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Part Three Analyzing the Communication Process
Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
Figure 6-5 Relationship
between fear levels and
message acceptance
III. Analyzing the
Communication Process
6. Source, Message, and
Channel Factors
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
other hand, often hesitate to use comparison ads, as most believe they have little to gain
by featuring competitors’ products in their ads. There are exceptions, of course; Coca-
Cola resorted to comparative advertising in response to challenges made by Pepsi that
were reducing Coke’s market share.
Another area where comparative messages are quite commonly used is political
advertising. Political advertising is viewed as an important component of political
speech and thus enjoys more First Amendment protection than commercial speech and
less regulation by either government or self-policing agencies. Thus, it has become
quite common for political ads to contain negative, one-sided attacks on an opposing
candidate’s weaknesses such as character flaws, voting record, public misstatements,
broken promises, and the like. 53 The goal of these ads is to discredit the character,
record, or position of an opponent and create doubt in voters’ minds about his or her
ability to govern effectively. A major reason why negative political ads are used successfully
is that voters often tend to weight negative information more heavily than
positive information when forming impressions of political candidates. 54 However,
studies have shown that the use of “attack advertising” by politicians can result in negative
perceptions of both candidates. 55
Fear Appeals Fear is an emotional response to a threat that expresses, or at least
implies, some sort of danger. Ads sometimes use fear appeals to evoke this emotional
response and arouse individuals to take steps to remove the threat. Some, like the
antidrug ads used by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, stress physical danger
that can occur if behaviors are not altered. Others—like those for deodorant, mouthwash,
or dandruff shampoos—threaten disapproval or social rejection.
How Fear Operates Before deciding to use a fear appeal–based message strategy,
the advertiser should consider how fear operates, what level to use, and how different
target audiences may respond. One theory suggests that the relationship between the
level of fear in a message and acceptance or persuasion is curvilinear, as shown in Figure
6-5. 56 This means that message acceptance increases as the amount of fear used
rises—to a point. Beyond that point, acceptance decreases as the level of fear rises.
This relationship between fear and persuasion can be explained by the fact that fear
appeals have both facilitating and inhibiting effects. 57 A low level of fear can have
facilitating effects; it attracts attention and interest in the message and may motivate
the receiver to act to resolve the threat. Thus, increasing the level of fear in a message
from low to moderate can result in increased persuasion. High levels of fear, however,
can produce inhibiting effects; the receiver may emotionally block the message by
tuning it out, perceiving it selectively, or denying its arguments outright. Figure 6-5
illustrates how these two countereffects operate to produce the curvilinear relationship
between fear and persuasion.
Acceptance
of message
recommendation
Level of fear
Facilitating effects
High
Resultant
nonmonotonic
curve
Inhibiting effects