Advertising signaling theory predicts that the amount that a company invests in advertising impacts on consumers’ perception about the quality of a product (Anand & Shachar, 2009). For this signaling to occur, some specific conditions are necessary, for example, the product must be a repetitive purchasing product and its quality must not be observable at the time of purchase, but only during the consumption of the product (Kirmani & Rao, 2000). Advertising signaling is based on the assumption of a rational consumer, who is expected to perform an objective and deliberate evaluation of the advertising actions, taking into account the amount invested by the company in the advertisement production and media and the level of investments applied by competitors in the same market to perceive the quality signals. However, this strictly rational perspective has been questioned since Simon (1947, 1955) demonstrated that humans’ rationality is limited by several factors, such as cognitive resources and selective memory, which may influence judgments and decision making. More recently, researchers have argued that affect is also a source of bounded rationality, playing an important role in the way people think and make decisions (e.g., Hanoch, 2002; Kaufman, 1999; Muramatsu & Hanoch, 2005). The objective of the present research is to examine advertising signaling theory through the consumer information processing perspective, exploring the influence of the following three variables on these processes: the individual’s mood, the level of information asymmetry about the product’s attributes and the individual’s gender. The study was applied to 390 undergraduate students in France. Three factors were manipulated in the study: the advertising investment, which was manipulated in three levels (below, the average and above the market average advertising investments for similar campaigns), the subject’s mood (two levels, positive and negative) and the level of information asymmetry about the product’s attributes (two levels, high information asymmetry and low information asymmetry). Thus, the research had a 3 x 2 x 2 experimental design. Respondents were asked to declare their gender, which was considered in a subsequent analysis. Students were approached in the university and invited to participate in the study. Twelve booklet models (each booklet contained the activities and scales related to one experimental group) were randomly distributed among the respondents who accepted to participate of the study. The results of an ANOVA analysis showed main effects of mood (F (1, 376) = 13.31, p < .001), level of information asymmetry (F (1, 376) = 135.00, p < .001) and advertising investment (F (2, 376) = 31.06, p< .001) on the respondents’ quality perception. These main effects were obtained in a context of two significant interactions, between the advertising investment and mood (F (2, 376) = 3.68, p < .050) and mood and information asymmetry about the product (F (1, 376) = 19.05, p < .001). Regarding the first significant interaction, the results showed that subjects who were informed that the advertising investment was below the market average showed similar means of product evaluation whether they were in a positive (M = 5.47) or negative (M = 5.46) mood (F (1, 364) = .000, p > .10). Those who were informed that the advertising investment was at the market average evaluated the product as significantly better when in a positive (M = 6.40) than a negative (M = 5.91) mood (F (1, 364) = 6.29, p < .05). In the same way, respondents who were informed that the advertising investment was above the market level evaluated the product as significantly better when they were in a positive (MPA = 6.94) than a negative (MNA = 6.19) mood (F (1, 364) = 14.32, p < .001). The interaction between the individual’s mood and the level of information asymmetry about the product demonstrated that subjects who were exposed to a slight level of information asymmetry, receiving some information about the product’s attributes, showed similar means of product evaluation whether they were in a positive (M = 6.71) or a negative (M = 6.74) mood (F (1, 364) = .04, p > .10). By contrast, those who were not given any information about the product characteristics, being exposed to a severe level of information asymmetry, evaluated the product as significantly better when in a positive (M = 5.83) than a negative (M = 4.96) mood (F (1, 364) = 27.63, p < .001). A