Chapter I Introduction…
1.3 Cultural Study: PSA
1.3.2 Animal Rights Protection: West and Asia (Taiwan)
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pornography or vulgar content, and threaten the morals of young people” (Human Rights Watch, 2009). According to the Xinhua News Agency (http://www.xinhuanet.com 2009), six central agencies, led by the Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, conducted an intensified month-long campaign to clean up the media of unhealthy, vulgar and pornographic material. Such reports suggest there may be a barrier to the effectiveness of PETA’s ads on catching the viewers’ attention, if the dominant sexual appeal is perceived as morally offensive in the Asian mind.
On the other hand, regardless of whether the viewer is Asian or Western, attention is focused on foreigners, especially on a female model from the category of “the others”.
Exotic sexuality that is coming from a foreign woman has a powerful attraction to any viewer, whether he or she is sexually attracted or just interested to see “something different” and not so common.
When the viewer sees the image, he creates a story about it. Stories tend to have a moral quality – they are about right and wrong that contain “do’s” and “don’ts”.
Considering cultural differences between Asia and West, the appearing of gorgeous nude blonde or black female model in Advertising can have a very different impact on Asian people’s mind. This could be positive or negative, which also may affect the study results.
1.3.2 Animal Rights Protection: West and Asia (Taiwan)
Animal Rights Protection has a long history in Western countries. Even as early as the year of 1641, we can trace the roots for the idea of animal rights. The great influence of the century was the French philosopher, René Descartes (1596–1650), whose “Meditations” was published that year, and whose ideas about animals informed attitudes well into the 21st century. Writing during the scientific revolution—a revolution of which he was one of the chief architects—Descartes proposed a mechanistic theory of the universe, His mechanistic approach was extended to the issue of animal consciousness. The first laws protecting animals were enacted in 1635,1641
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and 1654. Richard Ryder writes that the first known legislation against animal cruelty in the English-speaking world was passed in Ireland in 1635. It prohibited pulling wool off sheep, and the attaching of ploughs to horses’ tails. The British philosopher John Locke (1632–1704) argued, in “Some Thoughts Concerning Education” in 1693, that animals do have feelings, and that unnecessary cruelty toward them is morally wrong.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) argued in Discourse on Inequality in 1754 that animals should be part of natural law, not because they are rational, but because they are sentient. In 1785, The German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), following Locke, opposed the idea that humans have duties toward non-humans. For Kant, cruelty to animals was wrong solely on the grounds that it was bad for humankind. The 19th century saw an explosion of interest in animal protection and the enactment of animal protection legislation, particularly in England: the Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act was enacted in 1822, the Cruelty to Animals Act in 1835, Acts in 1849 and 1876. Martin’s Act, as it became known, was the world’s first major piece of animal protection legislation in 1822. It was given royal assent on June 22 of that year as an act to prevent the cruel and improper Treatment of Cattle, and made it an offence punishable by fines up to five pounds or two months imprisonment. In 1824, several members of parliament decided to form a society to bring prosecutions under the Act – the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (http://cfawr.org/current-legislation.php).
The first animal protection group in the United States, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) founded by Henry Bergh in April 1866, still exists. He created a “Declaration of the Rights of Animals,” and in 1866 persuaded the New York state legislature to pass anti-cruelty legislation and to grant the ASPCA the authority to enforce it. The 20th century saw society increase animal use but also saw the creation of many animal protection groups, and animal rights movements. By the 21st century, first rights were proposed for animals and the number of large organizations fighting for animal rights has increased to 30 (http://advocacy.britannica.com/blog/advocacy/2006/11/the-aspca-pioneers-in-animal-welfare/). As it has been shown, the western mind has been concerned about the
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relationship between humans and animals for centuries. In Asia, the development of animal rights protection organizations hasn’t been as successful.
