The Wise Use of Offensive Language in Advertising

INTRODUCTION Marketing in general and advertising in particular have been long criticized for their harmful role to society (Phillips 1997). However, recent trends underlie the importance of so-called "wisdom" where markets and marketing should have a deeper role in the society, notably in focusing more on value-creation and on building a sustainable future (Kadirov and Yarey 2005). Advertising has been one of the strategies largely used by marketers to increase consumer welfare, with its important role of increasing awareness and informing (e.g., Jensen & Kesevan, 1993) as well as influencing intentions and behaviors (e.g., Jayawardhana, 2013). It is thus important to well understand underlying theories that can help the choice and implementation of different communication strategies. The objective of our paper is to test one communication strategy that can help raise awareness about the negative effects of homophobic language. Individuals who identify themselves as LGBTG (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) often suffer different types of discrimination in our society, the most common type of discrimination being verbal harassment (NPR Robert Johnson Wood Foundation 2018). Verbal harassment can have serious effects on victimization and further on clinical depression, suicide ideation and suicide (Burton et al. 2013; Davis, Royne Stafford, and Pullig 2014; Huebner, Rebchook, and Kegeles 2004; Otis and Skinner 1996). Therefore, there is an urgent need for social marketing campaigns that raise awareness about the seriousness of verbal harassment. From a theoretical perspective, we focus on the impact of the use of offensive language in advertisements on consumers. We decided to focus on offensive language because it was the root of our campaign (verbal harassment). Previous research has focused on different offensive advertisements by using the general term of "offensive" without focusing on a particular element that renders the advertisement offensive (Waller 1999; Christy 2006; Prendergast and Hwa 2017). Generally, consumers' reactions to offensive advertising is negative. Consumers perceive offensive advertisements as humiliating (Prendergast, Cheung, and West 2008), irritating and displeasing (Aaker and Bruzzone 1985), indecent (Boddewyn 1991), or against moral and social standards (Day 2005), with negative effects on company image and on purchase intentions (Ford et al. 2002). Less focus, however was given to the presence of offensive words