One Cupcake Can Kill

All advertising agencies and marketers use fear in one form or another when selling a message:

Hurry! Don't Miss Out

Speeding: No One Thinks Big Of You

So, how far is too far when using fear in an advertising campaign?

The answer appears to be in Britain's Department of Health's multi-million dollar campaign:

The Department of Health spent £500,000 on two advertisements aimed at mothers, and placed in women's weekly magazines.

One - which shows a picture of a young girl of healthy weight and appearance, biting into a fairy cake, and captioned: "Is a premature death so tempting?" - has provoked a backlash from parents, chefs and obesity experts.

The article goes into extensive coverage into why the campaign is so objectionable.

Two quotes stand out:

Mark Wallace, campaign director of the Taxpayers' Alliance attacked the sums being ploughed into Government public information campaigns.

"These kind of nanny state adverts have boomed so much in recent years and it is a total waste of taxpayers money," he said. "People do not pay their taxes in order to be heckled by the state about how they live their lives".

Quite.

But more disturbing is the second quote:

Of the dozens of mothers who took part in the site's discussion about the advert, none spoke in its favour.

Several expressed fears that their over-the-top health messages were leaving children terrified, and at risk of developing a complex about food.

One, who said she was "infuriated" by the "terrible and simplistic" adverts described her child as already being "brainwashed" by exaggerated messages about healthy eating promoted by schools.

She said: "Her dad gave her sugar on her cereal and she became very upset about dying."

Helping reduce health issues of obesity is a laudable aim, but when children are terrified by food, it's a pathology, not a health goal. Much better that children go out and actively play while adults get a bit of exercise to reduce the calorie 'input/output deficit'.

This campaign is a prime example of the brickbats governments use to try to modify public behaviour.

As any advertising professional will tell you fear can only sell so much. Far, far better to encourage the behaviour you want to see with positive reinforcement. Our own government's Gofor2and5 campaign is much more engaging.

Yes, Business Communications Management has used the fear factor in campaigns before with the award-winning Sucked In Campaign for the Gold Coast City Council where we created a horror-movie teaser trailer to attract an audience of teenage boys.

This difference being the threats weren't exaggerated and once the target market experienced the 'gotcha moment', there was humour to ensure that the message was received positively.