The best of intentions can easily lead you astray if you don’t bother to test your ideas, and to use proper discretion. Victoria’s TAC, are you listening? Are you reconsidering your stupid “fear and loathing” advertising campaign yet? You ought to be, as this story abstracted from the US Advertising Age (Thursday, March 4, 2010) suggests.

Ads Intended To Curb Binge Drinking Cause Binge Drinking

A new study out of Northwestern University's esteemed Kellogg School of Management shows that advertisements crafted by public interest groups that are intended to stop or curb binge drinking on college campuses are only contributing to the problem. "It has long been assumed, of course, that guilt and shame were ideal ways of warning of the dangers associated with binge drinking and other harmful behaviors, because they are helpful in spotlighting the associated personal consequences," Advertising Age reported. "But this study found the opposite to be true: Viewers already feeling some level of guilt or shame instinctively resist messages that rely on those emotions, and in some cases are more likely to participate in the behavior they're being warned about." The study is based on more than 1,000 interviews with students, and professors associated with it believe it has implications outside of binge drinking advertisements. The lesson is that advertisements should be positive, with their messages toned down; trying to take advantage of feelings of guilt or shame will only turn viewers against the ad. The study will be published in the Journal of Marketing Research.

And so say all of us. Ill-considered, condescending campaigns like the TAC’s (showing badly hurt riders and so on) are capable of doing enormous damage. That’s what I think, anyway. How do you feel about it?

Peter “The Bear” Thoeming