The purpose of this paper is to analyze message features of fear appeals in current British road safety campaigns directed against mobile phone use while driving and to discuss barriers to explicit theory use in campaign message design.,This message-centred research takes a qualitative content analytical approach to analyze nine British web-based road safety campaigns directed against mobile phone use while driving based on the extended parallel process model. Message content and message structure are analyzed.,There still exists a gap between theory and road safety campaign practice. The study reveals that campaigns with fear appeals primarily use threatening messages but neglect efficacy-based contents. Severity messages emerge as the dominant content type while self-efficacy and response efficacy are hardly represented. Fear appeal content in the threat component was mainly communicated through the mention of legal, financial and physical harm, whereas efficacy messages communicated success stories and encouragement. As regards message structure, the threat component always preceded the efficacy component. Within each component, different patterns emerged.,To enhance efficacy in campaigns directed against distracted driving and to reduce the gap between theory and practice, social marketers should include messages that empower recipients to abstain from mobile phone use while driving. Campaigns should show recommended behaviours and highlight their usefulness and effectiveness.,This paper adds to limited research conducted on effect-independent message properties of fear appeals. It enhances understanding of fear appeal message features across the structure and content dimension. By discussing barriers to explicit theory use in social marketing practice and offering practical implications for social marketers, it contributes towards reducing the barriers to explicit theory use in campaign message design.

中文翻译：

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分心驾驶预防：最近英国运动的分析

本文的目的是分析当前英国道路安全运动中针对开车时使用手机的恐惧诉求的消息特征，并讨论在运动消息设计中使用显式理论的障碍。该消息为中心的研究，对定性内容进行了分析该方法基于扩展的并行过程模型来分析针对驾驶时使用手机的九个英国基于Web的道路安全运动。分析了消息的内容和消息的结构。理论与道路安全运动的实践之间仍然存在差距。该研究表明，具有恐惧感的运动主要使用威胁性信息，而忽略了基于功效的内容。严重性消息成为主要的内容类型，而自我效能感和响应功效几乎没有表现出来。威胁部分的恐惧诉求内容主要是通过提及法律，财务和人身伤害来传达的，而功效信息则传达了成功的故事和鼓励。关于消息结构，威胁部分始终位于功效部分之前。在每个组成部分中，出现了不同的模式。为了提高针对分散驾驶的运动的效率并缩小理论与实践之间的差距，社交营销人员应添加信息，使收件人可以在驾驶时放弃使用手机。运动应显示推荐的行为，并突出其有用性和有效性。本文增加了对恐惧诉求的与效果无关的消息属性进行的有限研究。它增强了对结构和内容维度上的恐惧诉求消息功能的理解。通过讨论在社会营销实践中使用显性理论的障碍，并为社会营销人员提供实践意义，它有助于减少在竞选信息设计中使用显式理论的障碍。