Effective Public Service Advertisements to Attract Volunteers for the Special Olympics: An Elaboration Likelihood Perspective

As many sport organisations are frequently in great need of volunteers, it is important for sport marketers to develop effective public service advertisements (PSAs) to attract volunteers. The purpose of this study was to expand and test a theory of persuasion for PSAs designed to lead people to help with the Special Olympics. More specifically, this study was designed to broaden the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) by incorporating a newly added personality variable, empathic tendency, and to show how this variable affects audiences’ information processing of PSAs. In order to test the ELM, a three-way, 2 (empathy: high v low) x 2 (argument quality: strong v weak) x 2 (peripheral cue: celebrity v non-celebrity status) factorial design was used. A total of 102 male and 119 female students participated (n = 221). The results indicated that both high empathy subjects and low empathy subjects were motivated to process the persuasive messages, suggesting that both groups followed the central route to processing. Involvement was found to significantly influence the argument processing of low empathy subjects. Celebrity status did not serve as a peripheral cue in this study.