Fear advertisements: influencing consumers to make better health decisions Anjala Selena Krishen a * and My Bui b a Marketing & International Business, Lee Business School, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.A.; b Department of Marketing, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. (Received 16 January 2013; accepted 10 July 2014) From a goal-theoretic framework, this paper proposes that fear-based framing of health messages can lead to positive decision intentions, thus helping consumers make better future health-related choices. Across two experiments, findings demonstrate that the type of advertisement (fear versus hope) and food prime (indulgent versus non-indulgent) interact to determine goal-related choice focus À such as subsequent indulgence intention or intention to implement an exercise health goal. Research implications include the suggestion that if marketers properly execute fear-primed promotional messages with non-indulgent food offerings, they can satisfy the notion that ‘One good health decision can lead to another.’ Keywords: fear appeal advertising; health promotions; consumer decision-making processes 1. Introduction Currently, more than 35.7% of US adults are considered obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC 2012). Even though a considerable amount of resources continue to be committed to reducing overweight and obesity statistics (United States Department of Agriculture, USDA 2012), its prevalence throughout affluent coun- tries in the world continues to rise À with obesity medical-related costs estimated in the billions each year. Despite intensified efforts by the government and consumer welfare advocate organizations to provide ongoing social marketing health campaigns and national weight-management programs, along with other obesity reduction intervention initiatives, the problem persists rather than improves over time. Speaking to the critical nature of the obesity epidemic, academics in multiple disciplines also conduct ongoing research in the area (Dooley, Deshpande and Adair 2010; McDermott et al. 2006). Given the immense costs associated with the advertisement expenditures of fighting obesity in the United States, it is important to understand how health advertisements impact con- sumer lifestyle choices. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to examine the effec- tiveness of various message frames of health advertisements on attitudes towards the advertisement and health behavioural intentions. Message framing is a well-recognized mechanism for increasing the effectiveness of marketing communications. In fact, previous research has examined the influence of priming through goal frames, wherein the message framing provides evidence of the link- age between behaviour and goal attainment. However, extensions of priming and goals *Corresponding author. Email: anjala.krishen@unlv.edu. Both authors contributed equally. Ó 2015 Advertising Association International Journal of Advertising, 2015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2014.996278 Downloaded by [Anjala S. Krishen] at 11:11 02 February 2015