This study relates Eric Berne's theory of Transactional Analysis to the effectiveness of advertising messages. A 30 item Personality Mode Test was constructed in order to assess subject agreement with statements reflecting Berne's three personality states: parent (social evaluative), adult (controlled rationality), and child (emotiveness). After this test was administered to 215 University of Texas students, the same group was given another self-report form assessing the persuasiveness of certain advertising messages, judged to be coming from either parent, adult, or child modes, or some bi-modal combination. Parent personalities correlated most highly with parent-child messages, next with parent messages, and negatively with parent-adult messages. Child personalities correlated most highly with child messages, and negatively with adult messages. Adult personalities correlated with parent-adult messages most highly, with an inverse relationship with child and child-adult messages. The results of this inquiry suggest that message categories in terms of the Berne model hold promise of being useful for both the advertising practitioner and the communications researcher, although it must be noted that the data reflect verbal behavior and not real-world behavior. (TS)