Fear-based marketing works a treat

Jewish mothers have used fear-based marketing for generations. They have learned the art of making us picture what will happen if in cold weather we don’t wear a jersey (pneumonia and death), what the consequences of staying in wet swimming shorts are (kidney infection and death), and even going for a dip in the pool shortly after eating lunch (cramps and death).

They understood what marketers have been experimenting with for years, which is that there’s huge persuasive value in talking to our fears instead of our dreams and aspirations. “If you don’t study, you’ll fail and never get married. Of course, you know who wants to marry a bum? No-one. That’s who.”

But fear-based marketing does work. It’s how the Economic Freedom Fighters managed to get us to stay away during the national shutdown, and how threatened criminal sanction encourages people to pay their traffic fines.

The story of Listerine is a great example. Listerine marketed bad breath. And painfully illustrated the consequences of what it could mean if we were to ignore the dangers of letting halitosis go untreated.

The product was originally invented as both a surgical antiseptic and a “fix-all” remedy for an array of ailments ranging from athlete’s foot to gonorrhoea. Before embarking on this campaign, the makers of Listerine tried to focus on dentists and on the value of reducing germs, with little to moderate success. Whereas it might have made intellectual sense to use Listerine, the emotional motivation was lacking and it was having an impact on sales.

And so, they shifted focus. They did the Jewish-mom thing and instead of talking up the value of a germ free mouth, they cultivated our fears and watered our insecurity.

One of their most iconic advertising campaigns featured a fictional character named Edna. Edna, by all accounts, had everything going for her. Aside from the fact that she had paid little attention to their warning.

As a result, Edna was sad, unmarried and, as you might have guessed, was plagued by halitosis. One of the adverts depicted her sitting by herself, lonely, while another woman (with fresh smelling breath) danced with the man of her dreams. (Because, you know, who wants to marry a girl with bad breath? No-one. That’s who.)

The message was obvious. Ignore Listerine at your peril.

Marketing works on an emotional level. Positive emotional messages motivate us as well. We don’t buy a watch, we buy how that time piece makes us feel. We buy products that make us feel like good parents, responsible citizens, and those that make us think that we’ll be beautiful and that we’ll belong.

But it’s the negative or fear-based marketing that sometimes works best.

Which is why it’s more dangerous.

We live in a hyperbolic society. Everyone who disagrees is a “Nazi”. Everything we don’t like is “apartheid”, and people who have different opinions are fascists, “lefties”, or a threat to democracy.

As a result, many situations are made out to be catastrophes, and nearly all imply dire warning of the end of the world. We see it in South Africa. We have seen it in the United States, and we see it in Israel.

Fear-based marketing has value in its persuasive power. But perhaps, at least for a little while, we should ease off on the Jewish-mother drama and recognise that we probably won’t die from pneumonia if we’re a little chilly.