1. INTRODUCTION Advertisement choice is a marketing technique that allows streaming viewers to select the type of persuasive message to watch during a commercial break. Past research exploring advertisement choice has focused on the cognitive and attitudinal consequences of selecting a certain option. Schlosser and Shavitt (2009) found that choosing the semantic emphasis of the message (i.e. quality, style, or value) increased participants’ attitudes of the message and made them more resistant. Nettelhorst and Brannon (2012a) found that female but not male participants paid more attention to an advertisement after it was chosen than not. Nettelhorst and Brannon (2012b) found that advertisement choice only works for female and low need for cognition individuals (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982) when the choice was relatively difficult. Advertising research has not yet explored the impact of advertisement choice on important marketing factors pre-exposure. One notable example is viewers’ expectations of the upcoming advertisement. Palanismay (2004) found that customer expectations of banner advertisements impact their perceived effectiveness. Müller et al. (2009) found that negative expectations of publicly displayed advertisements decrease the amount of attention directed toward them. METHOD HYPOTHESIS Be Careful What You Wish For: The Impact of Advertisement Choice on Viewers’ Expectations Stephen C. Nettelhorst, Tusculum College Whitney K. Jeter, Kansas State University Laura A. Brannon, Kansas State University RESEARCH QUESTIONS Does advertisement choice increase viewers’ expectations of the upcoming message? Do female viewers have greater advertisement expectations than male viewers? Does advertisement choice have a greater impact on female viewers’ expectations than male viewers’? H1: Choosing the advertisement will produce greater expectations than not making a choice for female but not male viewers. IV: Advertisement choice: Present or absent Control condition: Participants watched a MP3 advertisement without selecting it. Experimental condition: Participants watched the same MP3 advertisement after choosing to watch it over a digital camera advertisement. SV: Participant gender: Female or male Gender was assessed with a closed-ended demographic question at the beginning of the study. DV: Advertisement expectations Measured by six 7-point Likert items (see Table 1) adapted from Ducoffe (1996). DISCUSSION Hypothesis 1 was not supported. Advertisement choice increases expectations for both female and male viewers. Female viewers have greater expectations regardless of choice. Advertisement choice may be a risky but beneficial approach to marketing. Cognitive (e.g. attention) outcomes may improve when expectations increase. Viewers may be more likely to utilize systematic (Chaiken, 1980; 1987) or central routes (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986) of persuasion when expectations increase. Advertisement avoidance behaviors (Bellman, Schweda, & Varan, 2010; Fisher, 2011; Liebeskind, 2011) may decrease when expectations increase. RESULTS (CONT.) TABLE 1 PROCEDURE Participants saw 6:21 min clip from the Ellen DeGeneres Show. Participants were given advertisement choice or immediately shown the MP3 persuasive message. Participants saw 60 second Zune MP3 advertisement. Participants rated their expectations of the advertisement. Participants saw 5:03 min clip from Jimmy Kimmel Live. Gender significantly affected participants’ expectations of the advertisement, F(1, 188) = 5.25, p =.023, η 2 p =.027. Female participants (M = 5.21, SD = 1.15) had significantly greater expectations than male participants (M = 4.82, SD = 1.36). There was no significant interaction between advertisement choice and participant gender on advertisement expectations, F(1, 188) = 0.10, p =.751, η 2 p =.001. Difference between female advertisement expectations after advertisement choice (M = 5.46, SD = 1.20) and no choice (M = 5.11, SD = 1.13) was the same as male expectations after choice (M = 5.09, SD = 1.43) and no choice (M = 4.61, SD = 1.27). NumberQuestion Stem 1I expected the advertisement to be a good source of product information. 2I expected the advertisement to make product information immediately accessible. 3I expected the advertisement to be entertaining. 4I expected the advertisement to be fun to watch. 5I expected the advertisement to be annoying. (R) 6I expected the advertisement to be irritating. (R) FIGURE 1 PARTICIPANTS Two hundred seventy-one introductory psychology students from Tusculum College and Kansas State University participated. Majority were female (58%) and Caucasian (82%). The average age was 22 yrs (SD = 7.12). RESULTS Hypothesis was tested using 2 X 2 factorial ANOVA. Advertisement choice significantly affected participants’ expectations of the advertisement, F(1, 188) = 4.77, p =.030, η 2 p =.025 (see Figure 1). Expectations were significantly higher for the choice (M = 5.24, SD = 1.35) condition than no choice condition (M = 4.91, SD = 1.21).