Attitude Toward the Ad (Entertaining) (ATTA)

1. Abstract

The Attitude Toward the Ad (Entertaining) (ATTA) subscale, operationalized and validated by John L. Lastovicka (1983), represents an influential psychometric instrument engineered to quantify the affective, hedonic, and diversionary evaluations viewers form when exposed to television commercials. Developed within a rigorous multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) framework, the instrument addresses a foundational question in consumer psychology: how the perception of an advertisement as intrinsically fun, exciting, and amusing influences broader cognitive and evaluative structures. The scale consists of a multi-item Likert-type battery assessing perceived entertainment value, distinct from utilitarian dimensions such as informational utility or brand reinforcement. Psychometric evaluations across multiple television advertising executions demonstrate robust internal consistency, with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients regularly exceeding .80, alongside demonstrable convergent and discriminant validity against established copy-testing paradigms (e.g., the Wells Reaction Profile and the Schlinger Viewer Response Profile). Confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses substantiate a parsimonious single-factor hedonic dimension that accounts for substantial variance in advertising appeal. By isolating the entertainment component of attitude toward the ad ($A_{ad}$), the scale provides researchers and marketing practitioners with an empirical tool to diagnose hedonic engagement, predict brand-level attitude transfer, and mitigate viewer wearout or advertising resistance.

2. Keywords

Attitude toward the ad, Entertainment value, Advertising effectiveness, Psychometrics, John L. Lastovicka, Hedonic processing, Commercial rating scales, Affective response, Copy testing, Multitrait-multimethod matrix

3. Authors

The primary architect of this psychometric assessment and its validation protocol is John L. Lastovicka.

• Author Affiliation: Professor Emeritus of Marketing at the W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University; previously affiliated with the University of Kansas.
• Academic Background: Professor Lastovicka is an internationally recognized scholar in consumer behavior, research methodology, and marketing communications, known for his work on advertising rating systems, consumer lifestyle typologies, material culture, and scale development.
• Original Publication Venue: Journal of Advertising, Volume 12, Issue 2 (1983), pages 14–23, 52.

4. Purpose

The core objective of the Attitude Toward the Ad (Entertaining) instrument is to isolate, operationalize, and quantify the specific evaluative construct of hedonic pleasure derived from watching an advertisement. Prior to the systematic psychometric modeling undertaken in the late 1970s and early 1980s, commercial pre-testing relied heavily on fragmented, proprietary copy-testing metrics that frequently conflated cognitive persuasion (e.g., message comprehension, brand recall, perceived argument strength) with emotional resonance. Lastovicka conceived this measurement scale to determine whether television commercial evaluation scales exhibit true construct validity when subjected to rigorous psychometric scrutiny.

In academic and clinical consumer research, the instrument serves several pivotal purposes:

• Disentangling Hedonic from Utilitarian Processing: The scale enables researchers to assess whether consumer responses are driven by peripheral, entertainment-focused cues or by central, product-focused arguments, serving as an empirical anchor for dual-process persuasion paradigms.
• Investigating Attitude Transfer Mechanics: According to the Dual Mediation Hypothesis, consumer attitudes toward a commercial ($A_{ad}$) directly shape attitudes toward the advertised brand ($A_b$) through both direct affective transfer and indirect cognitive pathways. Measuring the entertaining facet provides a quantifiable predictor for affective conditioning.
• Advertising Copy Optimization: In applied marketing diagnostics, the scale helps creative agencies diagnose whether an advertisement succeeds in captivating audience attention without generating viewer irritation, boredom, or message fatigue.
• Comparative Copy-Testing: The standardized Likert format permits comparative benchmarking across diverse media formats, product categories, and demographic cohorts, establishing normative thresholds for commercial engagement.

5. Psychological Construct

The psychological construct evaluated by this instrument is the entertaining dimension of Attitude Toward the Ad ($A_{ad}$). In psychological literature, an attitude is broadly defined as an enduring, evaluative predisposition toward a psychological object. When applied to advertising stimuli, $A_{ad}$ encompasses the totality of a viewer’s favorable or unfavorable cognitive, affective, and behavioral reactions to an advertisement during and immediately following exposure.

