Webpage Background and Viewer Attitudes

ABSTRACT For technical reasons commercials on the web, in the near future, are likely to appear in a portion of the monitor. If the videos do not fill up the entire screen, then the question becomes what should take up the rest of the space? Does the type of background have a significant impact on one9s attitude toward the commercial, the product being promoted, and the website itself? This paper reports an experiment to explore the potential relationship between webpage background and viewer attitudes. The results indicate that simpler backgrounds have significantly more positive impacts on attitude-toward-the-ad, attitude-toward-the-brand, purchase intention, and attitude-toward-the-website. These results are especially relevant for those situations where it is expected that the commercials will only be seen once.