Can You Say Condom?: It Makes a Difference in Fear‐Arousing AIDS Prevention Public Service Announcements1

Abstract

The study investigated the effect of adding a recommendation to use condoms to fear‐arousing AIDS public service announcements (PSAs) on subjects’ intentions to use condoms and taking of free condoms. Sexual content of the AIDS PSA and subject gender were also varied. A sample of 112 men and 107 women rated the effectiveness of 1 of 8 fear‐arousing AIDS PSAs. Four PSAs ended with a message to “Use condoms to reduce the risk. For more information call_____.” An identical set of PSAs ended with only the telephone number for more information. Results showed that the recommendation had no effect on intentions to use condoms. However, men exposed to a fear‐arousing PSA with the recommendation took significantly more condoms than men in the no‐recommendation condition. Men also took significantly more condoms than women in the recommendation condition. The results are interpreted in terms of the AIDS risk reduction model (Catania, Kegeles, & Coates, 1990).