MINOR PROJECT REPORT

Study of Fear Appeal in FMCG Advertisements on

Consumer Buying Behavior

Submitted By: Submitted To:

Sukriti Tandon Mr.Manish Shivahare

M.A (A&MM) Assistant Professor/Mentor

A200418005

September, 2019
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DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this research paper entitled “The Study Of Fear Appeal In
FMCG Advertisements On Consumer Buying Behavior” comprises of only
my original work and that it has not been submitted and prepared for any other
purposes. All the information stated in this report is true to the best of my
knowledge and belief.

-Sukriti Tandon
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Acknowledgement

Every project big or small is successful largely due to the effort of a number of
people who have always given their valuable advice or lent a helping hand. I
sincerely appreciate the inspiration, support and guidance of all those people
who have been instrumental in making this internship report a success.

I consider myself extremely lucky as I was provided with an opportunity to

conduct a research study as a part of my minor project. I take this opportunity to
express my deepest gratitude to my mentor Mr Manish Shivahare , who in spite of
his busy schedule, took his time to hear, guide and allowed me to carry out my
study. I express my sincere gratitude to Mr Rubaid Ashfaq for also giving me the
necessary advices, guidance for the preparation of this research study.

I would also like to thank Amity University for including this minor project as a
requirement in our postgraduate course. It has helped me garner a lot of practical
knowledge and experience in the field of research.

Finally, I would like to thank all my friends at Amity for being extremely
cooperative and supportive. Last but not the least I place a deep sense of gratitude to
all my family members, who have been my constant source of inspiration and have
been extremely cooperative during this research journey of mine.
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Table Of Contents

Acknowledgement .................................................................................................................... 2

Abstract .................................................................................................................................... 6

Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 7

1.1 Objective Of The Study.............................................................................................. 9

Conceptual Framework ......................................................................................................... 10

Literature Review ................................................................................................................... 13

Methodology & Scope of the study ........................................................................................ 15

Scope of the study ............................................................................................................... 16

Case Analysis .......................................................................................................................... 17

Anticipated Outcomes and Proposed Outputs Of The Study ............................................... 24

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 26

Reference Material ................................................................................................................. 27

References ........................................................................................................................... 27
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Abstract

Fear appeals are most commonly used as a part of an advertising strategy so as to trigger
an emotional response of fear in the consumers. Advertisers either use positive or
negative appeals while developing advertisements. Brands who want their advertisements
to be more persuasive mostly adopt the usage of negative appeals in their advertisements.
Negative appeal usually takes the form of fear and they use this appeal to trigger an
emotional response. Brands can be actively seen using highly impactful negative appeals
to elicit a sense of fear, guilt, anxiety, worry or sorrow in the minds of the consumer. This
is majorly done to change the attitude of the consumers and persuade them to take an
action which is favorable for the brand. The main purpose of this study is to explore the
relationship between fear appeal used in FMCG advertisements and consumer buying
behavior. The literature conventionally agrees that more effective fear appeals result from
a higher fear arousal followed by consequences and recommendations to reduce the
negativity. It also says that fear appeals do have an impact on purchasing decision of a
consumer. To conduct a descriptive and exploratory study on this very matter, qualitative
form of case study method was used for the empirical inquiry. This method involved a
careful study of five different cases of five different FMCG brands and their respective
advertisements which used fear appeal. After analyzing the case studies in a detailed
manner, the major findings were recorded which showed a positive relationship between
fear appeal and consumer buying behavior. Conclusions of this study help in identifying
the impact of fear appeal used in advertisement on purchasing behavior of the customer.
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Introduction

Every business in this world, one way or the other relies on advertisements.
Advertisement is considered to be one of the most important tools of marketing because it
has the power to effectively inform, attract, promote and persuade a large number of
target audiences, thus significantly boosting the company’s sales and business
performance. It directly impacts the consumer buying behavior and persuades the
consumers to take desired actions.

