Abstract
This paper investigates how consumers identify advertising. Research on new advertising formats such as advertorials etc. shows that they may be more effective than traditional advertising formats. While building on the underlying assumption that the new advertising formats blur the boundaries between advertising and its surrounding content, this has never been tested directly. We draw upon representation and categorization theory to hypothesize that a new advertising format, such as placing an ad message in a non-traditional advertising medium (which has never previously featured advertising), makes it more difficult to identify the message as advertising. As a result, consumers should activate their advertising schemas to a lesser extent and evaluate the message more favorably. An experiment, in which the ad message was placed in either a traditional or non-traditional medium, confirmed the hypotheses.