How many pictures should your print ad have?

This study examines the impact of increasing the number of images in a print advertisement on affective and cognitive responses. In advertisements with both positive and negative pictures, increasing the number of positive (negative) images increases positive (negative) affect. However, consistent with theory regarding the mechanism underpinning affect integration in a simultaneous presentation context, in advertisements with only positive or only negative images, increasing the number of positive (negative) images of similar affective intensity does not increase positive (negative) affect. For both types of advertisements, additional pictures have no effects on attitude toward the ad when they exemplify a product attribute or benefit that an existing picture(s) already depicts.