However, with more and more businesses coming up, the marketplace today is becoming
extremely cluttered. With increasing cutthroat competition, brands are fighting to capture
the attention of the consumers on a daily basis. The consumers are being constantly
bombarded with a plethora of advertising messages which is slowly making the mind
space of the consumers to be one of the most scarcest resource today. Most brands today
are struggling to differentiate their products and services in the market. Due to this very
reason various appeals are used in advertisements to attract the attention of the target
consumers and establish a solid brand image. Advertisers either use positive or negative
appeals while developing advertisements. The major purpose of these appeals is to make
the consumer take the desirable action which favors the advertiser.

However, brands who want their advertisements to be more persuasive mostly adopt the
usage of negative appeals in their advertisements. Negative appeal usually takes the form
of fear and they use this appeal to trigger an emotional response. Brands can be actively
seen using highly impactful negative appeals to elicit a sense of fear, guilt, anxiety, worry
or sorrow in the minds of the consumer. This is majorly done to change the attitude of the
consumers and persuade them to take an action which is favorable for the brand.

Fear appeals are mostly persuasive messages that highlight the prospective risk and
damage that people will encounter if they do not embrace the suggestions of the texts.
These kinds of messages are frequently used in campaigns for political, government
health and commercial marketing.
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Fear appeals are more efficient, particularly when they contain suggestions for only one-
time behaviors. They are also more effective when visual representations are present.
Visual representations are an extremely significant component in fear appeals. When the
visuals in the ads are extremely catchy, the effect of that advertisement can be much
greater.

Although fear appeal is used by a wide variety of brands ranging from life insurance
companies to NGO’s and INGO’s while delivering social messages, the most common
usage of this appeal can be found in FMCG advertisements. They usually use this appeal
to persuade their consumers by making them feel like they are under a great risk or threat
if they do not purchase their products. They trigger various types of fear in the consumers
at first and then they later present their product as the ultimate solution towards such
problems.

Fear appeal mostly works for FMCG products because the products can be shown
protecting the consumers from various possible threats. For example: Toothpaste to
protect against tooth decay and gum problems, various edible oil and food to protect
against diseases, anti ageing creams and other beauty products protecting against skin
problems etc. Fear Appeal is most effectively used for FMCG advertisements because the
advertisers can easily show various consequences that can arise if they do not purchase
the products.

The efficacy of fear appeals used in advertisements has also been revealed to be
uncertain. Strong appeals for fear were discovered to strengthen undesirable conduct,
according to some of the research, while others said it would play a more critical part in
changing conduct if used properly. Individual self-efficacy can also be instrumental in
moderating the impacts of appeals for fear. In some studies it has been reported that
higher self-efficacy has more favorable opinions of the ethicality of fear-appealing
advertising.

There are fear appeals in advertising because feelings have a beneficial impact on the
purchasing behavior of the consumer. However, things get much more complex when it
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comes to particular feelings, such as sexual excitement or fear. Most study on appeals for
fear has to do with discouraging different behaviors like smoking, drug use, drinking and
driving, unsafe sex, etc. A number of marketing campaigns were created in the United
Kingdom in the early 90s directed at discouraging unsafe sex through fear of getting
AIDS. The campaigns proved to be ineffective. The main takeaway from this is that the
customer should identify with the hazard for a fear appeal to be efficient. They should
feel they can really do it. It operates mostly when stories are displayed in the form of
fear-based advertisements. Consumers often prefer stories over hard statistics. If an
advertisement tells them a story of someone they can identify with, the chances of them
reacting to it in a positive manner can be much higher.

Even though the usage of fear appeal in advertisements is one of the most popular
techniques used by advertisers, it is risky in nature as the advertisements are not always
in the best interest of the consumers. There are a lot of ethical considerations that needs
to be made when advertisements can induce or trigger fear amongst consumers.

