and van Leeuwen 2006). Advertising research affirms that images are powerful tools, capable of persuading consumers to act or buy (Pieters and Wedel 2007), and an intricate interplay exists between text and pictorial elements in the same advertisement (Pieters and Wedel 2004). Increased attention to one ad element might be at the expense of or else spill over to other ad elements (Pieters and Wedel 2004). The wealth of visual, brand-related content on social media necessitates studying its unique impact on consumer sharing, as well as its joint implications with verbatim speech acts that appear in the same message. HYPOTHESES Implications of Speech Acts for Consumer Sharing Speech acts, manifest in both phrases and sentences, vary in the extent to which they elicit responses (Austin 1962; Searle 1969). Directive acts may appear more authoritarian (Dalton-Puffer 2005), signaling the dominance of the message sender over the recipient (Dillard and Shen 2005). Other arguments indicate that because directive speech acts generally are more conclusive, they leave less room for ambiguity and discussion relative to assertive or expressive speech. In addition, assertive and expressive speech acts require less processing, because they are salient and entertaining (Nastri, Pena, and Hancock 2006). Therefore, and in light of findings that show that consumers prefer non-forceful (e.g., “I’m loving it” from McDonald’s) over imperative (e.g., do it!”) brand messages (Kronrod et “Just al. 2012), we recognize the need to examine differential impacts of various speech acts on consumers’ message sharing. In particular, according to Carr, Schrock, and Dauterman’s (2012) linguistic analysis of status messages on Facebook, speech acts primarily feature expressive and assertive messages. Thus the ability of assertive and expressive messages to
and van Leeuwen 2006). Advertising research affirms that images are powerful tools, capable of persuading consumers to act or buy (Pieters and Wedel 2007), and an intricate interplay exists between text and pictorial elements in the same advertisement (Pieters and Wedel 2004). Increased attention to one ad element might be at the expense of or else spill over to other ad elements (Pieters and Wedel 2004). The wealth of visual, brand-related content on social media necessitates studying its unique impact on consumer sharing, as well as its joint implications with verbatim speech acts that appear in the same message. HYPOTHESES Implications of Speech Acts for Consumer Sharing Speech acts, manifest in both phrases and sentences, vary in the extent to which they elicit responses (Austin 1962; Searle 1969). Directive acts may appear more authoritarian (Dalton-Puffer 2005), signaling the dominance of the message sender over the recipient (Dillard and Shen 2005). Other arguments indicate that because directive speech acts generally are more conclusive, they leave less room for ambiguity and discussion relative to assertive or expressive speech. In addition, assertive and expressive speech acts require less processing, because they are salient and entertaining (Nastri, Pena, and Hancock 2006). Therefore, and in light of findings that show that consumers prefer non-forceful (e.g., “I’m loving it” from McDonald’s) over imperative (e.g., “Just do it!”) brand messages (Kronrod et al. 2012), we recognize the need to examine differential impacts of various speech acts on consumers’ message sharing. In particular, according to Carr, Schrock, and Dauterman’s (2012) linguistic analysis of status messages on Facebook, speech acts primarily feature expressive and assertive messages. Thus the ability of assertive and expressive messages to