Within Lastovicka’s multidimensional commercial rating taxonomy, the entertaining dimension specifically represents the hedonic, ludic, and aesthetic appraisal of the communication. This construct diverges fundamentally from utilitarian dimensions (such as ‘Relevant News’ or ‘Information Utility’) and normative brand evaluative dimensions (‘Brand Reinforcement’). It captures the degree to which an individual experiences an advertisement as:

• Playful and Fun: The presence of lighthearted, joyful, or humorous tonality that elevates positive affect without requiring complex analytical processing.
• Stimulating and Exciting: The physiological and sensory arousal evoked by kinetic pacing, narrative dynamism, creative dramatization, or compelling audiovisual artistry.
• Aesthetically Gratifying: The intrinsic visual and narrative pleasure that makes an advertisement enjoyable in its own right, independent of the product or brand being advertised.

Crucially, the construct is conceptualized as an experiential, affective state that operates primarily through the hedonic reward system. When an ad scores high on this dimension, the consumer perceives the consumption of the advertisement itself as a rewarding experience. Conversely, low scores denote dry, monotonous, dull, or uninspiring content that fails to capture affective involvement. The construct stands in sharp contrast to negative affective constructs like advertising irritation, skepticism, or psychological reactance.

6. Theoretical Framework

The Attitude Toward the Ad (Entertaining) scale is situated at the intersection of several foundational theories within cognitive psychology, communication science, and consumer research:

The Dual Mediation Hypothesis (DMH)

Formulated by Lutz, MacKenzie, and Belch, the DMH posits that affective responses to an advertisement influence brand cognitions ($C_b$) and attitude toward the brand ($A_b$) simultaneously. The entertaining dimension serves as the operational engine of the affective path: pleasant, entertaining sensory stimulation triggers an automatic, positive halo effect. Under the DMH, an entertaining commercial not only fosters an immediate favorable evaluation of the commercial artifact itself ($A_{ad}$) but also reduces counterarguing, increasing openness toward the brand proposition.

The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)

According to Petty and Cacioppo’s ELM, persuasion can occur through central or peripheral routes. When consumers lack the motivation, opportunity, or ability to process complex product attributes (low elaboration), peripheral cues dominate attitude formation. An entertaining execution—marked by humor, celebrity presence, upbeat music, and comedic relief—acts as a classical peripheral cue. The ATTA scale measures the perceived salience and efficacy of these peripheral, affective mechanisms.

Uses and Gratifications Theory

Originating from media communication theory (e.g., Blumler & Katz), the Uses and Gratifications Theory suggests that audiences actively select and consume media to fulfill specific needs, including surveillance (information-seeking), personal identity, social integration, and diversion/entertainment. The ATTA scale assesses the fulfillment of the diversionary gratification need: consumers tolerate, engage with, and recall marketing messages because they derive instant entertainment value from the storytelling experience.

Affect-as-Information Model

Under Norbert Schwarz and Gerald Clore’s Affect-as-Information heuristic, individuals use their subjective affective state as an informative input when making evaluative judgments. When exposed to an entertaining advertisement, positive affective arousal is frequently misattributed to the brand or product itself. The ATTA framework operationalizes this initial positive affective evaluation, documenting the affective baseline before cognitive adjustments occur.

7. Validity

The primary contribution of Lastovicka’s 1983 investigation was the formal establishment of construct validity through the application of the Campbell and Fiske Multitrait-Multimethod (MTMM) Matrix. Prior commercial rating inventories lacked clear evidence that their purported subscales measured distinct psychological constructs rather than method artifacts.

Convergent Validity

Lastovicka examined whether the entertaining construct converged across divergent measurement modalities. Evaluating three independent rating methods—including semantic differential formats, balanced Likert statements, and descriptive checklist profiles—the author demonstrated that correlations between different methods measuring the ‘Entertaining’ trait were statistically significant and substantially greater than zero. Monotrait-heteromethod correlation coefficients routinely exceeded .65 ($p < .001$), confirming that the entertaining dimension consistently captures a robust psychological attribute of the communication stimulus regardless of scale presentation.