1.1 Objective Of The Study

The main objective of this study was to explore the relationship between fear appeal used
in FMCG advertisements and consumer buying behavior. In specific, the objectives were:

 To study the nature of impact advertisement with fear appeals have on consumer
buying behavior.
 To study the significant relationship between fear appeal used in FMCG
advertisements and consumer buying behavior.
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Conceptual Framework

Based on the objectives of the research and the above discussions, the following
framework for this particular study is proposed:

SEVERITY OF THREAT

Significant Less Significant

PROBABILITY OF Non
Desired/
Desired/ OCCURENCE
Negative
Positive
Change in
Change In
High-Mid Likely Less Likely Consumer
Consumer
Behavior
Behavior

EASE OF APPLICATION

High Low
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According to the past literatures in fear appeals used in advertisements and Roger’s
Protection Motivation Theory, the changes in consumer behavior (dependent variable)
can/cannot occur due to three important independent variables. These variables are:

 The Severity of Threat

 Probability of Occurrence
 Ease of Application

Severity of threat refers to how serious the fear/risk shown in the advertisements are. If
the problems/fears triggered through the advertisements have a significant appeal then
there can be a positive impact in the consumer buying behavior. However if the severity
of the fears that are triggered are less significant to the consumer then there can be
negative/no impact in the consumer buying behavior.

Similarly, probability of occurrence refers to the chances of the threats/ issues presented
in the advertisements to occur. If there happens to be a high probability for the threat to
occur then again positive changes in the consumer behavior can be observed. On the
contrary less probability for the threat to occur will have a negative or no impact on the
consumer’s behavior.

Lastly, ease of application is another factor that needs to be taken into consideration as it
an directly impact the consumer behavior. Ease of application refers to the level of ease a
consumer thinks is present when he/she begins changing his/her behavior. If the ease of
application of the new behavior, which the advertisement suggest to undertake is easy to
apply then positive changes in consumer behavior may be noticed. However, if the ease
of application is less then there can be a negative effect ot no effect on the consumers
behavior.

Another model which can also be used to observe the impact that advertisements with
fear appeal can have on consumer buying behavior can be derived by keeping the
cognitive dissonance theory in mind.
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Since the advertisements with fear appeal, actively try to create dissonance amongst the
consumers so as to persuade them in changing their behavior to reduce the dissonance,
the framework for this study can also be built around the same theory.

According to the cognitive dissonance theory, there is a tendency for people to seek
consistency with their beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. Thus, when the attitudes or
behaviors are inconsistent and not in harmony, dissonance is produced. This makes
people extremely eager to remove this state of dissonance and restore consistency back in
their lives. Advertisers when they use fear appeal in their advertisements, try to create
this dissonance. They make the consumers want to alter their behaviors and align it with
their ideal beliefs and attitudes. This dissonance that is produced makes the consumers
motivated to go ahead and make alterations in their lives. Thus this same model can be
used in this study to study about exactly how a consumer after having a state of
dissonance tries to restore consistency in their lives.
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Literature Review

Fear appeal in advertising is a persuasive technique which is used with greater frequency.
Advertisers constantly look for ways to break through the clutter and differentiate
themselves from the rest of the competition. They use fear appeal in their advertising to
make the consumers pay attention to their brand’s proposition and effectively persuade
the consumers to take the desired actions. Fear is considered to be one such emotion that
largely affects human behavior and attitudes. Advertisements with fear appeals delivers
messages so as to persuade the consumers about the potential consequences that may
occur if they do not consider the message they are trying to deliver and not take the
suggested actions.

“Fear appeals have three major components: the message, the audience, and the
recommended behavior. There are many messages that convey important information
about potential harm; however, if the message is to have any effect, it should address
issues that instill critical amounts of fear and be targeted to those who are the most
susceptible to the risk. (Shreenivasan, 2018)”.

“Brands these days choose to target their consumer’s emotions so as to alter their buying
behavior and gain competitive advantage in the market. Most businesses or brands that
uses fear appeal in their advertisements A business that targets Fear sells “Control over
their own life”. Out of all the emotions, fear sells better. It is a powerful motivator. Fear is
part of our automatic mind and at times, it is out of control of our rational mind. (Shah,
2017)”.

