Fashion advertising featuring people with disabilities received more favorable responses in a series of field and laboratory experiments, according to research in the Journal of Marketing Research.
Jiaqian Wang and Chuang Wei examined ad clicks, attitudes toward brands, stated intentions and brand choices across 10 preregistered experiments, including four supplemental studies. In the settings tested, ads featuring people with disabilities generally performed better than comparison ads featuring people without disabilities.
The research appeared online in 2024 and in the journal’s 2025 volume. The American Marketing Association discussed the results in a September 2026 overview.
What the advertising tests measured
One advertising comparison described in the association’s overview used an image of a model with a prosthetic leg. The ad attracted a higher click-through rate, and its cost per click fell from 49 cents to 35 cents in that test.
Click-through rate is the share of ad views that lead to a click. A click is not a completed purchase, and one campaign’s cost per click is not a forecast for another brand. The other experiments included consumers’ reported attitudes, intentions and choices rather than demonstrating a universal increase in sales.
The researchers explored whether viewers saw the brands as warmer and as more distinctive in an appropriate way. Their results suggest those perceptions helped explain the responses in the experiments.
Why implementation matters
The study also tested circumstances in which the effect was weaker. Representation perceived as reactive, rather than proactive, reduced the positive effect in the researchers’ tests. That does not mean a company should avoid improving an existing campaign; it means audiences may respond differently to the context and apparent intention.
Brands considering a campaign can involve disabled people in creative decisions, pay contributors fairly and check that shopping and customer-service experiences are accessible. Those are practical considerations, not outcomes proven by these experiments.
A useful test compares similar campaigns while changing a clearly defined element, then tracks outcomes relevant to the business. Website visits, purchases, returns and customer feedback answer different questions. Our reporting on how display ads shape shoppers’ expectations also explains why clicks alone do not reveal the full customer response.
The findings apply to the particular fashion ads, participants and experimental conditions studied. Disability experiences are diverse, and no single image can represent every customer or establish that a business is accessible.
