“…However, since the relationship between brand and advertisement attitudes has been demonstrated empirically (Mitchell and Olson 1981;MacKenzie, Lutz and Belch, 1986), and in more recent advertising research (Halkias and Kokkinaki, 2014;Scheinin, Varki, and Ashley, 2011), the relationship in our model is used, but do not present it as a hypothesis. Regarding the synergistic effect of brand-cause strategic alliances, when consumers perceive both as an overt connection, the meaning transfer model proposes a transmission of emotional resources from cause to brand (Hoeffler and Keller, 2002;Ellen et al, 2006;Bigné-Alcañiz et al, 2009;Samu and Wymer, 2009); favorable attitudes toward a sponsored cause lead to favourable attitudes toward a sponsoring brand, triggered by creation of new emotional associations with the brand (Simmons and Becker-Olsen, 2006). This is consistent with research that demonstrates that consumer attitudes toward a brand relate closely with attitudes toward brand alliances (Simonin and Ruth, 1998) and brand extensions (Sullivan, 1990), and working together, they achieve superior results in comparison to when each operates alone.…”