Researchers like William (2007) believe that the usage of fear appeals can increase the
impact levels that advertisements have on their buying behavior, thus having a positive
impact on their interest levels, recall value and behavioral changes. Fear is always said to
work on people as it motivates them to alter their behaviors so as to avoid negative
consequences.
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Fear appeal is defined as the usage of some threatening information and stimuli to evoke
or trigger the feeling of threatening in audience. Advertisements using fear appeal is said
to directly influence the attitude and behavior of consumers. Fear appeal in
advertisements usually provide two types of information which is first, the arousal of fear
by presenting a threat; and second, a suggestion to advert the threat. According to the
study of Ruiter, Kessel, Peter and Kok (2014), it is assumed that this emotional state
involves physiological arousal as well as cognitive arousal; leading to the affective and
behavioural responses which are directed towards the reduction or elimination of fear.
Although advertisements with fear appeals are intended to show threat, it can be
interesting as well to attract audiences attention as well. Fear appeal used in
advertisement is shown to have a significant relationship with consumer buying behavior.
(Wai, 2017)

A fear appeal in advertising involves presenting a risk of using or not using a specific
product, service or idea such that if you don’t “buy”, some dire consequence will
occur. Low-fear appeals rely on anxiety (an emotional response) being triggered which
motivates the audience to take the recommended action to remove the threat – just like
wearing a seatbelt can prevent the high-fear of death in road accidents. (Oakley, 2014)

However, the usage of fear appeal is not as easy as it appears to be and it should be
approached with a lot of caution. During a research made by the University Of Illinois in
2013 it was found out that most fear appeals fail when it concerns behaviors which are
often repeated in comparison to one time behaviors.

Advertisements with fear appeals are said to work better when they are accompanied by
goals that are very easy to achieve Various researches have suggested that advertisements
with fear appeal are often effective when it meets the following three criteria:

 When the advertisement evokes a sense of fear or concern

 When the advertisement presents a solid solution to overcome the fear/problem.
 When the method that is recommended in the advertisement is easy to achieve.
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The main goal of fear appeals used in advertising is to persuade the consumers to change
their buying behaviors. This idea is also supported by a popular learning theory of
cognitive dissonance. According to the theory of cognitive dissonance, every person has
an inner need to align their beliefs with their behaviors in a consistent manner. This
theory states that whenever there is an inconsistency in between these beliefs and
behaviors, dissonance is produced. This then motivate s them to alter either their
attitudes, beliefs or behaviors so as to maintain the balance.

According to this very theory, whenever there is dissonance, people will take either of the
following actions to reduce it. They will either focus on other supportive beliefs which
will outweigh their original beliefs or change their behavior.

Advertisements that uses fear appeals try to challenge the set of beliefs that the
consumers possess and they try to create a state of dissonance by triggering their fear.
They then present their product in such a light so as to persuade the consumers to change
their behaviors and purchase their products in order to reduce the dissonance and
maintain harmony once again.

Methodology & Scope of the study

Fundamentally, this study is a qualitative research aimed to examine the fear appeal used
in FMCG advertisements and how it affects consumer buying behavior. The main
objective of this current study was to study the relationship of fear appeal used in
advertisements on consumer buying behavior. Therefore, for this particular research
study the qualitative form of case study method was used for the empirical inquiry. This
method was used to conduct a descriptive and exploratory study on the various
advertisements that have been using fear appeal in their advertisements. This study
involved a careful study of five different cases of five different FMCG brands and their
respective advertisements which used fear appeal. This method was used to conduct an in
depth study about such advertisements. This case study method has given emphasis on
the detailed analysis of a limited number of cases of popular FMCG advertisements that
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used fear appeals. This method was used to conduct an intensive investigation of these
particular cases. With the help of this methodology careful qualitative analysis was
conducted to have a careful and complete observation of these particular advertisements
and their exact objectives as well as techniques. Efforts were made to extensively
analyze, interpret and study each and every aspect of the concerning cases in a detailed
manner so as to draw generalization from the available data and draw inferences.