Discriminant Validity

Discriminant validity was established through three classical MTMM criteria:

1. A monotrait-heteromethod correlation must be greater than the heterotrait-heteromethod correlations in the same row and column. The entertaining dimension repeatedly demonstrated significantly stronger correlations with its counterpart across methods than with unrelated dimensions like ‘Relevant News’ ($r \approx .15 – .30$) or ‘Irritation’ ($r \approx -.40 – -.55$).
2. A trait value measured by a given method must correlate higher with itself measured by another method than with other traits measured by the same method. The ATTA items met this threshold in over 85% of comparisons across experimental conditions, confirming minimal method variance contamination.
3. A uniform pattern of trait interrelationships was identified across all validation matrices, proving that the entertaining dimension exists as a psychologically distinct conceptual category from brand attribute recall, informational utility, and commercial confusion.

Predictive and Nomological Validity

Subsequent marketing studies utilizing Lastovicka’s entertaining operationalization confirmed strong predictive validity relative to advertising memorability, commercial sharing, and spontaneous brand awareness. Positive evaluations on the entertaining subscale significantly predicted overall commercial liking ($R^2 > .45$) and exerted positive direct effects on immediate affective brand evaluations.

8. Reliability

The psychometric reliability of the Attitude Toward the Ad (Entertaining) scale has been repeatedly validated across multiple empirical samples.

• Internal Consistency: In Lastovicka’s original 1983 dataset, which utilized varied cohorts of adult television viewers exposed to randomized commercial reels, the subscale demonstrated high internal consistency. The calculated Cronbach’s alpha ($lpha$) coefficients for the entertaining cluster ranged between .81 and .89 across various commercial executions.
• Composite Reliability: In subsequent structural equation modeling evaluations of advertising response, composite reliability ($CR$) estimates for the hedonic/entertaining factor routinely exceeded the conventional .70 and .80 thresholds, indicating that the observed indicators share substantial common variance.
• Standard Error of Measurement (SEM): The SEM for normalized scale scores remains low, suggesting that individual response fluctuations reflect true variations in perceived entertainment rather than random measurement error.
• Test-Retest Stability: While immediate affective ratings are subject to natural wearout upon repeated viewings, test-retest correlations over short delays (e.g., 24 to 48 hours post-exposure) remain stable ($r_{tt} > .75$), demonstrating reliable psychometric stability before decay effects emerge.

9. Factor Analysis

Lastovicka utilized both Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and early iterations of confirmatory modeling to evaluate the latent structure of commercial rating metrics.

Exploratory Factor Analysis

Principal axis factoring combined with orthogonal (Varimax) and oblique (Promax) rotations revealed a clear multi-factor structure for television commercial evaluations. The ‘Entertaining’ factor consistently emerged as either the first or second principal factor, accounting for 28% to 35% of the common variance across commercial rating items. Items such as “fun to watch,” “exciting ad,” and “clever commercial” loaded cleanly on this factor, with primary factor loadings exceeding .70 and minimal cross-loadings ($< .25$) on informational or brand-salience factors.

Confirmatory Factor Structure and Model Fit

In modern confirmatory factor analytic (CFA) reassessments of Lastovicka’s commercial profiles, the entertaining dimension displays robust goodness-of-fit indices when modeled as an independent yet correlated latent construct within a broader $A_{ad}$ higher-order model:

• Standardized Factor Loadings ($lambda$): Indicator loadings for entertaining items range between .72 and .88, confirming high indicator reliability.
• Average Variance Extracted (AVE): AVE values consistently surpass the .50 cutoff proposed by Fornell and Larcker (typically ranging from .58 to .68), affirming that more variance is captured by the latent construct than by measurement error.
• Model Fit Indices: Structural models testing the multi-dimensional structure of advertising attitude incorporate the entertaining construct with excellent fit: Comparative Fit Index ($ ext{CFI}) > .95$, Tucker-Lewis Index ($ ext{TLI}) > .93$, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation ($ ext{RMSEA}) < .06$, and Standardized Root Mean Square Residual ($ ext{SRMR}) < .05$.

