Title: Beyond the norm: exploring the paradigm shift in advertising tactics towards the unconventional and provocative

Authors: Tegegne Tesfaye Haile

Addresses: Department of AI-Based Management, Gangseo University, 47 Kkachisan-ro 24-gil, Gangseo-gu, Seoul, 07661, South Korea

Abstract: In today's digital media landscape, advertisers use provocative and emotionally charged strategies to capture attention. This study examines how provocativeness, emotional tone, cultural relevance, and visual appeal influence purchase intention, with emotional response and ad recall as mediators. Using survey data from 402 respondents, structural equation modelling (SEM) was conducted with AMOS, and SPSS supported preliminary analyses. Results show that provocativeness and cultural relevance significantly enhance emotional response, while visual appeal strongly increases ad recall. Mediation tests reveal that emotional response does not significantly link provocativeness or cultural relevance to purchase intention. Similarly, emotional tone did not influence ad recall or purchasing behaviour. In contrast, ad recall significantly mediated the effect of visual appeal on purchase intention, emphasising cognitive over affective mechanisms. The study highlights recall as a critical pathway to consumer action and suggests that visually engaging ads outperform those relying solely on emotion.

Keywords: advertising effectiveness; emotional response; ad recall; visual appeal; purchase intention.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBSR.2026.154659

International Journal of Business and Systems Research, 2026 Vol.20 No.3, pp.235 - 256

Received: 07 Oct 2025
Accepted: 28 Oct 2025
Published online: 09 Jul 2026 *

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