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buyer
Some believe that this appeal can ‘wear out’ as such, and must be modernised, recycled or changed. With this belief, it is said when the focus is controlling danger (cognitive response) rather than fear (emotional response) there is a greater probability of acceptance. For example, TAC advertisements in Australia have notably reduced road accidents, as they appealed to the suffering and anguish of the general public (Schiffman et al, 1997). Some also argue that benefits from the product can be seen negatively towards the actual product. For example, a luxury car company promoting a 24-hour emergency hotline for roadside problems results in audience thinking to themselves “Why would I buy this car if it will break down halfway to the airport?” Which, although not the intended thought of the communicator, is still what the result would be. Hence, we learn that consumer expectations are derived from perceptions, which must be accounted for. Therefore the levels of fear should differentiate. For example, health vs. social disapproval (osteoporosis vs. Head Lice) whereby osteoporosis is a health issue and should be strongly recognised and head lice is less of a danger (social disapproval) which would require an efficient yet effective fear approach.
To introduce the next emotional appeal, a perfect example of Ansell condom advertisements in the late 80’s when there was the discovery of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, which were extremely new to society at this time. The initial appeal used in the late 80’s was that of fear, yet due to the ineffectiveness of the advertisements, they stopped the campaign and resumed it again with a completely different edge, sparking a different emotion completely, and it showed in sales (Hafer, 1989). This emotion sparked was that of humour.
3.0
Humour in advertising can have extremely different effects. Some believe that this emotion, used correctly will increase acceptance, and just as this is true, the other notion of believing the potential product to be advertised would be ridiculed (Schiffman, et al. 1997). Yet, the core facts that have been drawn from this form of advertising have been that humour can enhance liking of the product, humour related to the product is more superior than humour unrelated to the product and that humour is not more effective at increasing persuasion. Once again, this is all decided when there is an established target market, yet recent studies show that pre existing products tend to filter better than to those without a recognisable brand (Gulas, Weinberger, 1992). In addition it seems that younger, better-educated, upscale and professional people are more receptive audiences. Keller (1987) depicts this perfectly suggesting that in processing an ad, the links between the brand name and the ad elements will depend upon the positioning, number, and prominence of the brand references within the ad.
The Gestalt principle of contrast