Matt Degollado
Comm 3243
Prof. Eno
April 13, 2015
To Vaccinate or Not (ad on the last page)
Tugging on a parents heart strings has been an advertisement tactic for a long time. What
better way to convince someone to act on something other than providing for their child’s safety.
Raising children is hard for anyone, especially first time parents. They question everything from
what detergent to buy to what bottle to use. A new question relevant to raising children is the
choice to vaccinate or not? Within the last 20 years or so, vaccinations have become a highly
debated topic, mainly because some studies claim there is a higher risk of autism tied to a
particular vaccine. This new discovery has parents second guessing a practice that was suppose
to protect their child. What better way to persuade a parent than scaring them about the welfare
of their child?
I came across this ad while looking into the Measles outbreak in California. As a new
parent, I recently had the short debate about the pros and cons of vaccinating my daughter. It
caught my eye because it is something relevant and concerning to me as a parent; however, the
more I thought about it, the more I realized parents should not be the only one concerned. The
outbreak of measles in California has made this issue more public than it was before. This
incident showed the rising risk we are facing in the United States as more and more parents
chose to not vaccinate their children. My wife, who is a school administrator, is faced with this
every day. She has certain diseases they have to watch out for and report to the CDC, with the
Ebola scare and then the Measles concern, the vaccination debate is becoming more relevant and
Degollado
02
personal. She is in charge of protecting not only our new baby, but other people’s children as
well.
The public service announcement I chose, is meant to scare parents. Most parents would
not subject their child to anything that would harm them. I would do anything to keep my
daughter safe, and this particular announcement briefly made me question my choice to
vaccinate. If you are someone who watches the news, you have heard about the concern over too
many vaccines, vaccinating period, or the ingredients of the vaccines. There have been reports on
vaccinations being tied to rising rates of autism diagnoses. I believe this particular disease is
more frightening than some because from what I know there is no prediction of who will have it
and who will not. The disease was made more public when Jenny McCarthy, a very famous
actress, came out claiming her son became autistic after his vaccinations. (Generation Rescue:
Hope for Recovery ).
When talking about persuasive messages it is important to consider objective approach
and credibility comes into play. Although Jenny McCarthy does not have the credibility to be
making such claims as vaccines cause Autism, she still used her celebrity status and
unfortunately misinformed a lot of people. When looking at messages such as the one in this
advertisement it is important to consider the objective approach and credibility. A large number
of the claims in this advertisement are not supported by a scientifically proven cause and effect
relationship (Griffin).
Social Judgment theory is one of the first theories that I thought about when I looked at
this advertisement. Social judgment theory happens when we “weigh every new idea by comparing it
Degollado
03
with our present point of view” (Gass 195). It is something that happens instantaneously, we are not even
conscious of it happening. This particular advertisement falls in the high ego involvement realm for me.
Before I had a child it would have been on the low ego involvement, but now it is on the high end. It also
falls in the latitude of rejection for many reasons that I will discuss in depth in the following paragraphs.
Attitude theory also comes into play when looking at this piece of media. Although the
definition of attitude has been debated, social scientist have agreed on the fact that attitude is
something learned, it is not something we are born with (Gass 41). In this particular
advertisement the attitude object would be vaccines, which initiates a lot of attitude in me. As I
mentioned before, I did not pay a lot of attention to the vaccination debate, but as a new parent I
researched and learned a lot of information, and I now have developed an attitude towards those
who choose not to vaccinate. I was vaccinated, my wife was vaccinated, I do not know anyone
who has developed a disease or had a reaction to a vaccination, so all of my schema leans
favorably toward vaccinations. If I knew someone who had a bad experience with a vaccine, then
I would have a different perspective to take into consideration when considering my attitude
toward vaccines. From a different aspect, I am now a parent and it is my job to protect my child,
and the fact that people do not want to vaccinate and expose other people’s children to
unnecessary risks brings out a lot of attitude in me. Again, my attitude was not as strong or
favorable toward vaccines until I had to make that decision on my own. I drew on my own
experiences, I researched, and chose to vaccinate my child. Advertisements like this make me
angry because it is very misleading and the uneducated could make an uninformed decision,
ultimately threatening my child’s well being.
Degollado
04
The language in this advertisement is intense and purposeful. What did catch my
attention could be an example of information processing theory which is the attention and
comprehension of the message (Gass 154). The words “Love Them and Protect Them” caught
my eye and made me pay attention to the advertisement. The words “Never Inject them” and
there are “NO safe vaccines,” are very deliberate and make people pay attention. The ad does not
violate the language expectancy theory because the words and phrases are not out of the norm for
such an advertisement; however, the supposed diseases are a little out of the norm and made me
think for a minute. Shaken baby syndrome and ear infections are not problems I had ever heard
be associated with vaccines, and in this case I think these claims discredit their message.
The theory of emotional appeal is another persuasive sales technique. This particular
approach reaches us at our most primal area and often affects our subconscious. When we see
advertisements, our “primal mind sees them just as it would a real life situation” (Orwig). The
emotional appeal of this announcement on me was ineffective. My wife and I did have a brief
discussion which was an emotional reaction to seeing pictures like the one on this campaign ad. I
say brief because once we sat down and thought about it, we realized we were just reacting to the
need to protect our child from the brief second of pain she would experience from the needle. We
read more research on autism and made a decision we feel is best for our child. I realized it was
better for us to follow science. We decided to protect her from as much as possible, and one of
those ways was through vaccinations.
Another persuasion technique used in this ad is what is known as fear appeal. This type
of argument is used “to threaten a target audience with a fearful outcome” (Walton 1). Fear
Degollado
05
appeal is not meant to be a threat, but is more of a warning that is the receiver something bad
might happen (Walton). In this particular advertisement, parents are being warned if they
vaccinate their child, they could develop one of the following diseases. As a parent, there is
enough to be afraid of, and this advertisement is implying that vaccines carry a possible threat to
children’s well being.
Persuasion in advertising is all over the place. Sometimes we are aware of what message
is being presented and sometimes it is something that happens subconsciously. As critical
consumers it is imperative we stay informed and aware of persuasive techniques so we can make
educated decisions.
References
Gass, Robert H and John S. Seiter. Persuasion, Social Influence, and Compliance Gaining. Boston: Allyn &
Bacon, 2011. Print.
Generation Rescue: Hope for Recovery . 2015. Web. 27 March 2015.
Griffin, Em. Communication Communication Communication: A First Look at Communication Theory.
New York : McGraw-Hill , 2012. print.
Orwig, Ken. "Rational Appeals vs. Emotional Appeals in Advertising and Marketing Communication." n.d.
Orwig Marketing Strategies . web. 13 April 2015.
Walton, Douglas. Scare Tactics: Arguements that Appeal to Fear and Threats. Dordrecht: Kluwer
Academic Publishing, 2000. web.