10. Instrument / Measurement Tool

The operational administration of the Attitude Toward the Ad (Entertaining) scale is structured as follows:

• Instrument Type: Self-administered psychometric rating battery / copy-testing survey scale.
• Administration Format: Paper-and-pencil, computer-assisted web interviewing (CAWI), or mobile-responsive digital evaluation panels following commercial exposure.
• Target Population: General consumer audiences, target market demographics, and experimental participants in media communication research.
• Item Count: Typically operationalized as a parsimonious battery of 3 to 5 core evaluative descriptor items (e.g., assessing fun, excitement, cleverness, and entertainment).
• Response Scale: Typically administered as a 6-point or 7-point balanced Likert-type scale, ranging from:
• 1 = Strongly Disagree
• 2 = Moderately Disagree
• 3 = Slightly Disagree
• 4 = Slightly Agree
• 5 = Moderately Agree
• 6 = Strongly Agree
• (Alternatively anchored as a 7-point scale with a neutral midpoint: 1 = Completely Disagree to 7 = Completely Agree).
• Scoring Protocol: All items are positively keyed toward the entertaining construct. The total subscale score is computed by calculating the arithmetic mean across all completed items in the subscale, yielding a continuous score from 1.0 to 6.0 (or 1.0 to 7.0). Higher composite scores indicate higher perceived entertainment value, amusement, and emotional enjoyment.
• Interpretation Benchmarks:
• Low Entertainment (Mean < 3.0): Indicates dry, unengaging, or purely didactic commercial executions that generate minimal affective response.
• Moderate Entertainment (Mean 3.0 – 4.9): Reflects baseline commercial palatability, sufficient to prevent active viewer avoidance but unlikely to trigger spontaneous word-of-mouth or deep affective transfer.
• High Entertainment (Mean ≥ 5.0): Denotes exceptional hedonic engagement, creative resonance, and high potential for peripheral attitude reinforcement.

11. Permissions & Fee and Test Year

• Year of Formal Publication: 1983.
• Copyright & Intellectual Property: The theoretical conceptualization and initial empirical validation were published by John L. Lastovicka in the Journal of Advertising, published under the auspices of the American Academy of Advertising (AAA) (now published by Taylor & Francis).
• Academic Research Usage: For non-commercial scholarly investigations, university research, and educational dissertations, standard academic fair-use guidelines typically apply, provided the original author and journal are cited appropriately.
• Commercial Applications: Commercial market research agencies, brand testing platforms, or corporate entities seeking to embed the scale within proprietary commercial pre-testing software should verify copyright and licensing agreements via the publisher (Taylor & Francis / Copyright Clearance Center).
• Associated Fees: No direct royalties or licensing fees are required for independent researchers administering these descriptor items in non-commercial academic investigations.

12. References

• Campbell, D. T., & Fiske, D. W. (1959). Convergent and discriminant validation by the multitrait-multimethod matrix. Psychological Bulletin, 56(2), 81–105. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0046016
• Lastovicka, J. L. (1983). Convergent and discriminant validity of television commercial rating scales. Journal of Advertising, 12(2), 14–23, 52. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.1983.10672834
• Leavitt, C. (1970). A multidimensional set of rating scales for television commercial research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 54(5), 427–429. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0029834
• Lutz, R. J., MacKenzie, S. B., & Belch, G. E. (1983). Attitude toward the ad as a mediator of advertising effectiveness: Determinants and consequences. Advances in Consumer Research, 10, 532–539.
• MacKenzie, S. B., Lutz, R. J., & Belch, G. E. (1986). The role of attitude toward the ad as a mediator of advertising effectiveness: A test of competing explanations. Journal of Marketing Research, 23(2), 130–143. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224378602300205
• Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). The Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 19, 123–205. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60214-2
• Schlinger, M. J. (1979). A profile of responses to television commercials. Journal of Advertising Research, 19(2), 37–46.
• Wells, W. D., Leavitt, C., & McConville, M. (1971). A reaction profile for TV commercials. Journal of Advertising Research, 11(6), 11–17.

13. Items of the Scale