second ANOVA model was conducted to examine the influence of the advertising investment and the individual’s gender on the perceived product quality. The results showed main effects of the advertising investment (F (2, 376) = 31.56, p < .001) and gender (F (1, 376) = 9.77, p < .005) on the subjects’ quality perception. These main effects were qualified by a significant interaction between the advertising investment and the subjects’ gender (F (2, 376) = 5.28, p < .010). Women evaluated the product quality as better (MW = 5.81) than men (MM = 4.71) in the context of advertising investments below the market average (F (1, 370) = 19.05, p < .001). This difference disappeared in the contexts of advertising investment at the market average (MW = 6.19, MM = 6.14, F (1, 370) = .04, p > .10) and above the market average (MW = 6.70, MM = 6.52, F (1, 370) = .55, p > .10), in which men and women showed similar means of perceived product quality. The results show that positive mood influences in the individuals’ perceived product quality specifically in situations of advertising investment at the market average and above the market average. When individuals were informed that a level of advertising below the market average was invested, they demonstrated similar means of product evaluation irrespective of their mood. By contrast, in situations in which they were informed that the company invested approximately the same as competitors in similar advertising campaigns, or even above this amount, respondents who were in a positive mood evaluated the product as significantly better than those who were in a negative mood. The fact that the advertising investment interacts with the individual’s mood suggests that both variables are likely processed by the same information processing route, namely, the peripheral route (Elaboration Likelihood Model, Petty, Cacioppo and Schumann, 1983). That is, although individuals are expected to compute the information related to the advertising investment through the central route, the signal emitted through the advertising investment is more likely processed by the peripheral route. Thus, this signal is also a heuristic element on which individuals based their product evaluations. Our findings also demonstrate gender differences in the processing of the information signaled through the advertising investment only in situations of advertising investment below the market average. In the contexts in which the advertising investment was manipulated below the market average, women evaluated the product as better than men. Nevertheless, in situations in which the advertising investments were manipulated at the market average and above the market average, men and women showed similar levels of perceived product quality. An explanation for this effect is that women are better able than men to process the information sent through the advertising investment and, thus, to perceive the advertising signal only at a specific level of advertising investment. Above a certain level of advertising investment, men are as motivated as women to process this information, causing the gender differences to disappear. This finding is consistent with the Selectivity Model (Meyers-Levy, 1989), which predicts that some situational elements may stimulate men and women to engage in an effortful and detailed processing of the information that can eliminate the differences between the genders. Thus, in situations in which the investment in advertising is sufficient to encourage both women and men to process it, the genders become equally sensitive to the advertising signaling.

TV CF는 방송 프로그램의 시작과 중간 또는 끝 부분에 간단명료하게 메시지를 전달해야하는 절제된 영상으로, 수용자들 은 이를 통해 시장에 존재하는 제품에 관한 정보를 얻을 수 있고 어려운 판단의 기준으로 삼는다. 박카스는 오랜 기간 동안 TV광고를 통하여 상품이 아닌 시대의 트렌드를 반영하며 수용자들에게 공감과 찬사를 얻고 있으며 국민 광고로서 확고한 지위를 갖고 있다. 지난 2016년 3월부터 시작한 박카스의 새로운 캐페인 ‘나를 아끼자’의 ‘콜센터편’ ‘좋더라편’ ‘아껴서편’ 그리고 ‘생일파티편’까지 총 4편의 TV CF는 20대 젊은 세대들에게 위로와 응원의 메시지를 희망적으로 전달하였는데, 특 히 ‘콜센터편’은 이 시리즈의 첫 작품으로 광고 시작 1년 6개월이 지금까지도 계속해서 수용자들에게 회자되고 기억되고 있다. 이 연구에서는 ‘콜센터편’을 통하여 박카스 광고의 성공 이유와 차별점이 무엇인지를 살펴보고, 소비자 행동 이론을 모태로 한 수용자 정보처리과정을 활용하여 연구의 분석을 시도하고 있다. 수용자 정보처리 과정(Information Process)은 우연적이든 의도적이든 수용자가 노출된 광고에 주의를 기울이고 그 내용을 이해하여 새로운 신념이나 태도를 형성하거나 변화시키는 과정을 노출, 주의, 이해, 기억의 4단계로 구성하고 있다. 연구의 구성은 우선 수용자의 정보처리의 요인과 이 론적 논의를 진행하고, 이어서 ‘콜센터편’을 각각 노출, 주의, 이해, 기억의 단계로 세부적으로 분석하고 있다. 마지막 장에 서는 이를 통해서 수용자의 의사결정과정과 저장된 기억이 상품의 브랜드 이미지에 영향을 미칠 수 있는지 확인하고, 더불 어 수용자 정보처리과정이 TV광고의 분석 도구로서의 가능성을 살펴보고 있다.