An assessment of the persuasive premises and social implications of corporate values advocacy messages

Amy Schafer O'Connor, Purdue University

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the persuasive premises and social implications of contemporary values advocacy messages. Values advocacy has been explained as a communication tool organizations use to improve image, deflect criticism, or establish value premises to be used in future discourse. Values advocacy campaigns rely on the communication of non-controversial social and cultural values to garner public acceptance of the corporation. Therefore, values advocacy messages can influence how publics identify with and behave towards corporations based on shared values. A contemporary exemplar to test the persuasive premises and social implications of values advocacy messages is the campaign: Working to make a difference: The people of Philip Morris. This study explores the phenomena of values advocacy and related processes—persuasion, identification, and communication—from the perspective of publics. Focus groups are used to gain insight into how target audience members make sense of and apply the information contained in the campaign. In doing so, this study presents a communication-centered and economically-informed theory that illuminates the persuasive premises of values advocacy messages and assesses the social consequences of such messages. Participants, in this study, indicated values advocacy messages are likely to influence their behavior toward an organization and that they are more likely to identify with organizations whose values are similar to their own. The benefits of values advocacy messages, however, were not universally applicable to all corporations and contexts. The results are discussed in terms of the ability of values advocacy messages to induce identification and influence behavior in both the genre and case specific levels of analysis.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Botan, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Communication

COinS