Increasing the effectiveness of advertisements targeting social issues in least developed countries

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the application of advertising variation and repetition strategies in the context of communicating about social issues in least developed countries (LDCs). Design/methodology/approach: Study 1 used a between-subjects experimental study using 106 students which were exposed to either the varied advertising condition (a negative appeal followed by a positive appeal or vice versa) or repetition condition (two negative appeals). In Study 2, a total of 111 students from Tilburg University and 95 students from Addis Ababa University participated in the study. A random ordering of experimental envelopes assigned the students to one of the following message order conditions (negative appeal–positive appeal, negative appeal–negative appeal, positive appeal–positive appeal and positive appeal–negative appeal). Findings: Study 1 shows that for many social issues, an advertising variation strategy (a negative appeal followed by a positive appeal) is more effective than an advertising repetition strategy (two negative appeals) in terms of recall. Study 2 builds on these findings by differentiating between taboo and non-taboo issues. This distinction is important because many social issues, such as HIV, domestic violence and child abuse, for instance, are taboo in LDCs. Interestingly, the findings of Study 1 are reproduced for non-taboo issues but not for taboo issues. If an issue is a conversational taboo in a certain culture, then an advertising repetition strategy that only uses positive appeals is more effective than an advertising variation strategy. Research limitations/implications: The use of students as participants may be a limitation of both studies. Because the reactions of students to specific message appeals may be age-related, concerns regarding the generalizability of the findings are justified. Originality/value: Overall, the results of this paper provide useful information to social advertisers on when and how to use different types of advertising strategies in LDCs.