Example of An Appeal to Fear

http://www.stanford.edu/class/linguist34/advertisements/fear%20ads/pages/rogaine_jpg.htm

I found an advertisement on a men’s hair loss product called “Rogaine” that uses an appeal to fear. The appeal to fear can seen from the following statement they used on the ad: “Hair loss runs in the family”. This statement is trying to manipulate their male audiences into buying their product by making them worry or afraid of losing their hair. The unstated conclusion is “You should buy Rogaine if you are afraid of losing your hair.” A personal example is when my cousin wanted to buy Rogaine because he was afraid that he will end up going bald like his father. He thinks that hair loss runs in his family as his grandfather and his father both went bald and he thinks he will be next in line. I think appealing to fear is a very good way for advertisers to sell their products. They make people fear that something bad might happen to them someday and in order to prevent that from happening, they should buy their product.