Hemispheric processing theory suggests that adding information to support verbal claims in an advertisement may influence the subconscious processing of the claims. Experiment 1 shows nonattended pictorial and verbal advertisements can compete for subconscious resources needed to process an attended verbal message and thus influence the comprehension and memory of the message. Experiment 2 shows similar patterns of interference result when brand claims are accompanied by a product illustration or verbal headline. In each experiment, interference is shown to be a function of the form of the material accompanying the verbal message and its placement in relation to the message. Implications for the design and layout of marketing communications are discussed.
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