*This Blog Post was written during my Masters Degree*

Welcome to my first blog post!

Recently, as I was thinking of a topic to start this blog with, the thought hit me that summer was finally over! So, as a desperate attempt to keep those summer vibes, my first blog post will be discussing the most memorable advert I saw this summer. 

The advert I will be discussing doesn’t actually have anything to do with summer, but rather it was an advert that made me do an actual double take.

I’ll set the scene, I was hastily walking along a busy train platform when, out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a cigarette advert. Two things ran through my brain: firstly, why is there a large advert for cigarettes and secondly, hang on a minute, this advert is sponsored by Cancer Research UK! (Advert in cover photo).

From first glance it looks exactly like a cigarette advert when, in actual fact the advert is part of a bigger campaign targeting the link between obesity and cancer. 

How do non-profit and government organisations encourage new behaviours which impact the health sector? They utilise social marketing. Social marketing is a tool that aims at encouraging the general public to voluntarily comply with requirements that are important to public safety. For instance, to wear your seat belt, or to encourage healthy eating in families.

To make these campaigns successful the marketer need to put forth a message. For the obesity advert the message is for the consumer to learn that obesity (just as smoking was) is the second biggest preventable cause of cancer. 

In order for this message to have an advertising effect the message must have an appeal; these message appeals represents an attraction which aim to arouse consumer’s desires. 

The appeals can be either an rational or emotional appeal. An emotional appeal was used in these campaign because the advert is about cancer. With the advert being about cancer you are able to elicit a range of emotions, from fear, sadness, anger or hope. 

This particular advert evokes both fear and guilt, as the information depicts a severe threat that links obesity with cancer. An issue with public health adverts is that they have to strike the right balance of being fear inducing while not being manipulative. 

Because if a consumer feels like the advert has a manipulative intent they are less likely to feel guilty about their actions which would result in them doing the opposite of the intended outcome.  

Often guilt based advertisements also evoke feelings of anger. This advert has faced a fair amount of public anger. Certain parties have criticised the advert, arguing that it weight shames. Often when it comes to public outcry, and with the modern age of the internet, the public openly broadcast their outage which can lead to a higher amount of publicity for the advert. This, you could argue creates more publicity for the advert and generates more discussion which was the main intention of Cancer Research. 

So do these scare tactic works? Does having these emotional appeals that elicit, fear, guilt and anger, encourage consumer to change their behaviour? Or does the public discussion we gain from these adverts help create more discussion within our society and potential change in government? 

What I have taken from this advert is that, when done well, a message appeal elicits strong emotions. It is well known that smoking causes a greater risk of cancer, but now with this advert Cancer Research are also informing the public that obesity is the second largest cause of cancer!

Whether they have done the advert in a considerate way is questionable. But have they successfully introduced a new topic of discussion into the public sphere? I think they have.