BUSI 430 Week 4 Discussion Board Forum 2 Example

Discussion Board Forum 2: Advertising Design and Message Appeals

BUSI 430 Promotion Strategy, Discussion Board Forum 2 Thread and Reply

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The forum prompt, the insurance agency and the classmate are composites; the textbook and the research cited are real, and the structure follows Liberty's public course guide for BUSI 430.

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Clow and Baack (2018) list humor among the most widely used advertising appeals, noting that funny ads capture attention and are often remembered, but also that the humor can overpower the message so viewers remember the joke and forget the brand. I want to argue that humor helps an ad when the joke carries the brand's benefit and the purchase is low risk, and that it hurts when it distracts from the brand or undermines trust.

Research supports both halves of that claim. Eisend (2009) combined many studies of humorous advertising and found that humor increased attention to the ad, positive feelings, and favorable attitudes toward the ad and the brand, and it modestly increased purchase intention. But humor also reduced the advertiser's perceived credibility. A funny ad earns attention and liking at the price of seriousness, a trade that is cheap for snacks and expensive for products where trust is the purchase.

Consider a local insurance agency planning a radio spot, one of the traditional media in section 7. Radio suits humor well, since a short comic scene can stand out among commuters. But insurance is a purchase in which customers worry about being let down after a loss. A spot that makes fun of an unrelated situation might be remembered without making anyone trust the agency. A better approach would use humor that dramatizes the benefit: a listener calls the agency after a ridiculous mishap, such as a goat on a car roof, and gets a calm, fast answer from a real local agent. The joke attracts attention, and the punch line is the service.

The general lesson is that an appeal is a tool, not a strategy. Humor fits when the product is familiar and low risk and when the creative idea is tied to the brand's main promise. Where trust or seriousness matters most, rational or emotional appeals may serve the brand better.

Reply to Olivia

Olivia, your analysis of the state's safe-driving campaign was excellent, and I agree with your point that fear appeals, as Clow and Baack (2018) describe them, can motivate people to change risky behavior. The image of the wrecked car on a quiet road is hard to forget. I want to add one condition from research that may explain whether the campaign actually works.

Pooling public health research on fear messages, Witte and Allen (2000) found that frightening appeals changed behavior best when they also convinced people that a recommended step works and that they can manage it, what researchers call efficacy. When a message raised fear without giving a clear, achievable response, people tended to manage their fear by avoiding or dismissing the message rather than by changing their behavior. In other words, fear opens the door, but the message has to show people where to go.

Applied to your example, the wrecked car creates the fear, but the campaign needs an equally clear step: for instance, putting the phone in the glove box before starting the car, or turning on the phone's driving mode, shown in a few seconds at the end of the ad. Without that step, young drivers might simply decide the ad is exaggerated. The campaign could also pair the radio and billboard versions with a short social media challenge that makes the protective action visible and easy to share.

Your point about targeting teens through radio during commute times was also strong, since that is when the risky behavior happens. Pairing the radio spot with a billboard near high school parking lots would extend that timing logic to the moment drivers start their cars. Do you know whether the campaign included a specific action, or did it rely on the fear alone?

References

Clow, K. E., & Baack, D. (2018). Integrated advertising, promotion, and marketing communications (8th ed.). Pearson.

Eisend, M. (2009). A meta-analysis of humor in advertising. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 37(2), 191-203. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-008-0096-y

Witte, K., & Allen, M. (2000). A meta-analysis of fear appeals: Implications for effective public health campaigns. Health Education & Behavior, 27(5), 591-615. https://doi.org/10.1177/109019810002700506