Ethics and Effectiveness with fear appeal in public service announcements
Recently, within modern advertising, the use of emotional appeal has been an issue of growing interest in both the advertising industry as well as the consumer public. Questions have arisen regarding the reason for its use and its ethical boundaries. Playing on the emotions of the general consumer public through advertising is considered by many to be very unethical. Furthermore, the advertising industry has started a trend that involves playing on the emotions of the consumer, specifically the emotion of fear. Obviously, in an effort to try and sell a certain product, it would have to be considered at least somewhat unethical to use consumer emotion as a means to sell that product. However, there is another form of advertising that has noticed the effects of emotional appeal, and now it too has followed suit. This other branch is known as the "Public Service Announcement." Public Service Announcements, or PSAs are not for profit messages for the benefit of the gene!ral public. The purpose of individual PSAs can range from an anti-drug c
Digging deeper into the chosen PSA will allow us to better determine the reasoning behind the use of negative fear appeal. For instance, in 1996, 64% of passenger vehicle fatalities were not wearing seat belts (Nova). Also given the nature of the young man's voice on the PSA, it should be stated in relation to target audience age group that Drivers under the age of 25 had the highest rate of fatal crash involvement that same year (Nova). Latour, Michael S., Robin L. Snipes and Sara J. Bliss. Don't be Afraid to Use Fear Appeals: An Experimental Study. Journal of Advertising Research. March 1996. In "The Laws of Emotion", of American Psychologist, the author argues that negative emotions are prominent because they are elicited by circumstances that demand action in the face of survival threats and goes further to say that, "There is good evidence that the two fundamental elements of emotion are the experience of pleasure or pain and the awareness of potential action, primarily in the form of approach or avoidance (Frijda 1988)." No author. Nova: Science in the News. www.science.org.au/nova Truman State University Library. April 18, 2001. Reeves, B.R. Negative and Positive Television Messages. American Behavioral Scientist. July 1991, vol. 34, issue 6. ave a great power to destroy or to harm in a way that leads to great pain." A head on car accident, which is what the PSA refers to, is the 'disturbance that has the power to destroy', further it is the action that once processed by the listener, will begin the emotional flow of fear in the listener's mind. Given the information attained thus far, it can be established that this Public Service Announcement does indeed contain the use of emotional appeal, specifically the emotion of fear. ampaign to advising women to get mammograms to prevent further growth of breast cancer. In one specific case, a radio PSA reminds the general public to wear their seat belts through obvious use of fear appeal. It has been established that use of emotional appeal in advertising in order that a company may sell a product is viewed as unethical. However, should the use of emotional appeal in Public Service Announcements be viewed as unethical when the PSA was created to help save lives? Through research surrounding the matter, I plan to discuss the ethical issues of emotional appeal in PSAs compared to its effectiveness. Furthermore, I will present my own opinion and evidence as to why, though unethical, the use of fear appeal should be used in the instance in which I present. No author. Condoms are Seen an Heard in New HIV Prevention Campaign. Nation's Health. February 1994, vol 24, issue 2. Cooper, Lane. The Rhetoric of Aristotle. Prentice-Hall, Inc. New Jersey, 1932.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Service Announcements, American Psychologist, Deborah MacInnis, Book II, Rational Persuasion, Research Sometimes, Bodensteiner April, Announcements PSAs, AIDS PSA, Rhetoric Aristotle, seat belt, fear appeal, emotional appeal, public service, wearing seat, public service announcements, service announcements, journal advertising research, seat belts, wearing seat belt, advertising research, journal advertising, wear seat, afraid fear appeals, don't afraid fear,
Approximate Word count = 2134
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
