Business, Dhillon School of

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Branded and non-branded tobacco counter-advertisements : an experimental study of reactance and other maladaptive and adaptive coping responses
(Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Management, c2012, 2012) Wehbe, Michelle S; University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Management; Basil, Debra; Basil, Michael D.
An experiment was done to investigate whether or not there is a need to treat smokers and non-smokers as separate target audiences when creating tobacco counter-advertisements. The Extended Parallel Process Model (Witte, 1992) and Reactance Theory (Brehm, 1966) were used to guide the development of predictions. The study revealed that social marketers need to have different advertising tactics for smokers and non-smokers, since smokers have reported more maladaptive coping responses and fewer adaptive coping responses than non-smokers. Moreover, based on the fact that a smoker’s brand forms an essential part of their self-identity (Goldberg et al., 1995) the experiment was also designed to see if smokers would have differing levels of reactance and other maladaptive coping responses if they saw a counter-advertisement attacking their brand, one attacking a competing brand, and a non-branded one. The study did not reveal any significant differences in reactions among the three conditions.