A cross-cultural and gender-specific examination of consumer skepticism toward advertising in general vs. pharmaceutical advertising – Empirical evidence from the U.S., Germany and China (Hong Kong)

The truthfulness of advertising messages is often doubted by consumers. This investigation analyzes whether there are differences in the skepticism toward advertising in general, and pharmaceutical advertising, in particular. The study is based on an investigation by Diehl, Mueller and Terlutter (2007, 2008), which compared the U.S. and Germany. The current study extends the analysis to China (Hong Kong). For the measurement of skepticism toward pharmaceutical advertising an adapted version of the SKEP scale (Obermiller and Spangenberg 1998) was used. A total of 341 Americans, 450 Chinese (Hong Kong) and 447 Germans took part in the survey. Whereas in Germany and the U.S. - as expected - skepticism toward pharmaceutical advertising was lower than skepticism toward advertising in general, no significant differences were found in Hong Kong. The paper further analyzes gender-specific differences in skepticism toward advertising in general, as well as toward pharmaceutical advertising. Results showed some significant differences. In each of the three countries, men were more skeptical than women, especially with regard to the informational content of the ads. Implications for governmental regulation of pharmaceutical advertising are discussed and recommendations for advertisers of pharmaceuticals are outlined.