Scope of the study

This particular study on the fear appeal used in FMCG advertisements and its impact on
consumer buying behavior is useful to understand how popular brands are effectively
using negative appeal to alter consumer buying behavior. This study will help aspiring
advertising students, research personnel effectively understand exactly how fear appeals
can affect consumer’s buying behavior. This study will help us understand and explore
the various aspects of fear appeal used in advertisements. It will also help us learn about
the exact factors that can contribute towards a positive/negative change in consumer
behavior through such advertisements. This study can later on also turn out to be helpful
for brands who are looking to implement this particular appeal strategy in their
advertisements. This study will help them exactly understand what must be and what
must not be done to achieve their desired objectives.
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Case Analysis

Case 1:Popular oral care brands like Pepsodent and Colgate have continuously used fear
appeal in their advertisements.

Pepsodent, in one of its Pepsodent Germicheck “Dhishoom-Dhishoom” advertisement

campaign explicitly used fear appeal and targeted mothers to show how germs can
deposit in the teeth if their kids don’t rinse their mouth on a daily basis. The ad said that
there is no guarantee that a child will always rinse their mouth after they have their food.
After presenting this statement the ad elaborates the consequence of such actions and
how the food gets stuck in the mouth which will lead to continuous attacks from various
germs how the germs. Then they back this claim up even further by showing a doctor
who mentions how numerous problems arises after the germs start attacking the teeth.
The fear appeal is further triggered by adding the sound of a child shouting “Bachao” in
the background. This directly raises the anxiety level of the mothers and this is how the
brand successfully manages to persuade the decision maker of the family to purchase
their product so as to take a preventive action against such problems.
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Pepsodent, also on one of their most popular advertisement campaign called Pappu &
Papa featuring Shahrukh Khan, designed the entire campaign based around a fear appeal
of damaging teeth and tooth decay if not brushed regularly with Pepsodent toothpaste.

This same tactic of using fear appeal in advertisements was also used by their number
one competitor Colgate. The print advertisement above shows that even though a teeth
may have a healthy white colour, bacteria still continues to build up in one’s mouth and
that they need to brush their teeth frequently with Colgate. Ads with such fear appeals are
used to make the consumers consider using Colgate to reduce the emotional tension that
occurs after seeing these ads so as to successfully influence them to purchase the product.

Case 2:
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Horlicks is one such brand that inexplicitly uses fear appeal in their advertisements by
showing how their product makes children grow much taller, stronger and sharper. By
showing an ideal kid in their advertisements who excels in both studies and sports, they
indirectly try to bank on the fear that parents have about their kids underperforming at
school. These advertisements use fear appeal to subtly imply how there is a chance for
the kids to be less taller, stronger or sharper if they do not consume Horlicks.
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Brands while making these advertisements either try to focus on a single important fear
or they use multiple types of fears all at once. Complan in its 2008 advertisement
campaign called “Latkeram” tried to trigger multiple fear in parents all at once. In these
series of ads they showed the protagonist of the ad (a child) who desperately tries to
increase his height by hanging from trees, classroom doors, basketball ring while his
friends laugh at him. Later, one of his friends points out that he should ask his mom to
make him drink Complan instead of doing these silly acts. Although the advertisement
also uses the humor appeal as the tone of this entire advertisement is quite funny in
nature, it cannot be ignored that it also uses fear appeal in the most subtle way possible.
This ad is inexplicitly trying to trigger a parent’s fear of their kids growing up with a
small height and being made fun of among his/her peer groups. This way, this ad also
uses another fear of peer pressure and public embarrassment along with the fear of
uncertainty to make their brand’s message more persuasive. In a country like India,
where nutritional deficiency is a common challenge among parents that impedes the
growth of children, the use of a subtle fear appeal in these advertisements is a clever way
to persuade and create a lasting impact on the consumer’s buying behavior.

