Briana Anderson - Cornell University

source credibility). Each person viewed two advertisements with two different
companies, two very similar messages about involvement in breast cancer research
and two different endorsers (one attractive, one unattractive). The company types
used were a cosmetics company (called “Azure Cosmetics”) and a pharmaceutical
company (called “Pharmco Pharmaceuticals”), where the cosmetics company
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represents a beauty-related company and the pharmaceutical company a non-beauty-
related company. There were four combinations of the endorsers and companies (see
Table 1 below). Additionally, public relations scholars have suggested that a CSR
campaign or initiative should be connected to an organization’s brand or identity
(Daugherty, 2001), so a pharmaceutical and cosmetics company were chosen because
both types of companies are related to breast cancer research (one with a woman focus
and the other with a focus on medical research).
Table 1
Research Design
Azure Cosmetics Pharmco
Pharmaceuticals
Attractive endorser 1 1 4
Attractive endorser 2
Unattractive endorser 3
Unattractive endorser 4
3 2
2 1
4 3
The messages (as would appear in a magazine or website) stated the
company’s involvement in a social responsibility activity, i.e. breast cancer research,
and were accompanied by a headshot picture of the company’s Human Resources