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The authors examined how identity primes and social distinctiveness influence identity salience (i.e., the activation of a social identity within an individual's social self-schema) and subsequent responses to targeted advertising. Across 2 studies, individuals who were exposed to an identity prime (an ad element that directs attention to the individual's social identity) and who were socially distinctive (minorities in the immediate social context) expressed systematically different evaluations of spokespersons and the advertisements that featured them. Specifically, Asian (Caucasian) participants responded most positively (negatively) to Asian spokespeople and Asian-targeted advertising when the participants were both primed and socially distinctive. No main effects of identity primes or social distinctiveness were found. The implications of these findings for identity theory, advertising practice, and intervention communications are discussed.

In consumer behavior, a great deal of research has discussed the influence of social identity (e.g., shared traits, common avocations, matching political affiliations, similar religious beliefs, and common ethnic heritages; cf. Deaux, Reid, Mizrahi, & Ethier, 1995) on consumer attitudes and judgments (cf., R. E. Kleine, Kleine, & Kernan, 1993; Laverie, Kleine, & Kleine, 2002). For example, a consumer's social identity is more predictive of his or her behavior when the consumer's identity has been explicitly labeled (Tybout & Yalch, 1980). Consumers also respond differently to gender-oriented appeals when their gender schemas have been activated (Meyers-Levy, 1988; Jaffe, 1991). More recently, the accessibility of a consumer's traits has been found to positively...