This article examines the manner in which advertising creativity may be influenced by “near” primes in the form of competitor product information that is presented at the briefing stage of engagement with a client. Drawing on the associative theory of creativity and spreading activation theory, this study explores the impact of near primes on both the originality and appropriateness of advertising output and highlights the process mechanism by which it affects overall creativity. Results of a between-subjects experiment indicate that exposing individuals to near primes results in a fixation effect that negatively influences originality but positively influences appropriateness. Associative cognitive flexibility, as measured by the number of “far” analogies accessed during ideation, is shown to be a strong mediator of the relationship between near prime exposure on creativity. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
AmabileT. M. (1983). The social psychology of creativity: A componential conceptualization. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 357–376.
2.
AmabileT. M. (1996). Creativity in context. Westview Press.
3.
AmabileT. M. (1997). Motivating creativity in organizations: On doing what you love and loving what you do. California Management Review, 40, 39–58.
4.
American Psychological Association. (2018). APA dictionary of psychology.
5.
AndersonJ. R. (1983). A spreading activation theory of memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 22, 261–295.
6.
AngS. H.LeeY. H.LeongS. M. (2007). The ad creativity cube: Conceptualization and initial validation. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 35, 220–232.
7.
AngS. H.LeongS. M.LeeY. H.LouS. L. (2014). Necessary but not sufficient: Beyond novelty in advertising creativity. Journal of Marketing Communications, 20, 214–230.
8.
AntoniettiA. (1996). Source processing influences analogical problem solving. The Journal of General Psychology, 123, 249–258.
9.
BaackD. W.WilsonR. T.TillB. D. (2008). Creativity and memory effects: Recall, recognition, and an exploration of nontraditional media. Journal of Advertising, 37, 85–94.
10.
BarghJ. A.BondR. N.LombardiW. J.TotaM. E. (1986). The additive nature of chronic and temporary sources of construct accessibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 869–878.
11.
BonnardelN.MarmecheE. (2004). Evocation processes by novice and expert designers: Towards stimulating analogical thinking. Creativity and Innovation Management, 13, 176–186.
12.
BootN.BaasM.van GaalS.CoolsR.De DreuC. K. (2017). Creative cognition and dopaminergic modulation of fronto-striatal networks: Integrative review and research agenda. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 78, 13–23.
13.
BrownA. S.MurphyD. R. (1989). Cryptomnesia: Delineating inadvertent plagiarism. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 15, 432–442.
14.
ChiuI.ShuL. H. (2012). Investigating effects of oppositely related semantic stimuli on design concept creativity. Journal of Engineering Design, 23, 271–296.
15.
DahlD. W.MoreauP. (2002). The influence and value of analogical thinking during new product ideation. Journal of Marketing Research, 39, 47–60.
16.
DaviesM. (2000). Using an analytic hierarchy process in advertising creativity. Creativity and Innovation Management, 9, 100–108.
17.
DreistadtR. (1969). The use of analogies and incubation in obtaining insights in creative problem solving. The Journal of Psychology, 71, 159–175.
18.
DrewnianyB.JewlerA. (2013). Creative strategy in advertising. Cengage Learning.
19.
El-MuradJ.WestD. C. (2004). The definition and measurement of creativity: What do we know?Journal of Advertising Research, 44, 188–201.
20.
FinkeR. A.WardT. B.SmithS. M. (1992). Creative cognition: Theory, research, and applications. MIT Press.
21.
GentnerD. (1989). The mechanisms of analogical transfer. In VosniadouS.OrtonyA. (Eds.), Similarity and analogical reasoning (pp. 99–124). Cambridge University Press.
22.
GentnerD.HolyoakK. J. (1997). Reasoning and learning by analogy: Introduction. American Psychologist, 51, 32–34.
23.
GickM. L.HolyoakK. J. (1980). Analogical problem solving. Cognitive Psychology, 12, 306–355.
24.
GierlH.ThomasS. (2017). The effect of eroticism in couple depictions in advertisements on brand evaluations. In ChristodoulidesG.StathopoulouA.EisendM. (Eds.), Advances in advertising research (Vol. VII, pp. 117–132). Springer Gabler.
25.
GinoF.ArielyD. (2012). The dark side of creativity: Original thinkers can be more dishonest. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 445–459.
