Purpose – The purpose of the study was to compare young adult responses to rational and emotional sports product advertisements. The moderating roles of product type and gender were also examined. Design/methodology/approach – The study utilized a 2 (advertising appeal: emotional vs rational) 32 (gender: male vs female)32 (sport product type: utilitarian vs hedonic) research design. Data were collected from 160 sport product users. The collected data were analyzed using three-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Findings – The results indicated that emotional advertising has a greater impact on the attitude toward advertising and the intention to purchase sports products. The results also revealed that rational advertising appeals have more impact for utilitarian sports products and that emotional advertising appeals are more effective for hedonic sports products. However, there were no significant effects for gender as a moderating variable. Originality/value – This is the first study to examine responses to rational and emotional appeals in sports product advertisements.
