The

earth is not dying, it is being killed. And those that are killing it have names and addresses. Utah Phillips There are varying facets through which citizens strive to improve the conditions in which they live. In some cases, these are economic, in others financial, and still in others it is through the education of those that surround them, that their environment improves. It is reasonable to believe that the pervasive character of government makes it inevitable that most of us will at some point want to influence the direction of a government decision (Young & Everitt, 2004a). This type of influence can manifest in the form of a grassroots organization, a community group, or an advocacy group. If the issue of concern is one that the individual feels strongly about these gatherings will occur because a citizen canattempt to get media attentionbut lone voices are often lost (Young & Everitt, 2004a). Indirect lobbying for these sorts of various organizations is of growing importance (Young & Everitt, 2004b), as it is already the case that any media outlet, however minor and unobtrusive can start a cascade of coverage around the world (Von Lindenfels, 2004). These media outlets, once limited to guerrilla radio jams and night-time television infomercials, have evolved into something differentonline media and viral content. The use of viral videos by advocacy groups as a means of communicating their message is a more recent phenomena and serves as the basis for this research. Working with this in mind, it was the practical goal of this research to understand the process through which advocacy groups can more effectively communicate to their audience using viral videos, with the end result being a change

in attitude or behavioural intent. Specifically the research served to examine the characteristics of these viral videos created by advocacy groups, and the ways in which they can be more efficiently implemented. The reason why video was chosen as the studied medium versus guerrilla print ads or radio is based on research done by Derzon & Lipsey (2002) which found that campaigns utilizing video were the most effective when it came to affecting change attitude and knowledge. (Snyder, 2007). Here, we define the effectiveness of the message by a change in attitude or behavioural intent in favour of the message presented by the group. The primary message feature under investigation in the proposed study is aversive (negative) content. This kind of content can consist of violence, disgust related content and other forms of negative visual images. Using aversive content in advertising is one of many approaches advocacy organizations have gravitated towards in terms of attempting to elicit behavioural responses from target audiences. Advocacy organizations are not the only groups to use aversive content to achieve their ends; the health awareness community as well as politicians have used aversive content in PSAs for decades. Leshner, Bolls, & Wise (2011) examined varying levels of aversive content in televised anti-tobacco ads. Their results indicated that higher levels of aversive content in these particular health messages lead to participants entering a psychological defensive state where less attention was given to the videos message. Conversely, in 1981 Sabato (1981) found that a third of all political PSAs contained negative content, and furthermore that these appeals appeared to be successful (Sabato, 1981; Bradley, Angelini, Lee, 2007). It has been suggested by research that, negative adsas with most other

negative things in the worlddraw our attention because of the underlying structure of emotion and motivation (Bradley, Angelini, Lee, 2007, p.116). It is important to understand how people process negative content in evaluating a message, as that persons perception of the message affects their overall attitude, opinion, and behaviour towards the sponsor and the subject matter. It has been demonstrated, using political advertisements, that the use of aversive evoking content can be used strategically implemented as to decrease ratings of the PSAs target without kindling negative attitudes towards the source of the advertisement (Pinkleton, 1997, 1998). Using this as a reference, it can be suggested that the same may be expected of advocacy videos, in that the presented content may not affect the organizations perceived identity. For this reason is it imperative to investigate the process by which a person interprets or decodes the message being presented and how the content of the material presented affects that process. It is important to keep in mind that advertisers need to make sure that the target audience understands the message as it was intended (Du Plessis, 2008, p. 110) otherwise the message is a vain attempt at divulgence. Understanding how viral messages created by advocacy groups can be more effective is of vital importance because it allows those groups to connect with their audience in a more strategic and coherent manner. Many advocacy groups, such as Greenpeace, have called attention to corporate mishaps that would have resulted in tragic loses for the community or environment (see Onslaught(er) discussion in next section). By shining light into this area, advocacy groups can be better

equipped with the necessary knowledge and understanding to appeal to a wider audience, and enact valid social change. Psychophysiological measures were employed in order to provide insight into the cognitive and emotional processes engaged when individuals were exposed to advocacy videos varying in the intensity of aversive content. This was useful for two main reasons. The first being that the use of psychophysiology allows for the comparison of real time data as it occurs; this means that as participants are watching the viral messages, data reflecting the participants emotions and cognitive processes may be recorded as they occur. The second reason this methodology is useful is due to its being rooted in academic research that ties together physiological responses to psychological reactions. In essence, specific physiological responses of the participants such as heart rate or skin conductance can be validly and reliably linked to specific cognitive and emotional processes. Therefore, this method allowed the researchers to collect true usable data concerning the responses to viral messages. The procedure implemented entailed participants viewing nine viral videos containing varying levels of aversive evoking content. These videos were of the public domain, and had been previously used by the respective advocacy groups as attempted viral material. Both psychophysiological and self-report data was collected from a total of 57 participants. This data reflected the participants responses not only towards the aversive content in the videos, but also their opinions of the advocacy groups, their behavioural intentions, and their perceived effectiveness and persuasion of the presented material.