Examining the Effects of Advertisement Setting and Actor Race on African Americans’ Intentions to Consume Baseball

Abstract

Given the steady decline of African American participation in and consumption of professional baseball in the United States, sport marketers are faced with challenges of capturing the interest and altering the consumption patterns of this important minority group. A primary objective of this research was to determine if African American participants would perceive a greater overall fit with a baseball advertisement if the actors and settings shown in the advertisement resembled their racial and cultural identities. Existing literature on the match-up hypothesis and theory of reasoned action guided this research and aided in hypothesis development. Two-hundred eighty-three African American participants were assigned to one of four experimental groups in which advertisement setting and actor race were controlled as treatment variables. Findings revealed interaction effects between setting and race on perceived fit with the advertisement, which had effects on attitudes towards baseball, subjective norms, and intentions to consume baseball.