Bonus episode: scary ads

We've discovered what makes a good fear appeal ad, but what about the ones that miss the mark? Hear our expert Associate Professor Cassie Hayward's take on the Australian Government's Covid-19 vaccination campaign.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, It's Lynne Malcolm with a bonus mini episode of
Psychtalks made with the support of the Melbourne School of
Psychological Sciences. Last time we looked at the power of
fear appeals to change people's behaviour. We discovered that the
recipe for what makes a fear appeal ad actually effective,
and we deep dived into campaigns by the Victorian Transport

(00:25):
Accident Commission, the which mastered this recipe on campaigns that
had a measurable real impact on drivers.
But we thought you might also be curious about fear
appeal ads that seemed to more miss the mark and
turn to our expert, Dr Cassie Hayward, to explore a
prime example and just a warning. Like the last episode,

(00:49):
this one contains dramatisations of distressing scenes.
The ad, called Stay at Home just for those of
you who might have seen it, showed a fairly distressing
image of a young adult woman in hospital with breathing
tubes and clearly in a bad way. Back in mid

(01:11):
2021
the Australian government brought out the stay at home and
arm yourself ads as part of its Covid 19 health campaign.
But the public's response to the ads was largely lukewarm
at best. I think the issue with this ad is
not so much the distressing scenes. So we've seen plenty
of ads with confronting scenes that have worked well. But

(01:33):
there are a few things that this ad
probably missed the mark on. So one was that it
inadvertently offended medical professionals who said that portraying that woman
is alone in her hospital bed is not representative of
how it

Speaker 2 (01:47):
happens. But I think the biggest issue with that

Speaker 1 (01:49):
ad
and that explains why it made people angry was the
What Can I do? Part of the recipe was impossible
for

Speaker 2 (01:57):
most of that target audience at the time the ad
was released. So to get a fear appeal right, you
have to get the threat and the severity
right. And I think this covid ad kind of got
that part right. Not perfect, but at least in the
right direction.
But to motivate people into action rather than just terrify
them or anger them, you have to provide an action

(02:18):
plan that they can do
At the time.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
People who were around the same age as the woman
in the ad weren't yet eligible for a vaccine
Using a stick approach, says Cassie, didn't work here because
this aspect fell over. It predictably led to people feeling
angry rather than motivating them into interaction. But then, on
the other extreme that

Speaker 2 (02:41):
the ad called Arm Yourself,

Speaker 1 (02:44):
we kind of see, for those of you haven't seen it,
just It's really just a smorgasbord of arms with band
aids on, and the voiceover tells us that the vaccine
is

Speaker 2 (02:52):
our best defence. It's time to arm yourself. Book your
vaccination today at Australia dot gov dot au. There's nothing
wrong with that message at all. It just came across
as a bit
uninspiring.
That wasn't necessarily trying to be a fear appeal, but
if we still take that recipe of,
we have to get people's attention and then tell them

(03:13):
how to stop whatever that thing is happening. This had
kind of got the second half right about get the vaccine,
but it didn't grab our attention enough or remind us
why we should prioritise vaccination. So it just came across
as a little bit kind of unmotivated or uninspiring
when these ads were released.
According to the Melbourne Institute, just under

Speaker 1 (03:34):
30% of the

Speaker 2 (03:35):
population were hesitant or uncertain about getting vaccinated,

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Cassie says,

Speaker 2 (03:41):
reflecting on missed opportunities by COVID awareness campaigns ought to
give us pause. I just wonder if we could have
been in a better place if we had an evidence
driven stick approach to the public messaging of vaccination and
COVID behaviours earlier on during the pandemic.
We hope you enjoyed this mini

Speaker 1 (04:02):
episode of PsychTalks . And of course, you can hear
more episodes by subscribing to our show wherever you get
your podcasts. Bye for now.