Fear vs humor appeals: a comparative study of children's responses to anti-smoking advertisements

Valentina Nicolini,Fabio Cassia

doi:10.1108/apjba-04-2021-0134

Abstract

PurposeThis study aims to examine the different effects that the fear and humor appeals in anti-smoking advertisements for children have on their affective reactions to the advertisements, on their beliefs about smoking and on their behavioral intentions to smoke.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents the findings of a qualitative research study conducted in Italy with children aged from 8 to 11 years.FindingsThe results indicated that the humor appeal is a useful method for conveying a social theme in a pleasant way and creating a likable character that becomes an example for children to imitate; however, it is necessary to employ the fear appeal to make children reflect carefully about the negative consequences of smoking.Research limitations/implicationsThis study examined only children's behavioral intentions derived from anti-smoking advertisements, but future research should also examine their real behaviors after a period following repeated viewing of public service announcements about smoking prevention or other social issues.Practical implicationsUnderstanding how different types of appeals can influence children represents an important result for the prevention of youth smoking and the promotion of healthy lifestyle habits during childhood.Social implicationsUnderstanding how different types of appeals can influence children represents an important result for the prevention of youth smoking and the promotion of healthy lifestyle habits during childhood.Originality/valueFew studies have examined the impact of social advertisements on children, and particularly little is known about the effectiveness of fear appeals on this group.

Highlights

Progress in adopting anti-smoking measures has led to a gradual decline in smoking rates, in developed countries
In the USA, nearly 42 million adults are tobacco-dependent (US Department of Health and Human Services–HHS, 2014), and a survey requested by the European Commission reported that 26% of respondents in the European Union currently smoke, with an average of 14.2 cigarettes smoked per smoker per day (Special Eurobarometer 429, 2015)
The children reported that this advertisement clearly showed them the negative effects of smoking

Summary

Introduction

Progress in adopting anti-smoking measures has led to a gradual decline in smoking rates, in developed countries. Despite these measures, the number of people who smoke worldwide remains high (World Health Organization–WHO, 2015, 2019). The vast majority of smokers begin to use cigarettes or other forms of tobacco during adolescence. For this reason, most countries in the world are attempting to combat the problem by using mass media campaigns and the school curriculum to reduce youth tobacco. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

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