This research provides insight into the complex relationship between consumer response to persuasion attempts and skepticism, suggesting that erstwhile targets may be swayed by campaigns which are pitched as a form of entertainment. We examine consumer responses to an important sponsorship leveraging tool; sponsorship-linked advertising. A theoretical model of consumer response to sponsorship-linked advertising is proposed, drawing upon important resistance mechanisms to persuasion including ad skepticism, attributed advertiser motives and the nature of thoughts. Results confirm existing research on consumer skepticism suggesting its transitory nature, and hence potential for advertisers to strategically temper it through specific cues in ad execution. Differential processing between sponsorshiplinked advertising and traditional advertising is supported, such that sponsorship-linked advertising elicits more favorable cognitive response.

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