates consumers. The results of this study emphasize the importance of celebrity selection for religious advertisements because a celebrity who is famous for other campaigns may offend consumers when cast in a religious TV advertisement (Mansour & Diab, 2016Mansour, I. H. F., & Diab, M. E. D. (2016). The relationship between celebrities’ credibility and advertising effectiveness: The mediation role of religiosity. Journal of Islamic Marketing, 7(2), 148–166. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIMA-05-2013-0036
    https://doi.org/10.1108/JIMA-05-2013-003...
    ). Contrarily, a religious celebrity can be considered non-credible when an advertisement is irritating to consumers.

  • Entertainment: Entertainment (β = 0.20, p value < 0.05) significantly affects religio-spiritual insights when there is a religious advertisement. Similarly, entertainment (β = 0.28, p value < 0.05) significantly affects religio-spiritual insights when there is an irritating advertisement. The significant effect of entertainment has also been observed in the literature, and the results are consistent with previous studies (Aydın, 2016Aydın, G. (2016). Attitudes towards digital advertisements: Testing differences between social media ads and mobile ads. International Journal of Research in Business Studies and Management, 3(2), 1-11. https://wwwijrbsm.org/pdf/v3-i2/1.pdf
    https://wwwijrbsm.org/pdf/v3-i2/1.pdf...
    ; Le & Nguyen, 2014Le, T. D., & Nguyen, B. T. H. (2014). Attitudes toward mobile advertising: A study of mobile web display and mobile app display advertising. Asian Academy of Management Journal, 19(2), 87–103.; Raktham et al., 2017Raktham, W., Chaipoopirutana, S., & Combs, H. (2017). Factors influencing consumer attitudes toward social media advertising [Conference paper]. International Conference on Humanities, Social Sciences and Education (HSSE’17), London.; Zabadi et al., 2012Zabadi, A. M. A., Shura, M., & Elsayed, E. A. (2012). Consumer attitudes toward SMS advertising among Jordanian users. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 4(1), 77–94. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v4n1p77
    https://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v4n1p77...
    ). Although entertainment is referred to as the concept of fun and enjoyment depicted in advertisements, consumers often feel entertained when they see a sophisticated and nice advertisement as well. Therefore, it does not mean that a religious advertisement has to depict socially unacceptable visuals during religious festivals. In religious TV advertisements, consumers enjoy lively moments presented in the advertisement, such as happiness, love, and feelings (Abdel-Khalek & Tekke, 2019Abdel-Khalek, A. M., & Tekke, M. (2019). The association between religiosity, well-being, and mental health among college students from Malaysia. Revista Mexicana de Psicología, 36(1), 5-16. https://www.redalyc.org/journal/2430/243058940001/html/
    https://www.redalyc.org/journal/2430/243...
    ).

