The importance of fear-reduction in fear-based road safety advertising appeals
RIS ID
42610
Abstract
Road safety advertisers need to include fear reduction in fearbasedadvertisements to improve road safety behaviouraloutcomes. When designing advertisements containing reliefcomponents to reinforce safe driving attitudes and practices,there should be greater emphasis on formative research, such aspre-testing advertising concepts to ensure the correctadvertising execution is achieved. Defining and selecting targetaudiences on current attitudes and behaviours, such as offenders(brand loyals), conformers (other brand loyals) and vacillators(switchers), is recommended. Finally, moving beyond thesimplistic categorization of fear-based advertising according to`levelsÿ of fear to a new focus on `patternsÿ of fear, whichrequires the inclusion of a `fear reductionÿ mechanism, shouldincrease the effectiveness of road safety advertising.
Publication Details
Algie, J. (2011). The importance of fear-reduction in fear-based road safety advertising appeals. Journal of the Australasian College of Road Safety, 22 (4), 99-105.