This article investigates differences in the appreciation of open and closed advertisements. Ad openness refers to the amount of guidance towards a certain message in an advertisement. An open ad is defined as one which provides minimal guidance towards a certain message. Building on Phillips' research (2000), we studied whether the preference that she found for closed ads might be moderated or even reversed if Need for Cognition and comprehension of the ad are taken into account. We investigated appreciation for open and closed ads under conditions relatively favourable for processing open ads, using participants who are more motivated and able to interpret the ads than average. The results show that closed ads are still appreciated more than open ads, mainly because they are easier to understand. The expectation that Need for Cognition influences ad appreciation was not confirmed.
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