Fear: The Potential of an Appeal Neglected by Marketing

Tobacco companies advertise in magazines, promote their products in convenience stores and market their brands through websites and social networks. Many of these tobacco industries get publicity and attract more young customers when using the newly in media to promote their products. Many of these tobacco companies don’t understand that tobacco advertising is a huge public health issue that increases smoking. Tobacco company advertising and promoting is the start of the use of tobacco among teenagers. Now, these media and magazine advertisements about cigars have caused teenagers to be exposed to cigarette advertising. Not only that but also these teenagers find ads appealing and also increase their desire to smoke. Cigarette companies spent about $8.37 billion on advertising and promotional expenses in the United States in 2011.

Fear: an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat(Websters Dictionary).Fear is something that our lives have adapted to rarely use as our ancient predecessors have.In our day and age the concept of fear comes through the stress of work. We humans no longer fear a cold nor do we fear storms as our houses protect us and on average our life spans are longer as old in the Paleolithic was 33 while currently it is 71.5(Wikipedia Life Expectancy). Why then is our fear so extensive that it can make us freeze up? “The answer is our legacy of ancient fears, the result of having spent millions of years running from predators. Our fear response is more influenced by the ancient species we struggled to escape than any modern challenges.”(The evolutionary legacy of having been prey.By Rob Dunn) This is one of the statements about human life. If this is so how do we develop from terror to finding fear fun?

The FDA has Real Cost campaign advertisements that are used through a variety of different media vehicles such as “TV, radio, print, digital, and out of home states.” (FDA 2016) These advertisements are displayed through every media possible and it would be hard not to encounter it in form for the few years it has been present for the public to see. Throughout my essay, I will discuss how these advertisements are used and whether they are effective or not towards the audience in preventing smoking.

This paper will examine the history of the tobacco industry and its advertising campaigns from the 1920s to the present. Some of the issues discussed in this paper will include: What forms of mass communication has tobacco companies used to persuade the public, how changes in technology have influenced the way tobacco companies communicate with target audiences, and how the United States government restrictions affect the current efforts of tobacco companies advertising strategies. Other topics that this paper will expound upon are, the ethics of the tobacco industry’s advertising approaches, how tobacco companies responded to health warnings from the government, and what

Baer, D. M. (Spring, 1968). Some Current Dimensions of Applied Behavior Analysis. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 91-97.

Baer, D. M., Wofl, M. M., & Risley, T. R. (2015, 11 5). Some Current Dimensions of Applied Behavior Analysis. Retrieved from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13109980/pdf/jaba00083-0089.pdf

When followed by recommendations, threats define the typical format of a fear appeal. Threats in its entirety refers to undesirable events, whereas recommendations refer to strategies for dealing with these undesirable events (Boyd, 1995). This study focusses in on a curvilinear hypothesis, where the amount of fear generated by a fear appeal mediates message compliance. “The subjects were informed that the purpose of the study was to obtain their reactions toward ads being considered for inclusion in a college-oriented magazine publication, entitled NOT (Boyd, 1995). The relationship between the generated fear and message compliance in turn forms an inverted U. At low levels of fear, users are uninterested to process the fear appeal because they consider the information as insignificant. At high levels, however, consumers tend to engage in defense mechanisms such as denial, prevention, and anger (Boyd, 1995). Two aspects of a threatening message operate in a multiplicative fashion to engender fear as well. These two aspects consist of severity and vulnerability. Severity refers to the noxiousness of a threat, whereas vulnerability refers to the probability of threat occurrence if no action is taken. A balanced fear appeal bears

Anti-tobacco campaigns have utilized public service announcements to campaign the detrimental effects of tobacco consumption as well as raise awareness regarding cessation resources. In 2000, California held a media campaign that accounted for a 2-3% reduction in the sales of cigarette packs. Despite the seemingly low effect of media campaigning, it has been proven that each dollar invested in the anti-tobacco advertising results into a per capita decrease of 7.7 packs of cigarettes (Atkin,

If warning kids of the future health risks of smoking is a successful way to keep them from smoking then why does the US Department of Health and Human Services report that 34% of Kentucky high school students smoke? It isn't. In fact, ads that focus on smoking health risks are proven to stimulate the rebellious and curious nature of youth (ScienceDaily 1).

In the United States today, more than forty six million Americans are addicted to cigarettes. More people have died due to cigarette smoking than from narcotic drugs, World Wars I and II, and the Vietnam War combined (Bailey 1). The annual death toll for cigarette smoking is more than four-hundred thousand Americans a year, and is the number-one preventable cause of death in the United States. If Americans are aware of the lethal effects of smoking, why is it still so popular? Guy Smith, a Phillip Morris Tobacco Company executive, claims that their research shows that advertising is the top reason people start smoking (Bailey 34). Most people will argue that this is not true because the do not like to be “sold” and

There are many ways you can persuade someone into doing something. The best way to do that is to appeal to their emotions by using fear. Fear is the best emotional appeal because of three reasons. It scares someone into doing what’s right or what it is someone is trying to get them to do. In addition, a person would think about what they really want for their future. As well as changing their perspective of a particular thing.

Cigarette advertising has changed throughout history from how it has been advertised, what is being advertised, and who the intended audience is. In the 60’s seeing a cigarette advertisement in the Sunday paper would just be like any other advertisement, but recent generations would be appalled to see such a gruesome product being publicized. The annual deaths from smoking cigarettes are increasing each year and doctors and scientist are teaming together to try and help prevent more. Realizing that advertising may be playing a role the controversy over cigarette advertising has lead to the censoring of harmful products in other public advertising which still has a lasting effect today.

Advertisers must be extremely careful when considering the use of emotional appeals in general; however, fear appeals are even more controversial. Negative emotional appeals such as the ones used in the three ad campaigns aim to create a feeling of fear or anxiety about the outcome of not using the product. In this case, fear appeals create these feelings about the outcome of texting and driving, drinking and driving, and smoking tobacco. Fear appeals risk the chance of giving the consumer so much fear that they do not focus on the solution. If an advertisement causes too much fear, “consumers’ perceptual defense [help] them block out and ignore the message (due to its threatening nature)” (Hoyer, MacInnis, and Pieters 145). Additionally, there are moral issues with fear appeals because the product, service, or idea involved must be enough to fully solve the issue presented. The delicate balance of fear appeals is tested in the following three campaigns.

Andrews (1936 P.27). So this meant for women that cigarettes became a symbol of a product and behaviour that offered social attractiveness, sex appeal and equality. This campaign was the first in its kind to suggest that demand can be generated and shaped by marketing and advertising, and this was deemed as anti-social marketing. In contrast to today in Europe, the World Health Organisation is now implementing social marketing to its tobacco-control work and healthy cities programme – which is running is 1200 cities in over 30 countries.

Smoking tobacco has been a part of American culture since its very conception. Throughout our history, tobacco has been advertised as a simple pleasure for those who seek it out. Whether you are sitting on the porch with a couple of friends or in a dimly lit jazz club, tobacco ads give off a false sense of comfort, power, and success. Until around the mid-1900’s, smoking cigarettes was not considered unhealthy. It was only later that the public realize the detrimental health consequences that came with smoking tobacco. To spread this information, specific advertisements were aired to help inform the public of the dangers of smoking. While these ads have changed over time, the same message and warning still remains evident.