The effects of nostalgia cues in sexual health advertising.

An experimental design was conducted to investigate message effectiveness between reminiscence-bump format (RBF)/nostalgia message formats with traditional message formats in the context of health communication ads about sexual health. Reminiscence bumps, defined as a point in one's life where people can recall their life events, are proposed as a means for improving nostalgic advertising message effectiveness measure in the research. The dependent variables were emotional response, response efficacy (i.e. intent to adopt the behavior), attitude toward the message, and attitude toward the ad. Boomer-aged women completed an online survey. The research found evidence in support of the idea that nostalgic cues in health communication ads improved emotional response to the advertisement, which, in turn, improved their interest to act on health message recommendations.