Emotions And Marketing

Write a 3–4-page assessment in which you examine how advertising manipulates emotions, particularly fear.

Fear is not only a powerful emotion but also a powerful motivator. Advertisers know this and use fear appeal in advertising messages as a tactic to motivate their target audience into behaving in a certain way.

Suggested Resources

The following optional resources are provided to support you in completing the assessment or to provide a helpful context. For additional resources, refer to the Research Resources and Supplemental Resources in the left navigation menu of your courseroom.

Library Resources

The following e-books or articles from the Capella University Library are linked directly in this course. Note: Some of the articles listed are fairly old and are included here because they are considered seminal works in the field.

• Cook, I. A., Warren, C., Pajot, S. K., Schairer, D., & Leuchter, A. F. (2011). Regional brain activation with advertising images. Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics, 4(3), 147–160.
• Griskevicius, V., Goldstein, N. J., Mortensen, C. R., Sundie, J. M., Cialdini, R. B., & Kenrick, D. T. (2009). Fear and loving in Las Vegas: Evolution, emotion, and persuasion. Journal of Marketing Research, 46(3), 384–395.
• Hastings, G., Stead, M., & Webb, J. (2004). Fear appeals in social marketing: Strategic and ethical reasons for concern. Psychology & Marketing, 21(11), 961–986.
• Moore, D. J., & Lee, S. P. (2012). How advertising influences consumption impulses: The role of visualization, anticipated emotions, taste anticipation, and hedonic rationalization. Journal of Advertising, 41(3), 107–120.
• Mukherjee, A., & Dubé, L. (2012). Mixing emotions: The use of humor in fear advertising. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 11(2), 147–161.
• Park, T., & Salvendy, G. (2012). Emotional factors in advertising via mobile phones. Intl Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 28(9), 597–612.
• Parry, S., Jones, R., Stern, P., & Robinson, M. (2013). ‘Shockvertising’: An exploratory investigation into attitudinal variations and emotional reactions to shock advertising. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 12(2), 112–121.
• Rossiter, J. R., & Jones, S. (2004). Special issue editorial: Fear appeals in social marketing campaigns. Psychology & Marketing, 21(11), 885–887.

Assessment Instructions

Preparation

• Search for research articles that examine how advertising appeals to our emotions, in particular, our fears.
• Watch the following three types of advertising messages. Try to watch more than one example of each type of advertising. Make notes about the overall message and tone. To make this more time efficient, you may consider watching ads on YouTube. Search for the type of ad, and then use the filter to narrow your results. For example, you can narrow the political ads results by filtering for ads from this year.
  • Political advertising.
  • Public health advertising.
  • Commercial advertising.

Instructions

After watching the ads, complete your assessment. Include the following:

• Describe the overall tone of each type of ad. What emotion is the ad trying to arouse?
• Describe the behavior the ad is seeking to encourage.
• Apply one theory or concept to explain why appealing to fear can be highly effective.
• What social conditions foster fearfulness?
• Explain how individual perceptions and experiences perpetuate fearfulness.

Your completed assessment should be 3–4 pages in length, excluding title page and reference page, and use references from at least two scholarly resources. Be sure to follow APA guidelines for format and style.

Additional Requirements

• Include a title page and reference page.
• At least three current scholarly or professional resources.
• APA format.
• Times New Roman font, 12 point.
• Double spaced.

Emotions and Marketing Scoring Guide

CRITERIA NON-PERFORMANCE BASIC PROFICIENT DISTINGUISHED Describe the emotional tone of advertising.Does not identify the emotional tone of advertising. Identifies the emotional tone of advertising. Describes the emotional tone of advertising. Describes the emotional tone of advertising; identifies the characteristics that define the emotional tone. Describe the behavior promoted in advertising.Does not identify the behavior promoted in advertising. Identifies the behavior promoted in advertising. Describes the behavior promoted in advertising. Describes the behavior promoted in advertising; identifies the characteristics that define the behavior. Apply a theory or concept related to social psychology to explain the effectiveness of appealing to fear in advertising.Does not apply a theory or concept related to social psychology to explain the effectiveness of appealing to fear in advertising. Applies a theory or concept unrelated to social psychology to explain the effectiveness of appealing to fear in advertising. Applies a theory or concept related to social psychology to explain the effectiveness of appealing to fear in advertising. Applies a theory or concept related to social psychology to analyze the effectiveness of appealing to fear in advertising. Explain the social conditions that foster fear.Does not identify the social conditions that foster fear. Identifies the social conditions that foster fear. Explains the social conditions that foster fear. Analyzes the social conditions that foster fear. Explain how individual differences and perceptions perpetuate fearfulness.Does not explain how individual difference and perceptions perpetuate fearfulness. Explains how individual difference and perceptions perpetuate fearfulness, but explanation is vague or does not address key elements. Explains how individual difference and perceptions perpetuate fearfulness. Analyzes how individual difference and perceptions perpetuate fearfulness. Write coherently to support a central idea with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics as expected of a psychology professional.Writing does not support a central idea. Does not use correct grammar, usage, and mechanics as expected of a psychology professional. Writing supports an idea but is inconsistent and contains major errors of grammar, usage, and mechanics. Writing coherently supports a central idea with few errors of grammar, usage, and mechanics. Writing is coherent, using evidence to support a central idea with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics as expected of a psychology professional. Use APA format and style.Does not use APA format and style. Uses APA format and style but inconsistently and with errors. Uses APA format and style consistently and with few errors. Uses correct APA format and style consistently and with no errors.