Does History Really Matter: Investigating Historical Branded Executions’ Effects on Contemporary Consumer Attitudes

Marketing executions (e.g., advertisements, packaging, and brand imagery) incorporating racial or ethnic stereotypes are present in many brands’ histories. Over time, these executions have been updated to comport with societal norms, but much of the dated brand information remains accessible to consumers, especially via various digital platforms and archives. Over four studies, we investigate how exposure to these historical remnants affects contemporary consumers’ held brand attitudes, showing that these executions have a detrimental influence in certain marketplace subsegments. Respondents generally report more negative brand attitudes upon exposure to the historical execution based on perceived offensiveness (Studies 1, 2, and 3). Study 4 rounds out these findings by identifying that offensiveness perceptions are differentially tied to how consumers (majority vs. minority) utilize their egalitarian beliefs.