Fear Appeals in Political Campaigns

It is common to use fear appeals in political campaigns. A fear appeal in a political campaign is a type of persuasive message that entices fear in an audience that will hopefully motivate them to vote for the candidate that appears more positive. The fear appeal strategy was used in the “Daisy” campaign ad we watched in class last week. Here is a video from the 1988 presidential campaign with George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis. This ad depicts Dukakis as the man responsible for allowing a convicted killer to participate on a weekend outing program. During one of the weekends the convicted killer raped and stabbed a couple. At the time Dukakis was governor of the state the convicted killer was located. The ad uses a matter of fact tone that pushes the audience to lean towards Bush for president in order to avoid another tragic incident.