We show that a more standard accent (e.g., British Received Pronunciation) leads to more favorable evaluations toward the spokesperson’s accent and lower levels of familiarity with the accent compared with a less standard accent (e.g., Southern American English) (Study 1). We also find that products are evaluated more favorably when advertised with a standard-(versus nonstandard-) accented spokesperson, but that brand recall is lower when a product is advertised with a standard – (versus nonstandard-) accented spokesperson (Study 2). Furthermore we show that consumers are influenced by accents even when the accent provides incongruent information (Study 2). When an accent is consciously discounted as nondiagnostic, messages are differentially processed and evaluated as a function of accent standardness (Study 3). Specifically, a halo effect exists for standard accents, such that diagnosticity has no effect on favorability for products advertised with standard accents; however, products advertised with a nonstandard-accented spokesperson are punished when the listener knows the accent is diagnostic (Study 3) Accent standardness also hinders message comprehension, regardless of whether the message arguments are weak or strong as reflected by lower recall (Study 4). Consumers consistently remember less specific information from the standard-accented messages. Thus, there is a trade-off between increasing brand preference by suing a standard accent or improving memory by using a more familiar, nonstandard accent. When choosing a spokesperson accent, managers must determine which criteria are more important : evaluation or memory.