Abstract
Pictures play a dominant role in advertising execution. The picture superiority effect, i.e., that ads containing pictures are better remembered than ads without pictures, has long influenced the advertising industry. The findings that pictures not only transfer affect but can also convey advertising claims and that pictorial messages have a greater impact than verbal messages, give rise to the question of whether there is ever any reason to use text-based ads. In the present article, one advantageous effect of text-based ads is hypothesized and supported: in a low involvement setting, a more easily interpreted text-based ad can be processed more systematically and can therefore convey an ad message (such as a new brand attribute) better than an imagery-evoking pictorial ad.