%0 Journal Article %A Ekin Pehlivan %A Pierre Berthon %A Leyland Pitt %T Ad Bites %B Toward a Theory of Ironic Advertising %D 2011 %R 10.2501/JAR-51-2-417-426 %J Journal of Advertising Research %P 417-426 %V 51 %N 2 %X Irony is employed to add edge or bite to advertising—to make it stand out. Yet the irony of ironic advertising is that it is used but not thoroughly understood; practiced but not well researched. In this study, the authors set out to remedy this failing by laying the foundations of research into ironic advertising. Specifically, they define a construct and then develop a theory that explains how ironic advertising works. From this, they develop a series of propositions that specify how a message and its interpretation interact to determine the relative efficacy of an ironic communication. The article then outlines a research agenda and concludes by specifying the contribution of the theory to practitioners and researchers. %U https://www.journalofadvertisingresearch.com/content/jadvertres/51/2/417.full.pdf