What Happens When Ads Say They Were Made With AI
A new study led by a McCoy College marketing professor tests how disclosing that an ad was generated by AI affects consumer attitudes, purchase intent, and social media engagement. The abstract was not available when this summary was written, so results are not reported here.
Advertisers are using generative AI to write copy and produce images at scale. Platforms and regulators are asking them to say so. Whether that disclosure helps or hurts a campaign is an open question. A new paper in the International Journal of Advertising takes it on.
The lead author is Rick Wilson, Professor of Marketing at the McCoy College of Business at Texas State University. His co-authors are Thérèse Roux of Tshwane University of Technology in South Africa and Laura F. Bright of the Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations at the University of Texas at Austin.
The question
The title states the scope. The study looks at what happens when an advertisement discloses that it was generated by AI. It tracks three outcomes: consumer attitudes, purchase intent, and social media engagement. Purchase intent is a survey measure of how likely someone says they are to buy. Social media engagement covers actions such as likes, shares, and comments.
Those three outcomes matter for different reasons. Attitudes shape how a brand is seen over time. Purchase intent is the closest survey proxy for sales. Engagement decides how far a post travels on a platform’s ranking system. A disclosure that changes one may not change the others, which is why testing all three together is useful.
What is known about the study so far
The paper was published online on September 28, 2026, as an advance article. It runs 33 pages. The publisher’s page could not be reached when this summary was prepared, and the abstract was not available in the open indexes checked. This summary therefore describes the topic of the paper, not its results.
The same three authors presented an earlier version, titled “Persuasion in the Age of AI,” in June 2025. The venue was the European Advertising Academy’s ICORIA conference in Rotterdam. The journal article appears to be the completed form of that project.
Wilson’s research centers on advertising. His published work covers out-of-home advertising, place branding, investment promotion, and creativity in advertising. He also teaches promotional strategy and leads the university’s team in the American Advertising Federation’s National Student Advertising Competition. Before entering academia he spent twelve years in product management at telecommunications firms.
Why managers should watch this
Firms face a real decision here. Several large platforms already label content that AI produced. Lawmakers in several jurisdictions are debating disclosure rules for synthetic media. Marketers who use generative tools need to know whether a label depresses response, has no effect, or works differently across audiences and formats.
The answer has to come from evidence. This paper tests disclosure across attitudes, purchase intent, and engagement in one study, which is what makes it relevant to that decision. Managers setting disclosure policy, or deciding whether to use AI-generated creative at all, should read the full article first.
Until the abstract is available, the safest reading is narrow. The study exists and is peer reviewed. Its authors are advertising researchers with a track record in the field. It addresses the three outcomes most advertisers care about. What it found is not yet summarized here.
This summary is based on the paper’s title and citation only, because the abstract could not be retrieved. The full article reports the data, methods, and detailed results.
What it means for managers
- The paper tests whether disclosing AI generation changes consumer attitudes, purchase intent, and social media engagement. Treat these as three separate outcomes when weighing a disclosure policy.
- Platforms and regulators increasingly expect AI-generated ads to be labeled. Base your disclosure policy on evidence rather than assumption.
- The abstract was not available for this summary. Read the full article in the International Journal of Advertising before acting on its findings.
Wilson, R. T., Roux, T., & Bright, L. F. (2026). Disclosing AI-generated advertising: Effects on attitudes, purchase intent, and social media engagement. International Journal of Advertising, 1-33. 10.1080/02650487.2026.2737583
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