Good idea, bad idea: A study of young adults’ opinions on anti-drunken driving campaigns

Abstract

Social marketing campaigns intend to persuade specific target groups to accept, modify, or abandon certain attitudes and behaviour, in order to protect society. The negative consequences of alcohol abuse in South Africa have led various associations to run social marketing campaigns, including ArriveAlive, DriveAlive, ARA (Industry Association for Responsible Alcohol Use), and programmes by the Ministry of Transport. Fear appeals are widely used in these campaigns and the purpose of this study is to investigate the role of fear appeals on behavioural intent. A qualitative pilot study was done by conducting an in-depth focus group with students from a university in South Africa. Respondents were exposed to and discussed nine fear appeal television advertisements (three low, three medium and three with a high level of fear appeal), to gauge the impact of the level of fear appeal. Qualitative content analysis revealed several themes on the execution of television advertisements thought by the young adults to have an impact on their age group: realism, visuals and sound, shock, language and attention. Low fear appeal advertisements were criticised by respondents as having no impact. Differences in personal relevance influenced respondents at medium and high level. Based on the results, a quantitative study was conducted.