Raymond Neil Jones

It is surprising how easy it is for one’s sense of security to be shaken, and for it to be done by the mere power of suggestion. I am sitting at home with my family, in the comfort of my own home, watching television. I do not have a care in the world. The program we are watching goes to commercial. Suddenly we are shown a scene where a young woman is in her home, doing normal household chores.

Suddenly the scene shifts to the bushes outside the home where an ominous looking man peers through the window at the woman inside the house. Next, the man rushes up to the door, kicks it open, the woman screams, and…the alarm on the house begins to sound. The startled burglar runs away, the house phone rings, the lady of the house answers, and it’s the alarm company on the phone. The caller asks the victim if everything is okay. The woman tells the man from the alarm company about the break in and he replies that he is sending help. We are led to believe that we too need to sign up for this alarm service, clearly preying on our fears.

Intellectually, I know that just because the alarm went off, that would not make the burglar run off, and I have read the statistics about the average response time for alarm monitoring companies to call, not to mention the response time for law enforcement to arrive on site. I know the statistics, still, because of the scene that has just played out before me, the emotions that it generates…alarm, hmmm. I wonder how much…

Is preying on fears effective advertising? Is it ethical? Why or why not.

Graphic Credit:
animationfactory.com