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
d response of wearing a seat belt will do no harm but rather save a life, it is obvious that the use of emotional appeal in this situation, though argumentatively unethical, is and should be allowable. Also, with figuring in fatalities and how they could be prevented based on the fear appeal behind the message, I will ask you, would you rather be scared or would you rather be dead? I conclude that in this particular situation of a PSA created to save your life as well as some one else's, it should be allowed and considered credible to use fear appeal to change the action of the audience. Key, Keith. Announcement Message Targets Sexually-Active Young Adults. AIDS Weekly Plus. April 1996. The seat belt PSA that was chosen does use negative emotion triggering circumstances of action for survival threat of death or injury when involved in a car accident without wearing a seat belt. We have also established that in advertising, it is considered unethical to use human emotion as a means to sell. However, in the case of saving lives during a Public Service Announcements, it could be possible that though it too may be unethical, there is no scientific way to prove the ethics behind it. However, there is, as has been shown, hard scientific evidence that proves the effectiveness in the use of fear appeal and memory cognition and response. The response that the PSA is trying to accomplish is that people will either permanently wear their seat belts or that people who hear the PSA at a single moment will then put on their seat belt for at least that time in which they heard the message. Given that response is greater from the negative fear appeal, and that the wishe! Like stated before, Public Service Announcements are used to promote all kinds of beneficial ideas and actions to the general public. In "Don't Be Afraid to Use Fear Appeals" from The Journal of Advertising Research, it says, "Sometimes a desirable practice, such as brushing your teeth, is associate with the avoidance of a negative consequence, such as cavities." In comparing this idea to the chosen PSA, the desirable practice would be wearing your seat belt as it is associated with the avoidance of the negative consequence of serious injury or death. It goes further to say, "some researchers suggest that improperly used fear appeals damage the credibility of advertisers and create unnecessary fears and worries among audience members." In the case of the PSA that is created to help save someone's life from wearing their seat belt, a life and death matter would distinguish any thoughts of unnecessary fears and worries in that anyone should fear or worry about what could hap! In addition to these statistics, it is estimated that seat belts reduce the risk of fatal injury to front-seat occupants by 45% and the risk of serious injury by 50%. No author. Condoms are Seen an Heard in New HIV Prevention Campaign. Nation's Health. February 1994, vol 24, issue 2.
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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