Classical and Vignette Television Advertising Dramas: Structural Models, Formal Analysis, and Consumer Effects

Abstract

This article identifies and analyzes two types of television advertising dramas: classical and vignette. Drama criticism in theater, film and television is the source used to identify the elements of advertising dramas--narration, plot, story, and character--and to propose models of the two different types. The two models are employed in an empirical analysis of an advertising sample. Consumer effects of classical and vignette dramas are proposed in terms of the attribution theory of persuasion and the elicitation of empathy versus sympathy responses. Copyright 1994 by the University of Chicago.