The Ethicality of Using Fear for Social Advertising

Arthur, Damien; Quester, Pascale

doi:10.1016/s1441-3582(03)70115-3

Cited by 30 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…These concerns should be particularly salient to the examination of marketing communications that deliberately and explicitly use threats. Furthermore, social marketers should heed that target audiences can have doubts about the ethicality of social advertising, even when they acknowledge its good intentions (Arthur & Quester, 2003).…”

Section: Ethical Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fear appeals in social marketing: Strategic and ethical reasons for concern

Hastings

Stead

Webb

2004

Psychology and Marketing

453

404

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This article criticizes the predominant use of fear appeals in social marketing. Laboratory studies, which have been the basis for most of the research on fear appeals and which generally suggest that high fear works, have limitations that include forced exposure, short-term measurement, and an overdependence on student samples. Although, unfortunately, field research evaluations of fear appeals are few, they usually reveal that fear has both weaker effects and unintended deleterious effects in real-world social marketing campaigns. Ethical concerns about fear appeals include maladaptive responses such as chronic heightened anxiety among those most at risk and, paradoxically, complacency among those not directly targeted, and increased social inequity between those who respond to fear campaigns, who tend to be better off, and those who do not, who tend to be the less educated and poorer members of society. Alternatives to fear appeals are the use of positive reinforcement appeals aimed at the good behavior, the use of humor, and, for younger audiences, the use of postmodern irony

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Section: Ethical Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fear appeals in social marketing: Strategic and ethical reasons for concern

Hastings

Stead

Webb

2004

Psychology and Marketing

453

404

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…O'Keefe 2000O'Keefe , 2002, while consumer guilt research focuses instead on the experience of guilt (i.e. Some scholars have questioned the ethicality of marketing campaigns based on negative emotions altogether, since they purportedly reduce individual independence (Beauchamp and Bowie 1988), are perceived as manipulative (Arthur and Quester 2003) and can generate anxiety in certain audiences (Hyman and Tansey 1990). what is the phenomenology of guilt?)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Guilt in Marketing Research: An Elicitation–Consumption Perspective and Research Agenda

Antonetti

Baines

2014

Int J Management Reviews

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Guilt regulates many consumption processes and, consequently, marketers frequently use appeals based on guilt to influence consumers' behaviour. Owing to the multidisciplinary interest in this emotion, however, the literature is diverse and fragmented. The effectiveness of guilt appeals is contested, and some authors suggest that the use of this emotion in marketing might be unethical. Furthermore, research to date has not explored the potential relationships between the experience of guilt in consumption and the elicitation of this emotion through marketing appeals. This paper analyses existing research on guilt in marketing, developing four specific contributions based on the evidence reviewed. First, it shows under what circumstances feelings of guilt support consumer self‐regulation processes. Second, it outlines evidence‐based managerial recommendations on how to produce effective guilt appeals and avoid the potentially unethical consequences of marketing through this emotion. Third, it identifies a gap in existing theorizing and presents an elicitation–consumption perspective of guilt in marketing as a framework that complements current approaches to this research topic. Fourth, it develops an agenda for future research and suggests eleven research hypotheses for the advancement of this field. Through the analysis of research produced within different disciplinary perspectives, this study develops a necessary foundation for future work on the role of guilt in marketing processes.

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“…Finally, the theory of justice favors freedom and equality of all individuals (Metayer, 1997). It should be noted that consumers do not refer to these ethical approaches when they are exposed to advertising messages (Arthur and Quester, 2003). Reidenbach and Robin (1988) estimate that individuals are not using ethical theories to evaluate specific marketing activities.…”

Section: The Ethical Judgment Of Advertisingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of the Self-Efficacy on the Perceived Ethicality of Fear Appeals in Anti-Tobacco Advertising

Saadellaoui¹,

Gharbi²

2014

JMRCS

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The Literature agrees that fear appeals are effective to attract attention and create motivation to quit smoking. However, theses threatening messages can easily raise ethical issues. This article outlines some ethical issues about the use of fear appeals. Also, it tries to understand the effect of perceived self-efficacy of smokers on the ethical judgment of scary advertising. The experimental study that we have conducted reveals that fear appeals are perceived ethical if smokers feel able to implement the recommendation of the message sender. Both the theoretical contributions managerial implications of such a result will be discussed in this paper.

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The Ethicality of Using Fear for Social Advertising

Cited by 30 publications

References 33 publications

Fear appeals in social marketing: Strategic and ethical reasons for concern

Fear appeals in social marketing: Strategic and ethical reasons for concern

Guilt in Marketing Research: An Elicitation–Consumption Perspective and Research Agenda

Effect of the Self-Efficacy on the Perceived Ethicality of Fear Appeals in Anti-Tobacco Advertising

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