26.
GoldenbergJ.MazurskyD.SolomonS. (1999). Toward identifying the inventive templates of new products: A channeled ideation approach. Journal of Marketing Research, 36, 200–210.
27.
GonçalvesM.CardosoC.Badke-SchaubP. (2014). What inspires designers? Preferences on inspirational approaches during idea generation. Design Studies, 35, 29–53.
28.
Gregan-PaxtonJ.JohnD. R. (1997). Consumer learning by analogy: A model of internal knowledge transfer. Journal of Consumer Research, 24, 266–284.
29.
GreyserS. A.KoppR. J. (1992). Cases in advertising and communications management. Prentice Hall.
30.
GruszkaA.NeckaE. (2002). Priming and acceptance of close and remote associations by creative and less creative people. Creativity Research Journal, 14, 193–205.
31.
HayesA. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. Guilford Press.
32.
HeathR.FeldwickP. (2008). Fifty years using the wrong model of advertising. International Journal of Market Research, 50, 29–59.
33.
HigginsE. T. (1989). Knowledge accessibility and activation: Subjectivity and suffering from unconscious sources. In BarghJ. A.UlemanJ. S. (Eds.), Unintended thought (pp. 75–123). Guilford Press.
34.
HigginsE. T. (1996). Knowledge activation: Accessibility, applicability, and salience. In KruglanskiA. W.HigginsE. T. (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (pp. 133–168). Guilford Press.
35.
JanssonD. G.SmithS. M. (1991). Design fixation. Design Studies, 12, 3–11.
36.
JoharG. V.HolbrookM. B.SternB. B. (2001). The role of myth in creative advertising design: Theory, process and outcome. Journal of Advertising, 30, 1–25.
37.
KeaneM. T. (1996). On adaptation in analogy: Tests of pragmatic importance and adaptability in analogical problem solving. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology A: Human Experimental Psychology, 49, 1062–1085.
38.
KilgourM.KoslowS. (2009). Why and how do creative thinking techniques work? Trading off originality and appropriateness to make more creative advertising. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 37, 298–309.
39.
KilgourM.KoslowS.O’ConnorH. (2019). Why Do great creative ideas get rejected? The effect of creative ideation processes on external judges’ assessments. Journal of Advertising Research. https://doi.org/10.2501/JAR-2019-028.
40.
KilgourM.SasserS.KoslowS. (2013). Creativity awards: Great expectations?Creativity Research Journal, 25, 163–171.
41.
KoslowS. (2015). I love creative advertising: What it is, when to call for it, and how to achieve it. Journal of Advertising Research, 55, 5–8.
42.
KoslowS.SasserS. L.RiordanE. A. (2003). What is creative to whom and why? Perceptions in advertising agencies. Journal of Advertising Research, 43, 96–110.
43.
KoverA. J.GoldbergS. M.JamesW. L. (1995). Creativity vs. effectiveness? An integrating classification for advertising. Journal of Advertising Research, 35, 29–41.
44.
LaneS. M.SchoolerJ. W. (2004). Skimming the surface: Verbal overshadowing of analogical retrieval. Psychological Science, 15, 715–719.
45.
LehnertK.TillB. D.OspinaJ. M. (2014). Advertising creativity: The role of divergence versus meaningfulness. Journal of Advertising, 43, 274–285.
46.
MednickS. A. (1962). The associative basis of the creative process. Psychological Review, 69, 220–232.
47.
MichellP. C. N.CataquetH.MandryG. D. (1996). Advertising agency creative reputation and account loyalty. Creativity and Innovation Management, 5, 38–47.
48.
MoreauC. P.DahlD. W. (2005). Designing the solution: The impact of constraints on consumers’ creativity. Journal of Consumer Research, 32, 13–22.
49.
PerkinsD. N. (1997). Creativity’s camel: The role of analogy in invention. In WardT.SmithS.VaidJ. (Eds.), Creative thought (pp. 523–538). American Psychological Association.
50.
Perry-SmithJ. E.MannucciP. V. (2017). From creativity to innovation: The social network drivers of the four phases of the idea journey. Academy of Management Review, 42, 53–79.
51.
