The Role of Homophily in Transformative Advertising Research: An Acid Assault Perspective

Globally, thousands of women suffer irreversible disfigurement from acid assault, an act of culturally bound gender-based violence. This study situates its investigation within this troubling context and considers how advertising, as an institution, can enhance the well-being of stigmatized groups, as well as the role of homophily in this process. Through abductive reasoning and netnographic analysis, we examine advertising audiences’ reactions to a campaign in India that features an advertising influencer, disfigured by acid assault. Our findings advance transformative advertising research by first introducing destigma-vertising, a distinct form of advertising that mitigates harmful societal norms and combats stigma by developing institutional legitimacy. Second, we identify the role of homophilous ties between an advertising influencer and audiences in reducing social stigma. Third, we offer a nascent conceptual framework that highlights how, through homophily, the destigmatization by advertising audiences can delegitimize social norms and lead to marketplace change.