  • Good for the economy: Good for the economy (β = 0.09, p value < 0.05) significantly affects consumers’ religio-spiritual insights when consumers watch a religious advertisement. When consumers watched the irritating advertisement, results suggested that there is a significant effect of good for the economy (β = 0.31, p value < 0.05). The results are consistent with the previous studies (Wang et al., 2002Wang, C., Zhang, P., Choi, R., & D’Eredita, M. (2002). Understanding consumers attitude toward advertising. Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS Proceedings), 1143–1148. https://jiad.org/files/hci/amcis02_minitrack/rip/wang.pdf
    https://jiad.org/files/hci/amcis02_minit...
    ; Wulan & Ariyanti, 2017Wulan, A. S., & Ariyanti, M. (2017). The influence of advertising on the consumers attitude followers in instagram dagelan. American Academic Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences, 36(1), 58–74. https://asrjetsjournal.org/index.php/American_Scientific_Journal/article/view/3242
    https://asrjetsjournal.org/index.php/Ame...
    ; Zabadi et al., 2012Zabadi, A. M. A., Shura, M., & Elsayed, E. A. (2012). Consumer attitudes toward SMS advertising among Jordanian users. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 4(1), 77–94. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v4n1p77
    https://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v4n1p77...
    ). Although the effect of good for the economy is not a good effect, i.e., the coefficient is less than 0.2 (Cohen, 1988Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203771587
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203771587...
    ; Kline, 2015Kline, R. B. (2015). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (4th ed.). Guilford.), discounts and promotions attract consumers to such TV advertisements (Odabas & Attar, 2018Odabas, Z. Y., & Attar, E. G. (2018). Celebratıon of Ramadan: The case of Turkey. In A. Beniwal, R. Jain, & K. Spracklen (Eds.), Global leisure and the struggle for a better world (pp. 75–94). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70975-8_4
    https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70975-...
    ; Odabasi & Argan, 2009Odabasi, Y., & Argan, M. (2009). Aspects of underlying Ramadan consumption patterns in Turkey. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 21(3), 203–218. https://doi.org/10.1080/08961530802202891
    https://doi.org/10.1080/0896153080220289...
    ). Products offered during religious festivals are often marketed as package deals that are liked by consumers. TV advertisements should promote nationalism and unity among the people to motivate the customers to use their brand, which may bring a change in their lifestyle (Munusamy & Hoo, 2007Munusamy, J., & Hoo, W. C. (2007). Attitude towards advertising among students at private higher learning institutions in Selangor. University Tun Abdul Razak e-Journal, 3(1), 31–51. https://myjurnal.mohe.gov.my/public/article-view.php?id=69971
    https://myjurnal.mohe.gov.my/public/arti...
    ; Wulan & Ariyanti, 2017Wulan, A. S., & Ariyanti, M. (2017). The influence of advertising on the consumers attitude followers in instagram dagelan. American Academic Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences, 36(1), 58–74. https://asrjetsjournal.org/index.php/American_Scientific_Journal/article/view/3242
    https://asrjetsjournal.org/index.php/Ame...
    ).

  • Information: Information (β = 0.39, p value < 0.05) significantly affects consumers’ religio-spiritual insights when consumers watch a religious advertisement. Contrarily, it was identified that information (β = 0.04, p value > 0.05) has a non-significant effect in the case of the irritating advertisement. The results are consistent with previous studies of advertising in which information has been selected as an independent variable (Wang et al., 2002Wang, C., Zhang, P., Choi, R., & D’Eredita, M. (2002). Understanding consumers attitude toward advertising. Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS Proceedings), 1143–1148. https://jiad.org/files/hci/amcis02_minitrack/rip/wang.pdf
    https://jiad.org/files/hci/amcis02_minit...
    ; Zabadi et al., 2012Zabadi, A. M. A., Shura, M., & Elsayed, E. A. (2012). Consumer attitudes toward SMS advertising among Jordanian users. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 4(1), 77–94. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v4n1p77
    https://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v4n1p77...
    ). TV advertisements designed for religious festivals should present information related to the product/service, as the consumers will try to seek information through such advertisements. However, the provision of information does not matter if consumers find that advertisement irritating. Anyway, heavy or cluttered information must be avoided (Aaker & Bruzzone, 1985Aaker, D. A., & Bruzzone, D. E. (1985). Causes of irritation in advertising. Journal of Marketing, 49(2), 47–57. https://doi.org/10.2307/1251564
    https://doi.org/10.2307/1251564...
    ), as people celebrating a religious festival may be distracted by text-based visuals since too much text can develop clutter in the consumers’ minds.

  • Irritation: When consumers responded to a religious advertisement, a non-significant effect of irritation (β = -0.05, p value > 0.05) was identified on consumers’ religio-spiritual insights. However, the effect of irritation (β = -0.21, p value < 0.05) on religio-spiritual insights was found significant when there was an irritating advertisement. Although several studies on advertising show the significant effect of irritation, there are some studies in which this effect was found to be insignificant. For example, a study conducted to analyze the effect of irritation on attitudes toward mobile advertising in Pakistan shows a non-significant effect of irritation (Hameed et al., 2016Hameed, F., Rehman, H., & Awan, Y. (2016). Measuring the determiniants of consumer perception regarding mobile advertisng in Pakistan: A comparison between private and public sector universities. Science International, 28(1), 735–741. http://www.sci-int.com/pdf/636911000957790377.pdf
    http://www.sci-int.com/pdf/6369110009577...
    ).

