The Application of Persuasion Theory to the Development Of Effective Proenvironmental Public Service Announcements

Journal of Social Issues, Fall, 2000 by Renee J. Bator, Robert B. Cialdini

Renee J. Bator [*]

The goal of this article is to provide specific guidelines to help create effective proenvironmental public service announcements (PSAs). Campaign designers are encouraged to initially identify and investigate the optimal target audience and then draft and test reactions by samples of that audience using pilot messages. Designers are also advised to consider research on attitude persistence, memory, and social norms and apply this research to the message content and presentation style. The article concludes with an application of research from social psychology to a series of overall guidelines for effective PSAs. If environmental campaign developers follow these specifications, the chance of PSA success should be enhanced.

Public service announcements (PSAs) are designed to inform or induce certain behaviors in specific audiences, generally for noncommercial profit using mass media-approaches (adapted from Rogers & Storey, 1987, by Rice & Atkin, 1989). The advantage of using PSAs to promote prosocial behavior is due in part to their ability to efficiently and repeatedly penetrate a large target population, with the possibility of relying on highly respected sources as spokespersons (Hornik, 1989). One of the best-known environmental PSAs was presented in the 1970s. The Iron Eyes Cody messages featured a heavily littered environment and a Native American with a tear in his eye and the slogan, "People start pollution; people can stop it." Since its original original airing in 1971, the PSA has been seen by an estimated 50 million Americans (Dwyer, 1999). In 1997, it was named one of the top 50 commercials of all time by Environment Weekly (Dwyer, 1999). Although this message certainly elicits emotional reactions from viewers, this article will point out a possible flaw in the message, along with suggestions for creating an even stronger PSA.

Although there is a great deal of persuasion research that addresses attitude change and corresponding behavior change, PSAs are typically designed without taking advantage of this information. Proenvironmental campaigns face a special problem, because the messages attempt to direct a behavior that does not occur until a later time. The goal of this article is to provide specific guidelines to help create effective proenvironmental PSAs.

When developers of proenvironmental PSAs neglect to consider basic principles derived from mass-media communications research, their efforts to bring about behavioral change are likely to be unsuccessful. A great deal of research has examined the importance of identifying a target audience, learning about their attitudes and behaviors related to the target issue, and then pilot testing responses to preliminary versions of the message. Based on previous research, Mendelsohn (1973) found that public information campaigns have a relatively high probability of success if (1) campaign developers assume that most audiences are likely to be only mildly interested in the message, (2) middle-range goals are set (e.g., developers feel confident that simple message exposure will lead to the desired information gain or change in behavior), and (3) the target audience is thoroughly investigated in terms of demographics, lifestyles, values, and mass-media habits. Mendelsohn described three information campaigns that were highly successful because each of their designs reflected close collaboration between social scientists and communications specialists.

Atkin and Freimuth (1989) provide a step-by-step guide to formative evaluation research in campaign designs. They contend that evaluation research should first answer questions about audience attitudes and behaviors prior to the campaign design, then evaluate the design's execution and effectiveness during and after a campaign (Flay & Best, 1982; Flay & Cook, 1989). This evaluation research process includes two major steps, the preproduction stage and the pretesting stage, each of which has numerous substeps. In the preproduction stage of the research, the strategist attempts to discover as much as possible about the target audience before specifying objectives, drafting strategies, and matching the message to the audience. Then the pretesting stage involves the process of methodically collecting reactions from the intended audience based on preliminary versions of messages before they are finalized (Bertrand, 1978; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1984). Since the current process of producing P SAs (based mainly on creative inspiration) has achieved only limited success, this proposal for step-by-step research certainly merits consideration by managerial and creative personnel.

McGuire (1989) also provided useful guidelines for creating effective public communication campaigns. He described how fundamental theories about a person's structure and motivation affect that person's response to a persuasive message. An input-output matrix was formulated to better understand the communication variables (input) and the response steps (output). Along the input axis are important aspects of the message such as the source (age, gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, credibility, and attractiveness), message factors (delivery style, length, repetition, speed of speech, and vividness), channel factors (television, radio, newspaper, or magazine, as well as specifics within these), receiver factors (age, education, gender, lifestyle), and finally target behaviors at which the communication is aimed--these are called the destination factors (immediate versus long-term change, trying to encourage a new behavior or stop a current habit). Most of these input options are under the control of the cam paign developers, and thus they can be manipulated to achieve the most effective response.