Assessing the Effectiveness of Emotional Appeals in Social Advertisements

Over a third of vehicle operators face death when driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs. The highest contributors to fatalities are young adults. To change these dangerous behaviours, authorities often turn to social advertising. There is scarcity of literature comparing the effectiveness of positive and negative emotional appeals in social advertising. The reported study extends literature by evaluating the effectiveness of positive, negative and both emotional appeals on young adults’ drink driving using the Theory of Reasoned Action. A total of 352 respondents completed an online survey that included measures of attitudes, norms and intentions towards drink driving before and immediately after viewing anti-drink driving social advertisements. Participants were randomly assigned to view positive, negative or both appeals. Results indicate the use of both appeals is more effective for creating a significant change in attitudes, norms, and intentions. Positive appeals only affected attitudes. Negative appeals only affected norms.

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