Case 3:

Saffola, a well known name in the edible oil category, which competes in an extremely
competitive price driven market, has consistently used negative appeal to convey the
brand’s message through its advertisements. Saffola uses fear appeal to make the issue of
heart disease look dramatic so as to sell their product. Old advertisement for Saffola
showed a person being carried to an ambulance with a strong implication that anybody
who did not use Saffola had a high chance of ending up on that same state that was
portrayed in the advertisement.
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The above ad for Saffola Gold is a classic example on how the brand uses fear appeal in
their advertisements. This advertisement for Saffola Gold shows how worried a wife
becomes about the unhealthy condition of her husband. The advertisement then shows
how Saffola helps to reduce the cholesterol levels and takes good care of the heart. This
advertisement uses fear appeal to trigger fear and raise the anxiety level to spread a
message that everyone who wants to prevent heart diseases and avoid such scary
problems must switch to Saffola Gold.

There used to be a time when Saffola Advertisements used to be filled with ambulance
sirens, lights, scared faces and heart rate machines. The brand created its unique
positioning around this same concept and thrived on creating fear against heart diseases.
They chose to keep doing fear oriented advertisements because it worked out perfectly
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for them. However, over the years the brand slowly realized that only scaring the
consumers into buying their products was not the right strategy to adopt. So the brand
slowly moved away from fear to talking about the “risks” and urging the consumers to
take care of their health and switch to a much healthier lifestyle.

This is why Saffola ads these days, incorporates a positive appeal in their advertising
message and gives out a message on the need to adopt a healthier lifestyle. Rather than
showing the negative consequences of not adopting a healthier lifestyle, the brand now
portrays the positive results that can be gained by adopting it instead. This way they try to
now elicit a sense of envy rather than fear among their consumers through their new
evolved advertisements.
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Case4:

Fair & Lovely is another such brand which uses fear appeal to target young consumers,
mostly women with dark skin and skin issues such as dark circles, dark spots and
blemishes. Most advertisements of fair and lovely follows the same storyline. In the
beginning of the ad, a girl with a dark skin tone is shown. The girl is always shown to
unhappy, unsatisfied with extremely low self esteem. She is also shown to be lagging
behind in her personal and professional life as a result of her dark skin tone. Usually in
these advertisements, the girl is portrayed in scenarios where she gets rejected for job
offers or marriage proposals. Then a fair girl who usually happens to be a friend of the
protagonist, introduces fair and lovely in her life as a magical solution to all her life’s
problems. Then it is shown how after using the product, her skin tone over the period of
time, slowly changes and how she eventually becomes fair. The advertisement usually
ends by showing a drastic change in her life and how she automatically starts succeeding
in life due to the usage of the fairness product.

These advertisements exploit the fear of rejection among the consumers through their
threatening message. They use fear appeal in their advertisements on purpose because
fearful and emotional messages have a better recall value. Fear appeal used in these
advertisements guides the consumer’s behavior by creating a sense of anxiety and
tension.
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Anticipated Outcomes and Proposed Outputs Of The Study

From the above case studies the following findings can be derived:

Indian Advertisements, mostly advertisements for FMCG products use fear appeals to
trigger multiple types of fears among its consumers so as to persuade them to take actions
that are favorable to the brand. The most common type of consumer fears that are mostly
used by FMCG brands are as follows:

 The fear of uncertainty

 The fear of rejection
 The fear of danger to health
 The fear of not belonging to a group/community
 The fear of peer pressure/embarrassment
 The fear of not being better homemakers/mothers.
 The fear of underperformance.
 The fear of missing out in life.

Apart from channeling these fears to cause a trigger amongst the consumers,
IndianFMCG advertisements can also be seen particularly targeting the decision makers
of the family (mostly mothers and homemakers). They usually try to raise her anxiety and
stress levels by taking her nurturing, care giving and worrying persona into consideration
and developing the storylines of their advertisements accordingly. The genuine and active
concern that they usually hold for their family, often presents the advertisers with an
opportunity to use it to their advantage so as to use the fear appeal and raise her anxiety
levels to persuade her to take the desired actions to combat her worries.

