title: Are you Scared Yet?: Evaluating Fear Appeal Messages in Tweets about the Tips Campaign.
abstract: In March 2012, the CDC launched "Tips from Former Smokers," a $54 million national campaign featuring individuals experiencing long-term health consequences of smoking. The campaign approach was based on strong evidence that anti-tobacco ads portraying fear, graphic images, and personal testimonials are associated with attitudinal and behavior change. Yet it was also controversial; critics cited the danger that viewers might reject such intensely graphic messages. Tasked with informing this debate, our study analyzes the corpus of Tips campaign-related tweets obtained via the Twitter Firehose. We provide a novel and rigorous method for media campaign evaluation within the framework of the Extended Parallel Process Model. Among the relevant Tweets, 87% showed evidence of message acceptance, while 7% exhibited message rejection.
authors.affiliation: Health Media Collaboratory, Institute for Health Research and Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
authors.forename: Sherry L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Emery
authors.affiliation: Health Media Collaboratory, Institute for Health Research and Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
authors.forename: Glen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Szczypka
authors.affiliation: Health Media Collaboratory, Institute for Health Research and Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
authors.forename: Eulàlia Puig
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Abril
authors.affiliation: Health Media Collaboratory, Institute for Health Research and Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
authors.forename: Yoonsang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Moores Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vera
keywords: Anti-smoking; Big data; Extended Parallel Process Model; Tips; Twitter