Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of model age on female consumers’ purchase intentions and attitudes for an age-specific product such as clothing. The sample for this study consisted of 377 women between the ages of 30-80. The instrument designed for this study included four major scales to assess participants’ beliefs about fashion models depicted in clothing advertisements, participants’ purchase intentions of the clothing worn by the models in the advertisements, participants’ perceived similarity to the models shown in the ads, and participants’ perceived fashionability of the clothing worn by the models. The stimuli used in this study included four full-colored photographs of current fashion models. Findings revealed that participants preferred older models over younger models, with consumers exhibiting greater purchase intent of clothing appearing on older models. Moreover, perceived similarity was found to be a significant predictor of participants’ perspectives of the models, in terms of appearance and attractiveness, fashionability, and purchase intentions.

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