A Comparative Study On The Emotional Appeal Of Non-smoking Public Service Advertisements Between China And The United States

Studies have found that tobacco has a great danger to human health.As the world's largest consumer of tobacco,China must take action to ban and control tobacco.As an essential tool for building social consensus and guiding the country towards the right direction,public service announcements play an indispensable role in anti-tobacco and tobacco control initiatives.The main purpose of anti-smoking PSAs is to inform the public about the dangers of tobacco to their health and thus to achieve the ultimate goal of anti-smoking and tobacco control.To achieve its purpose,PSAs need to use advertising appeals mainly divided into emotional appeals and rational appeals.Emotional appeal in anti-smoking PSAs can make them more effective and easier to resonate with audiences.The United States is worthy of learning from China's PSAs,both in terms of advertising elements and the way they are expressed.Therefore,this paper will compare and contrast the use of emotional appeal in anti-smoking PSAs in China and the United States to promote the development of anti-smoking PSAs in China.This paper uses quantitative and qualitative research to study 10 0 anti-smoking public service announcements(PSAs)in China and the United States.The two types of emotional appeals,fear and guilt,are used in anti-smoking PSAs,and the differences between China and the United States are compared.The study found that in terms of fear in anti-smoking PSAs,the US uses a wider variety of supporting elements than China.At the same time,China is more homogeneous and prefers to use the 'cigarette' element to convey fear directly.In the US," children" as a means of persuasion is complemented by a variety of scenarios that are relevant to the audience,such as "family" and "hospital",to stimulate guilt.In contrast,in China,the choice of scenes and content is more film and story-based,using "family" and "friendship" as entry points to evoke guilt in the audience.This paper presents a comparative analysis of anti-smoking PSAs in China and the United States from the emotional appeal,intending to take the best from the worst and remove the worst to positively promote the development of anti-smoking PSAs in China.