Self-Deprecating Advertisements Enhance Consumers’ Perception of Experience-Related Product Attributes
(A2025-130378)

AUTHORS

Vaishnavi Kale, IE Business School, IE University, Madrid/G-81711459; Eda Sayin, IE Business School

ABSTRACT

Brands must ensure their advertising effectively conveys how their product performs on attributes assessable through actual consumer experience. While traditional strategies often rely on self-promoting claims to highlight positive product experiences (e.g., Energizer’s “It keeps going, and going, and going…”), our research demonstrates that consumers sometimes infer more positive product experiences when brands employ self-deprecating advertising. Drawing on the theory of compensatory reasoning and across three studies, we show that self- deprecating advertisements, by acknowledging product flaws, prompt consumers to infer compensatory strengths in experience-related attributes. Study 1 demonstrates that self- deprecating (vs. self-promoting) advertisements encourage consumers to generate more experience-focused inferences when brands highlight deficiencies in search attributes. Study 2 replicates these findings using a different product category. Study 3 directly measures consumers’ experience-related perceptions and shows that self-deprecating advertisements enhance these perceptions. This research offers insights into how consumers interpret, rationalize, and cognitively “fill in the gaps” for advertisements.