Question

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a humorous appeal in advertising insurance, versus a fear appeal? Provide examples of each.

150 words, please.

Answer 1

Advantages of humorous appeal in advertising insurance versus a fear appeal:

1) Humorous messages attract and hold customers attention rather then making them fearful

2) Humorous appeal enhanced mood of the customer in a positive way, which might increase their liking of advertisement whereas in case of fear appeal , it makes people fearful and threatened

3) Customer generates a positive feeling towards product and make them think and understand about product details

4) Humorous appeal is always considered in ethical way where as fear appeal somehow raised the ethical concerns

For example, in their ads, the Canadian Direct Insurance company plays ironically on common negative impressions about the insurance industry, such as non-transparency, secrecy and slow claim

Ex 2) Scary ads might increase anxiety among high-risk recipients and upset them

Disadvantages of humorous appeal in advertising insurance versus a fear appeal:

1) Humorous add presents little or no substantial information as compare to fear appeal where it provide benefits of insurance by focusing on health and safety issues

2) Humor sometimes just represnt noise, and do little to increase customer knowledge.