According to the China Post updated on April 26 2010 (http://www.chinapost.com.tw/editorial/taiwan-issues/2010/04/26/253933/Animal-prote ction.htm), a series of incidents regarding issues of animal abuse, protection and welfare were reported over the few weeks prior to the report, making it a problem that deserves attention. First, a National Taiwan University (NTU) graduate student was sentenced to an 18-month prison sentence by the Taipei District Court on March 30, 2010 for torturing three cats to death. This was the first time a court in Taiwan has found a defendant guilty of animal abuse. Li Nian Long, the marine engineering student that was sentenced, beat and then skinned the cats in October and Novembers of 2008, the court said, which violated the Animal Protection Act.
Just two days after the sentencing, an American animal rights activist held a press conference in Taipei City on April 1 calling for better enforcement of the ban on animal traps after she and five of the 18 stray dogs that she cares for in Taipei’s Yangmingshan area were injured by traps originally set up to catch wild boars. Two of her dogs required having their legs amputated according to Faye Angevine, the 35-year Taiwan resident who owns the dogs.
Illegal traps are more common than one might expect. Between July 2008 and July 2009, there were 141 reported encounters with illegal animal traps in Taipei alone, 98 of which involved animals that required amputations, as reported by Animals Taiwan, a group devoted to caring for injured stray dogs and cats (http://www.chinapost.com.tw/editorial/taiwan-issues/2010/04/26/253933/Animal-prote ction.htm).
If Taiwan prides itself in becoming a developed nation, the electorate should call on its representatives to spend less time engaging in a WWE-like brawl (some good punches, a few real injuries, all show) and devote more effort to encouraging the humane treatment of animals. The judge’s decision to impose a heavy sentence on the
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NTU student is laudable, a deliberate first step in raising the public’s attention to animal abuse issues. It is also good news that the Taipei City Government will soon likely amend the law to ban the selling of animal traps.
Recently, however, Taiwan has done important steps to improve its standing in international community. The Taiwan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Taiwan SPCA) was founded by British expat Sean McCormack and Canadian–Taiwanese sisters Connie and Annie Chiang in July of 2009. It is currently registering for national non-profit status. The Taiwan SPCA is already active in animal rescue, campaigning, and investigating reports of animal abuse. The Taiwan SPCA relies on public support, receiving no financial assistance as yet from government or other agencies.. With the goal of “Educating, Campaigning, Prosecuting, and Protecting”, the Taiwan SPCA aims to enhance the welfare of all animals within Taiwan (www.spca.org.tw). The objectives of the association are to promote kindness towards, prevent cruelty to, and alleviate suffering of animals in Taiwan by all legal means. The Taiwan SPCA believes that an advanced society upholds the most humane treatment of animals within its guardianship: “We believe that, by being dedicated to the welfare of nonhuman animals, a nation enhances its standing in the international community” (http://taiwanspca.com/aboutus.html).
It is significant to note that the Taiwanese SPCA during its short history has garnered a number of great supporters, such as COSTCO, HTC, United International Business Consultants, ICRT FM 100, Taipei Language Institute, True Yoga True Dance True Fitness and also a number of Chinese and Western restaurants, plus a great celebrity support, such as Mavis and the 100% music band, Manchucker the rap artist, Cool Silly the music band, Xiao S, Mc Hotdog, A-Lin, Machi, Wang Shao Wei, Ting Chu, ICRT Dj Eric Tu, ICRT Dj Terry Engel, Nese, Jacky Zhu, VJ Rong Jia, and VJ Henry (http://www.spca.org.tw/tspca-in-the-news-26032328622257723566.html).
The Taiwan SPCA works hard to make Taiwan a global leader in animal welfare, with effective animal-protection laws, a respected animal inspectorate, model shelters, a
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public educated in the responsible care of animals, and the utmost humane treatment of all animals within every sector of Taiwan society.
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1.4 Reasearch Purpose
The purpose of the study is to examine the effectiveness of combining a PSA specific message and image characteristics in the different appeals of animal rights protection public service print advertising. The study seeks following goals:
1) Defining the most persuasive message and image characteristics in animal rights protection public service print advertising;
2) Defining the most effective advertising appeal in animal rights protection public service print advertising;
1.5 Research Questions
The study suggests following Research questions:
RQ1: What are the most persuasive message characteristics in PETA’s print PSA that can influence responsible attitude?
RQ2: What are the most persuasive image characteristics in PETA’s print PSA that can influence favorable attitude?
