Appeals To Fear

Advertisements must not play on fear without a justifiable reason and must not exploit the superstitious. More latitude is given to public information messages promoting health and safety than to purely commercial messages.

Commercial messages, e.g. for smoke alarms, may be acceptable if their style and tone are reasonably restrained and urge listeners to do something to help protect themselves. However, if the aim is to frighten listeners into buying a product, the advertisement scenario is likely to be unacceptable. In general, it is unacceptable for advertisers to appeal to fear through a person’s lack of self-esteem/self-confidence.