Open AccessAre You Scared Yet? Evaluating Fear Appeal Messages in Tweets About the Tips Campaign
Author(s) -
Emery Sherry L.,
Szczypka Glen,
Abril Eulàlia P.,
Kim Yoonsang,
Vera Lisa
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of communication
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.752
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1460-2466
pISSN - 0021-9916
DOI - 10.1111/jcom.12083
Subject(s) - fear appeal , appeal , media campaign , advertising , psychology , health communication , social psychology , political science , law , business , communication
In March 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) launched “Tips from Former Smokers,” a $54 million national campaign featuring individuals experiencing long‐term health consequences of smoking. The campaign approach was based on strong evidence that antitobacco ads portraying fear, graphic images, and personal testimonials are associated with attitudinal and behavior change. Yet it was also controversial; critics cited the danger that viewers might reject such intensely graphic messages. Tasked with informing this debate, our study analyzes the corpus of Tips campaign‐related tweets obtained via the Twitter Firehose. We provide a novel and rigorous method for media campaign evaluation within the framework of the Extended Parallel Process Model. Among the relevant tweets, 87% showed evidence of message acceptance, whereas 7% exhibited message rejection .