TY - JOUR T1 - Ad Bites JF - Journal of Advertising Research JO - J Advert Res SP - 417 LP - 426 DO - 10.2501/JAR-51-2-417-426 VL - 51 IS - 2 AU - Ekin Pehlivan AU - Pierre Berthon AU - Leyland Pitt Y1 - 2011/06/01 UR - http://www.journalofadvertisingresearch.com/content/51/2/417.abstract N2 - 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. ER -