RQ3: May a high degree of humor appeal in combination with sexual appeal in PETA’s print PSA produce favorable feeling while simultaneously engendering an effective call to action?
RQ4: May a high degree of Fear appeal (“hard selling”) in combination with sexual appeal in PETA’s print PSA produce unpleasant and unfavorable feeling and while simultaneously containing an educational function?
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The investigation can be presented as the following framework.
Figure 1-1: Investigation Framework
If viewers don’t look at something, they can’t act on it. To make viewers look advertising has to be attention catching, to make viewers act advertising has to have a strong appeal. Research Question 1 and Research Question 2 investigate viewers’
attitudes toward the message and image, respectively. The examination of humor and fear appeals in combination with sexual appeal will play a large part in both queries.
Research Question 3 and Research Question 4 investigate the use of different degree of humor and fear appeals, respectively, in combination with sexual appeal in PETA’s print PSA and what impact these appeals could have on viewers’ attitude.
Sometimes the advertising strategy in PSA is to scare consumers into acting. Fear appeals (or “hard sells”) are typically designed to illicit a specific feeling. Fear is an extraordinarily powerful emotion and may be used to get consumers to take or consider taking some very important action (responsible thinking). This fear must be coupled with some degree of thought in order for it to work. A high risk of harm or other negative consequences of not taking some recommended actions is presented in these ads, which may result in a negative attitude toward the advertising theme and absence of responsible thinking if advertisers are not careful about presenting them. The fear appeal is usually combination of a rational component and an emotional component.
Viewer
Exposure/Attention to PETA’s prints advertisement
Message characteristics
Image characteristics
Attitude Advertising Appeal
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The intuitive belief about fear appeal as a message tactic is that fear will motivate and persuade the receiver to think responsibly, and to take an action or consider taking an action that will reduce or eliminate the portrayed threat.
On the other hand, so-called “humor ads” (or “soft sells”) have a positive attitude towards the persuasive effect of advertising. Humor appeals can increase popularity and attraction, especially with the use of a beautiful female spokesperson. However is it enough to increase the effectiveness or persuasive impact, and make the public take action? If the receiver remembers a gag, but cannot remember what the advertisement was about, this ad cannot be called effective. Even so, a humor strategy in public service advertising is a big and risky step that cannot be neglected by research attention.
As the message is presented in images, this study concerns the involvement of celebrity spokeswomen in both humor and fear appeal animal protection print ads which results in a combination of sexual-humor and sexual-fear appeals in PETA’s print PSA.
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1.6 Research Procedure
Figure 1-2: Research Procedure
Establishing research goal and questions as the first steps of research procedure has been stated in Chapter I. Chapter II consists of previous studies overview and possibility of its application to the current study. Chapter III decides the research method, the author defines the universe of public sample, selects the advertising campaign and marking out reliable representative ads' sample. When the interviewing content is decided, recoded interviewing proceudres are conducted. In Chapter IV, the data is analyzed, and the results are discussed. Chapter V provides findings, conclusion, academic and practical suggestions, as well as points out the study limitations.
Selecting Ad Sample
Coding Print Ads
Marking out Representative Sample
Organize Recording
Analyzing the Data and Interpreting the Results Establishing Interviewing Content
Defining Sample Universe Establishing Research Goal
Previous Studies Overview Establishing Research Questions
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Chapter II Literature Review
2.1 Previous Study on Animals Issue in Advertising
Amazingly, previous studies have not examined the animal rights issue in
advertising in depth and only a few research papers have examined the use of animals in print ads.
Nancy Spears and Richard Germain in the research paper “A Note on Green Sentiments and the Human-Animal Relationship in Print Advertising During the 20th Century” (2007) used a content analysis of print advertisements with animals spanning the 20th century to investigate green sentiments. The provided framework integrates green advertisers’ depictions of animals and values. Thus, the present study seeks to contribute to the understanding of green sentiments in print ads having animals. The central purpose of the study was guided by three objectives:
To suggest how animals in Advertising can be used to reassure consumers;
To study changing social values;
To conduct a longitudinal examination of print ads.
