Beautiful Wasn't she?

This advert is part of a drink driving campaign.  The advert uses the consequences template by Goldernberg, Mazurksy  and Solomon (1999). In particular, it uses the extreme consequences version to show that drink driving can lead to very serious and dangerous consequences, the consequence in this case being the the death of an innocent person. Also, by asking the question ‘beautiful wasn’t she?’ and stating  ‘that’s a heavy price to pay for being reckless’ the advert is very emotive and to some extent elicits guilt. Guilt has been found to be a useful persuasive tool. In a study it was found that guilt appeal charity adverts increased guilt arousal which was positively related to donation intention (Hibbert, Smith, Davies, & Ireland, 2007). Therefore, suggesting that guilt is an effective persuasion technique.

References

Goldenberg, J., Mazursky, D., & Solomon, S. (1999). The fundamental templates of quality ads. Marketing Science, 18, 333-351.

Hibbert, S., Smith, A., Davies, A., & Ireland, F. (2007). Guilt appeals: Persuasion knowledge and charitable giving. Psychology & Marketing, 24(8), 723-742.