The Use of Fear Appeals in Greek Magazine Advertisements

Abstract

This paper examines fear appeals in Greek magazine advertisements. A total number of 3,262 advertisements were selected from a sample of 14 magazines representing various genre. Advertisements were content analyzed, on the basis of fear appeal categories and consequences. The findings indicate that advertisements use the fear appeal in 16.46 percent of the total number examined. Positive fear appeals and social consequence theme show the highest frequency of appearance with 91.06 and 79.83 percent respectively. There is also a variance in the use of various types of fear appeals, according to magazine classifications and product categories.