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John W. Pracejus - University of Alberta

Thomas C. O’Guinn - University of Wisconsin

G. Douglas Olsen - Arizona State University

Abstract: Previous work has demonstrated that the use of white space in advertising communicates specific meanings to consumers, and that this meaning derives from particular historical moments in art and visual rhetoric in 20th century North America.   The use of "empty space" in ads, however, can also be conceptualized as a signal of burning money, which could influence consumer perceptions about size and power through completely different mechanisms.  Somewhat surprisingly, nearly all empirical demonstrations of burning money in a consumer advertising context also manipulated white space, leaving the mechanism of action unclear. Results of three studies indicate that white space is different from other ways of burning money, and its meanings are sufficiently different across cultures to give strong support to the rhetorical explanation over the economic signaling one.  The findings call into question whether consumers ever infer quality from economic signals of burning money.