This study examines Japanese and Americans’ perceptions of disaster ads. The three-selves model is used to explain the in-group and out-group effects of disaster ads, while the theory of planned behavior is used to explain the antecedents of a donor’s attitude toward disaster ads. Donation motivation, donation belief, social influence, attitude towards helping charities, attitude toward helping others, affective responses, cognitive responses, and willingness to donate were examined. For a 2 x 2 experimental treatment, two disaster locations (U.S. and Japan) and two types of ads (factual and emotional) were used. The findings imply that Americans’ donation motivation and donation belief are significantly related to attitude toward helping charities. The attitude toward helping charities is strongly related to cognitive response and willingness to donate. For Japanese, donation motivation and social influence are strongly related to attitude toward helping charities and others. Also, attitude toward helping charities influences cognitive response, and attitude toward helping others affects affective response. A managerial implication, for Japanese, is that cultivating a positive attitude toward helping charities and others is important to increase cognitive and affective responses toward ads and the responses directly related to willingness to donate. For Americans, emphasizing positive attitude toward helping charities is important to increase a positive cognitive response which is related to willingness to donate.