The Baby is Sick/the Baby is Well: A Test of Environmental Communication Appeals. Special Issue: Green Advertising

Investigated "sick baby" and "well baby"communication strategies in environmental or social marketing. Two studies were conducted with 300 adults. In the 1st study, 95 Ss were used, and the 2 issues were consumer water conservation and energy conservation. The former was selected as an issue of high salience. The 2 types of appeals were developed and revised. The 2nd study involved recycling and solid waste reduction issues. 205 heads and coheads of households were used to measure perceived consumer effectiveness and perceived importance. Results indicate that the effectiveness of the appeals depended on the relative salience of the issue. Well baby appeals should be used when issue salience is believed to be high enough and when increasing concern is not a communication objective. The results suggest that green advertisers should consider well baby alternatives as advertising themes.