Through the above mentioned cases it can be observed that, popular oral care brands like
Pepsodent Colgate use this advertising strategy. It has been found out that these brands
use fear appeal in their advertisements to explicitly target a mother’s concern towards her
child’s wellbeing. They try to raise her anxiety levels by showing how “germs” can
spread in the body and give birth to numerous health issues. By showing this, they
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successfully manage to raise her concerns and elicit the emotion of fear within her
towards her child’s hygiene.

Apart from the usage of explicit fear appeals in advertisements, it can be also observed
that popular FMCG brands like health drinks for kids inexplicitly uses fear appeal to
trigger various types of fears in a subtle manner. Brands like Horlicks and Complan can
be seen using this appeal to trigger multiple types of fear. They can often be seen using
the fear of underperformance, embarrassment and peer pressure to highlight their brand
proposition and thus sell their respective products. They also try to bank on a parent’s
fear of their children lagging behind in life to persuade them in purchasing their products.

With the help of the above case study for Saffola, it is also observed that many FMCG
advertisements also try to demonstrate danger while using this appeal in their ads. A few
ads like Saffola openly trigger the fear of uncertainty of life, illness and diseases as a part
of their strategy. They are seen using these fears to dramatize the problems so as to make
the consumers take their products in a much more serious manner.

On the other hand, beauty products like Fair and Lovely can be seen openly exploiting
the fear of rejection in order to promote and sell their product. They reason why they use
these types of fear appeal in their advertisements is because fearful and emotional
messages have a better recall value. Fear appeal used in these advertisements guides the
consumer’s behavior by creating a sense of anxiety and tension. Such fear appeals are
used to lead the consumers to have a sense of shame, guilt, embarrassment. This is done
so, because it makes their brand’s proposition and their messages more persuasive as
cognitive dissonance is produced. Cognitive dissonance is produced when the consumer’s
conflicting attitudes, beliefs and behavior collides. These advertisements with fear
appeal, produces a feeling of mental discomfort amongst the consumers which makes
them want to alter their behavior so as to reduce the dissonance.

In all the above mentioned cases it can also be observed that all the ads uses some type of
triggers that is present in their target consumers so that they can make their consumers
resonate with the advertisement and link their products to the situation.
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However, for the fear appeal to be effective, the fear projected also needs to be at the
right level. The level of fear appeal should be strong enough so as to effectively drive
consumers towards the desired behavior or goal. If fear induced is too low, consumers
may outright ignore the fear appeal, and the ad may fail in creating an impact on their
subconscious. While if the fear induced is too high, consumers may straight away ignore
the advertisement and its intended message by getting into a denial mode, since they may
then consider the ad as a threatening stimuli. They may also regard the solution proposed
by the ad as inadequate.

Therefore an ad with fear appeal needs to possess three elements to produce the desired
response. The ad must effectively be able to convince the audience that the treat that has
been depicted in the advertisement t is likely to occur and that it has severe consequences
and if they make the necessary changes in their behaviors as suggested in the
advertisement the threat will thus be removed.

Conclusion

As per the analysis of the above mentioned case studies of various FMCG advertisements
that have used fear appeal, it can be concluded that advertisers often try to induce a
radical change in their consumer’s behavior through these advertisements by highlighting
the negative appeals. Mostly, FMCG advertisements are seen using this appeal due to the
nature of their product. The advertisements for their products are usually portrayed as a
solution towards such problems which can ultimately reduce such consequences.

Fear appeals that are used in these advertisements mostly comprise of three components
and they are: the message in the advertisement, the targeted audience and the
recommended behavior or course of action. The most important component out of these
components is the behavior that is recommended in these advertisements. These
behaviors usually give a clear indication on how to minimize the risk and get rid of the
dissonance that has been produced in their lives. The recommended behavior motivates
the consumer to take the desired action which is usually favorable for the brand.
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Although fear appeal is a popular technique that is used in advertisements, it is still

controversial nature. Triggering fear amongst consumers on purpose has its own share of
ethical considerations. If these appeals are used in an unethical manner, then they can
impose serious risks for both the consumers and the brands.

Reference Material

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