Measures the degree to which a consumer perceives an advertisement as different, uncommon, and unusual compared to other ads. Divergence is one of the two primary dimensions of advertising creativity in Smith et al.'s (2007) model — the other being relevance — and captures the extent to which an ad departs from the norm without specifying the nature of that departure. Used in cross-cultural research on advertising creativity and in studies of rhetorical advertising strategies.
7-point Likert-type (strongly disagree to strongly agree)
Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.
Scale created by Smith et al. (2007) as part of a two-factor model of advertising creativity (divergence x relevance). Items provided via personal correspondence with Lehnert (2015). Used by Lehnert, Till, and Ospina (2014) across three studies including a cross-cultural sample (US and Colombia) and advertising practitioners; convergent and discriminant validity supported in all three. Scale is intentionally general — items do not specify how the ad differs, making it applicable across ad formats and creative strategies. For the relevance dimension of ad creativity, a companion scale should be sought from Smith et al. (2007).
Smith, R.E., MacKenzie, S.B., Yang, X., Buchholz, L.M., & Darley, W.K. (2007). Modeling the determinants and effects of creativity in advertising. Marketing Science, 26(6), 819-833.
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