Fear Appeal Essay

989 Words2 Pages

CHAPTER1
INTRODUCTION
1.0 Introduction
This chapter consists of the introduction part of this dissertation. It will emphasise on the background to the study, a review of the area being researched, current information surrounding the issue, previous studies on the issue, and relevant history on the issue. The significance of the study will also be specified. Here, one will also get to know about the aim and objectives of this research. The problem statement will be illustrated from which the research question will be derived.
1.1 Background to the study
Fear appeal is a persuasive message that is used in many advertisements; mostly in sensitisation campaigns. The purpose of a fear appeal is to attract the audience toward the goal set by the advertiser. They are frequently applied in many types of marketing communications, e.g., the marketing of social causes, products, ideas and services. The message behind the fear used in adverts is basically “if you don’t do this (buy, vote, believe, support, learn, etc.), some …show more content…

“Fear appeals are one of the most frequently used motivators to get people to help themselves” (Bagozzi and Moore, 1994, 56). In fact, fear appeals have grown in popularity because advertisers have found them to increase ad interest and persuasiveness (LaTour, Snipes, and Bliss, 1996). Evidence also suggests that individuals “better remember and more frequently recall ads that portray fear than they do warm or upbeat ads or ads with no emotional content” (Snipes, LaTour, and Bliss, 1999, 273). It is to be noted that “fear appeals are commonly applied in social marketing, mostly to discourage dangerous behaviour, such as smoking, reckless driving, drink-driving, unsafe sexual practices, and alcohol abuse” (Hastings et al., 2004; de Meyrick, 2001; Smith & Stutts, 2003; Timmers & van der Wijst,

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