Estratégias persuasivas (Alpha versus Ômega) nas mensagens publicitárias: os efeitos no consumo de álcool pelos jovens

Abstract

Social marketing campaigns have been developed to address problematic drinking behaviors, reduce the potential for harm among young people, promote moderate consumption of alcohol, and increase responsible behavior. In many cases the onset of alcohol use is encouraged by interpersonal factors, including biological, environmental and domestic aspects. Corrective and preventative actions have generated debates and attention from academic and business communities in recent decades. Both corrective and preventive campaigns against alcohol use have failed, or have not shown satisfactory results in reducing risk factors. Positive actions and psychologically protective actions have been developed for the socially influenced youth. However, such influences may threaten personal freedom, making it difficult for people to form their own opinions. The main focus of this research was to analyze the effects of persuasive strategies (Alpha and Omega) presented in advertisements on attitude toward the ad and the intention to consume alcoholic beverages in different levels of ambivalence (high / low), when evaluated by young people. The first is the Alpha strategy that increases persuasion by presenting attractive attributes (also known as an approach), so that the situation becomes more desirable and promotes the change, increasing motivation towards the goal to be achieved. The second strategy is the Omega, which decreases the undesirable qualities of the decision, promoting change by reducing the motivation to move away from the target, using attributes that repel (avoid). Both techniques can be used to cause a person to approach the goal. The literature points to several types of strategies, so the present study opted to use the Alpha "Strong Arguments" Strategy and the Omega "Small Incremental Steps". Strategy. To meet this goal, we adopted an experimental methodology with 360 young people in the state of São Paulo. The design of this experiment allowed us to test six hypotheses proposed, by means of multivariate analysis: MANOVA and MANCOVAs. We concluded that the Omegas Strategies "Small, Incremental Steps" have a greater effect for change in youth behavior, leading in this case to a more positive attitude toward the ad and decreased intention to consume alcoholic beverages.