PetersonR. A.KerinR. A. (1977). The female role in advertisements: Some experimental evidence. Journal of Marketing, 41, 59–63.
52.
PopeN. K. L.VogesK. E.BrownM. R. (2004). The effect of provocation in the form of mild erotica on attitude to the ad and corporate image: Differences between cause-related and product-based advertising. Journal of Advertising, 33, 69–82.
RatcliffR.McKoonG. (1981). Automatic and strategic priming in recognition. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 20, 204–215.
55.
RatcliffR.McKoonG. (1988). A retrieval theory of priming in memory. Psychological Review, 95, 385–408.
56.
ReidL. N.KingK. W.DelormeD. E. (1998). Top-level agency creatives look at advertising creativity then and now. Journal of Advertising, 27, 1–16.
57.
RietzschelE. F.NijstadB. A.StroebeW. (2007). Relative accessibility of domain knowledge and creativity: The effects of knowledge activation on the quantity and originality of generated ideas. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 933–946.
58.
RobertsD.BakerS.WalkerD. (2005). Can we learn together? Co-creating with consumers. International Journal of Market Research, 47, 405–426.
59.
RuncoM. A.JaegerG. J. (2012). The standard definition of creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 24, 92–96.
60.
SmithR. E.YangX. (2004). Toward a general theory of creativity in advertising: Examining the role of divergence. Marketing Theory, 4, 31–58.
61.
SpiroR. J.FeltovichP. J.CoulsonR. L.JacobsonM.DurgunogluA.RavlinS.JehngJ. C. (1992). Knowledge acquisition for application: Cognitive flexibility and transfer of training in III-structured domains. Center for the Study of Reading, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
62.
SrinivasanV.LovejoyW. S.BeachD. (1997). Integrated product design for marketability and manufacturing. Journal of Marketing Research, 34, 154–163.
63.
SternbergR. J.LubartT. I. (1999). The concept of creativity: Prospects and paradigms. In SternbergR. J. (Ed.), Handbook of creativity (pp. 3–15). Cambridge University Press.
64.
StuhlfautM. W. (2011). The creative code: An organisational influence on the creative process in advertising. International Journal of Advertising, 30, 283–304.
65.
StuhlfautM. W.Vanden BerghB. G. (2014). Creativity is . . .: A metaphoric model of the creative thought process. Journal of Marketing Communications, 20, 383–396.
66.
StuhlfautM. W.YooC. Y. (2013). A tool for evaluating advertising concepts: Desirable characteristics as viewed by creative practitioners. Journal of Marketing Communications, 19, 81–97.
67.
TaylorF. K. (1965). Cryptomnesia and plagiarism. British Journal of Psychiatry, 111, 1111–1118.
68.
TaylorR. E.HoyM. G.HaleyE. (1996). How French advertising professionals develop creative strategy. Journal of Advertising, 25, 1–14.
TurnbullS.WheelerC. (2017). The advertising creative process: A study of UK agencies. Journal of Marketing Communications, 23, 176–194.
71.
VendettiM.KnowltonB. J.HolyoakK. J. (2012). The impact of semantic distance and induced stress on analogical reasoning: A neurocomputational account. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 12, 804–812.
72.
WardT. B. (1994). Structured imagination: The role of category structure in exemplar generation. Cognitive Psychology, 27, 1–40.
73.
WeisbergR. W. (1988). Problem solving and creativity. In SternbergR. J. (Ed.), The nature of creativity: Contemporary psychological perspectives (pp. 148–176). Cambridge University Press.
74.
WestD. C.KoslowS.KilgourM. (2019). Future directions for advertising creativity research. Journal of Advertising, 48, 102–114.
75.
WestD. C.KoverA. J.CaruanaA. (2008). Practitioner and customer views of advertising creativity: Same concept, different meaning?Journal of Advertising, 37, 35–46.
76.
WhiteA.SmithB. L. (2001). Assessing advertising creativity using the creative product semantic scale. Journal of Advertising Research, 41, 27–34.
77.
WilsonR. T.BaackD. W.TillB. D. (2015). Creativity, attention and the memory for brands: An outdoor advertising field study. International Journal of Advertising, 34, 232–261.
78.
ZabelinaD. L.RobinsonM. D. (2010). Creativity as flexible cognitive control. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 4, 136–143.
