The focal point of this thesis is the impact that rational and emotional advertising appeals can have on consumer behaviour in the sports equipment industry, that is their potential to generate purchase intent. The first part of the master thesis provides an overview of existing knowledge on the theory of consumer behaviour, with special attention focused on many factors that may have an impact on consumer behaviour. In the continuation of the paper, it is explained what advertising appeals are and why are they applied in marketing practice, and also different types of advertising appeals are discussed. Considering that in this thesis the impact of advertising appeals is observed in the context of their use in the sports equipment industry, the characteristics of advertising in the sports equipment industry were also explored. In this part, special attention is directed towards the application of rational and emotional advertising appeals in the advertising of sports equipment, whereby concrete examples from practice are given. In order to gain a better insight into the impact of rational and emotional advertising appeals on consumer behaviour and to give a personal contribution to the existing scientific and professional theory in the field of consumer behaviour and advertising appeals, a primary empirical research was conducted. An online survey with stimulants in the form of advertisements containing rational and emotional advertising appeals was chosen as the research method. It was found that there is no correlation between the gender of the respondents and the intensity of the purchase intention in the case of ads with emotional appeal, and that there is no relationship between the frequency of purchase of sports shoes and the intensity of purchase intention in ads with rational appeal. However, the results of the research indicate that there is a connection between the type of advertising appeal used and the intensity of the intention to buy the advertised product in the case when the time frame in which the respondents intend to buy the advertised product is not determined. In that case, the advertisement with a rational appeal proved to be more successful.