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
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. Nussbaum, Martha Craven. Aristotle on Emotions and Rational Persuasion. Princeton University, 1994. No author. Condoms are Seen an Heard in New HIV Prevention Campaign. Nation's Health. February 1994, vol 24, issue 2. pen to them if they don't wear their seat belt. In discussing the effectiveness of emotional appeal in advertising, Edward Kamp and Deborah J. MacInnis claim that emotions can be described in two-dimensional space. First, they claim that emotion can be measured in valence, which separates positive emotion from negative emotion. Second, there is the degree of arousal of each of the previous emotions. Results from their experiment showed greater memory when experienced emotional flow was high and experienced emotions were intense (Kamp 1995). Kamp, Edward and Deborah J. MacInnis. Characteristics of Portrayed Emotions in Commercials. Journal of Advertising Research. November 1995. No author. Condoms are Seen an Heard in New HIV Prevention Campaign. Nation's Health. February 1994, vol 24, issue 2. Key, Keith. Announcement Message Targets Sexually-Active Young Adults. AIDS Weekly Plus. April 1996.
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)
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