Abstract

During the past decade pharmaceutical companies have increased their direct to consumer advertising (DTC). Unlike advertisements of other products, these ads contain both the benefits and potential risks of the product. Similar to ads employing fear appeals as a method of persuasion, theories in fear appeals may be used to predict and explain the behavior of consumers exposed to varying amount of risk information. An experimental study was performed to examine the impact of risk disclosure variations in print ads on high and low involved participants and examine if a relationship between theories in fear appeal persuasion and risk disclosure in DTC advertising may exist. The study was a 2 (involvement level) x 3 (disclosure of risk information) factorial design. The dependant variables of the study were: recall of information, attitude towards the ad and brand, and behavioral intentions. Significant differences were observed between participants for recall of information and their attitude towards the brand. Moreover, findings from research in fear appeals used in advertisements were applicable in predicting some of the differences between high and low involved participants' attitudes towards the varying amounts of risk information.