In this study, the non-significant effect of irritation shows that consumers may not get irritated if they are engaged in religio-spirituality in a TV advertisement aired during a religious festival. The religio-spiritual insights engage the consumer, and their attitude becomes positive toward TV advertisements, neglecting the effect of irritation (Ansari, 2020Ansari, J. (2020). Measuring religio-spiritual insights that infuence attitude towards advertising during religious festivals [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Institute of Business Management.; Hameed et al., 2016Hameed, F., Rehman, H., & Awan, Y. (2016). Measuring the determiniants of consumer perception regarding mobile advertisng in Pakistan: A comparison between private and public sector universities. Science International, 28(1), 735–741. http://www.sci-int.com/pdf/636911000957790377.pdf
http://www.sci-int.com/pdf/6369110009577...
). Contrarily, if an irritating advertisement is broadcast, brands may deal with consumer backlash as the consumers start lodging complaints, due to which TV advertisements can be banned by the regulatory authority (Hasnain, 2017Hasnain, A. (2017, June 9). PEMRA bans Fahad Mustafa’s QMobile TVC: Here’s why! Brandsynario. https://www.brandsynario.com/pemra-bans-fahad-mustafas-qmobile-tvc-heres/
https://www.brandsynario.com/pemra-bans-...
).

RESEARCH IMPLICATIONS AND CONTRIBUTIONS

This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence that advertisements incorporating religio-spiritual insights reduce the irritation of consumers and that such advertisements can be aired during religious festivals to attract more consumers. For marketers and practitioners, this study suggests that incorporating religio-spiritual insights can help avoid the loss of marketing investment due to backlash of consumers, who protest when their religious contemplations are affected, which often leads to the banning of advertisements by regulators. Another contribution of this study is providing a comparison between two advertisements and providing empirical evidence that neglecting the religious and spiritual contemplations can increase the consumers’ irritation, which negatively affects consumers’ attitude toward advertising.

Theoretically, this study identified the significant mediating effect of religio-spiritual insights between consumers’ attitudes toward advertising and other constructs, such as credibility, information, entertainment, and good for the economy. The instrument of religio-spiritual insights extends the conceptual models developed based on the TRA. TV advertisements should convey a concise and clear advertising message to consumers considering their religious and spiritual contemplations to avoid irritation.

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH

Advertisements aired during religious festivals carry a high stake because huge budgets are typically allocated for advertising campaigns during popular long-duration religious festivals. Brands should design their advertisements in such a way that the types of products advertised during religious festivals fit into the spirit of such festivals, during which the religio-spiritual contemplations of the consumers are much higher than on other days. This study suggests that advertisements during religious festivals should incorporate the subconstructs of beliefs and practices, association with a higher power, interconnectedness with others, experiences, self-actualization, heart and mind involvement, knowledge and meanings related to humans, and individualism, in order to create a positive attitude toward advertising.

In this research, consumers that had a TV in their houses within a geographic boundary of a metropolitan city were approached for data collection. Two TV advertisements were selected as stimuli for the responses. TV advertisements of other brands related to detergents, oil, and charity organizations are ignored in this study. Further research can be conducted to analyze the impact of religio-spirituality on consumers’ attitudes toward advertising during other religious festivals. Consumer buying behavior and the attitudinal changes that occur after watching TV advertisements can also be investigated. Future research may also be conducted with other types of advertisements, such as radio, web, and short-message-service (SMS) advertisements. Since the research was conducted considering the religious festival of Ramadan, non-religious festivals that are celebrated across different cultures may also be studied.

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Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    24 July 2023
  • Date of issue
    2023

History

  • Received
    12 Dec 2021
  • Accepted
    12 Aug 2022
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