The diffusion of generative artificial intelligence (AI) into advertising is reshaping marketing practices, with AI-generated advertisements gaining prominence as a novel trend. Despite this growth, consumer responses remain ambivalent, characterized by persistent biases and heterogeneous acceptance levels that constrain advertising effectiveness. This study explores how attitudes toward traditional versus AI-generated advertisements differ, while also assessing the moderating roles of AI literacy and AI disclosure. Two controlled experiments were conducted. Findings from Experiment 1 reveal that consumers consistently evaluated traditional advertisements more favorably, irrespective of whether ad type was accurately disclosed. Results from Experiment 2 further reveal that individuals with high AI literacy evaluated AI-generated ads more positively and were less sensitive to AI disclosure, whereas those with low AI literacy exhibited broadly negative responses. These results demonstrate the conditional influence of AI literacy on the acceptance of AI-driven advertising, offering new insights for theory development and practical guidance for designing effective AI-based advertising strategies.
Shi et al. (2026) studied this question.