To accomplish these objectives, the study proposes a theoretical model based on positionality. The concept of positionality refers to the culturally understood position that humans hold in relation to animals and how this position adapts to ever changing societal demands. Hypotheses were developed from the model to address artistic renditions of animals as well as the depicted self-focused versus society-focused values in print advertisements in different time periods. A content analysis of 1,223 magazine advertisements from the 20th century in the United States was conducted to test the hypotheses.
Findings of this study suggest the manner in which animals and depicted values in ads containing animals can be effectively used to stimulate the consumer to consider green value in advertised products.
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Advertisers frequently use animals in ads, another little academic research Lancendorfer, Atkin, and Reece (2008) focuses on consumer reactions to their use. This study uses the heuristic–systematic model (HSM) to examine consumer response to animal companions in advertisements. Specifically, HSM serves as the theoretical foundation for testing the effects of animal heuristic cues on the formation of attitude toward the ad, attitude toward the brand, and purchase intention. In the current study, the presence of the dog increases heuristic processing, concurrent processing, and ultimately attitude toward the ad.
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effectiveness content models are based on a well-known advertising theory presented by Lavidge and Steiner (1961) – the hierarchy of effects model (A Model for Predictive Measurements of Advertising Effectiveness, Journal of Marketing, October 1961):Awareness -> Knowledge -> Liking -> Preference -> Conviction -> Purchase Later on, many researchers developed similar models based on this theory. John D.
Leckenby and Nugent Wedding (1982) suggested three dimensions of impact in the persuasion process: Cognitive – Affective – Conative.
The cognitive (knowing) dimension includes attitude, exposure, awareness, recognition, comprehension, and recall.
The affective (feeling) dimension includes attitude change, liking/disliking, and involvement.
The conative (taking an action) dimension includes advertised intention and behavior.
Although these models provide useful insights into the possible sequence of audience responses to advertisements in general, they are a bit simplified for empirical research in advertising effects, because the human mind is much more complex than the three- or six-step procedures.
An early research in cognitive response theory is in attitude change research (Timothy C. Brock, 1967; Anthony G. Greenwald, 1968). This approach has become an increasingly viable explanation for a variety of empirical findings and theoretical perspectives. The cognitive response approach to persuasion emphasizes the thoughts that people have while exposed to persuasive messages.
Advertising persuasion research has identified numerous ways in which advertising can influence public opinion. In the viewpoint of William E. Baker and Richard. J. Lutz (1988), using a general situational contingency approach, the Relevance-Accessibility Model (RAM) can explain when different advertising effects will be most effective and persuasive (and most ineffective) in influencing public
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behavior. The RAM represents an assimilation of recent research in cognitive and social psychology, behavioral learning theory, and advertising theory, including research on how consumers process Advertising information, how information is stored in and accessed from memory, and how people use information to facilitate judgments.
The RAM is based on the view that the primary goal of Advertising is not to change an attitude at the moment of exposure to the advertisement, but rather to influence choice by communicating relevant information that is easily retrieved, that is, accessible, and used at the response occasion to discriminate among other alternatives.
According to the RAM, breakdowns in advertising effectiveness occur for two general reasons: when advertising information is not accessed at the response occasion or when the accessed advertising information is perceived as irrelevant to the choice process. To be optimally effective advertising messages must contain the type of information that public are most likely to use to discriminate at the response occasion and maximize the accessibility of that information at the response occasion. A central proposition of the RAM is that perceived information relevance is a function of public decision-making involvement at the response occasion.
Application of the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion, or ELM (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986), and Heuristic-Systematic Model of Information Processing, or HSM (Chaiken, 1980), suggests a model of source effects. Depending on the level of involvement, persuasion may occur through either an effortful, systematic, elaboration‐based central route or an effortless association, or heuristic‐based peripheral route. The multiple‐roles postulate of the ELM (Petty and Wegener, 1998 and 1999) suggests that source effects may occur via either the peripheral route, if source serves as a peripheral cue, or the central route, if source serves as a product‐advocacy argument.
Hence, the multiple‐roles postulate, with source effects a result of consumers processing
Hence, the multiple‐roles postulate, with source effects a result of consumers processing