2nd year PhD presentation - Raian Razal

14:00-14:45 via Teams: Click here to join the meeting

Raian Razal: 'Plain Protest or Colorful Celebration? The Impact of Representation Format on Consumer Responses to Pride Branding'
Supervisors: Polymeros Chrysochou & Trine Johansen (Comm. & Culture)
Discussants: John Thøgersen & Michael Zaggl

Abstract
The LGBTQ+ Pride movement has historically originated as a protest against inequalities, claiming equal rights for LGBTQ+ people. Alongside, it has also emerged as a colorful celebration of identities. Protest and celebration representations are part of brand communication efforts from companies standing up for such a societal issue. However, the effectiveness of such branding strategies is expected to vary. In this current research, we show that while the prevalence of celebration representations in brand-related content on social media (Twitter) is higher than protest representations, the latter results in higher consumer engagement. Two subsequent online experiments in an advertising context demonstrate that protest (vs. celebration) representations generate stronger (weaker) perceptions of identity relevance across sexual orientations (both LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+), with positive downstream effects on ad attitudes. The findings suggest that protest representations create more favorable responses, with identity relevance constituting one possible mechanism for this interplay, particularly among non-LGBTQ+ people. We discuss implications for theory and managerial practice, and avenues for future research.

Everyone is welcome!