Effective messages for public health campaigns

Purpose The purpose of this research is to analyze the effectiveness of health advertisements during the pandemic that used different message appeals. Which appeals do individuals give more attention to and help them change behavior. Design/methodology/approach Based on empirical investigation, an online survey was developed to measure the proposed model. The reliability and validity of the reflective constructs were conducted using Cronbach’s alpha and Pearson product-moment correlations in SPSS. Findings Our results show that consumer (people) engagement is dependent on advertisements that involve threat, fear, animation and testimonials, which are all part of the persuasion route. Practical implications The findings of this study can help marketers and health professionals organize advertising campaigns effectively. Attractive (effective) messages mean that the messages content is perceived as more credible and memorable, and people give attention and finally influence consumers (people’s) judgment, beliefs, involvement and preferences. Moreover, the findings of this study can be used for other social campaigns, like environmental protection public campaigns. Originality/value Although there are many primary studies claiming to evaluate the effectiveness of social messages, there have been only a small number to study health change behavior in the short run. The present research tries to cover this gap and more specifically investigates the role of the specific context of the messages in persuasive effects such as consumer (people) engagement with advertisements and brands, in our case, the idea of appropriate health behavior in times of crisis.