When Human Touch Matters: The Asymmetric Source–Product Fit of Ad Creator Type in Generative AI Advertising

초록

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is rapidly becoming embedded in advertising and digital marketing, enabling firms to produce and scale persuasive content with unprecedented efficiency. Yet little is known about when consumers perceive AI authorship as appropriate for different advertising contexts. Drawing on source-product fit, task-dependent algorithm aversion, and processing fluency research, this study examines whether the effect of ad creator type depends on the motivational meaning of the product being promoted. Using a 2 × 2 between-subjects factorial design--ad creator type (GenAI-generated vs. humancreated) × product type (vice vs. virtue food)--this study examined whether product type moderates the effect of ad creator type on perceived fluency and whether perceived fluency subsequently mediates the effect on ad credibility. Results showed a significant interaction between ad creator type and product type on perceived fluency. For the vice product, human-created advertising generated higher perceived fluency than GenAIgenerated advertising, whereas this difference was not significant for the virtue product. A moderated mediation analysis further showed that perceived fluency mediated the conditional effect of ad creator type and product type on ad credibility. These findings reveal a product-contingent human-authorship advantage: human authorship is especially valuable when advertising must communicate pleasure, temptation, and embodied experience. The study contributes to AI advertising and digital marketing research by identifying product meaning as a boundary condition for GenAI advertising effectiveness and perceived fluency as a mechanism linking creator-product fit to ad credibility.

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