Shockingly Offensive: The Deliberate Use of Slurs in Prosocial Advertising

Vicious discrimination is often experienced by LGBTQIA+ individuals, with the most cited type of discrimination being verbal harassment. This research focuses on the use of negative LGBTQIA-phobic and sexist slurs in social-media marketing advertising. In four experimental studies and two field studies, the authors show that the presence of offensive slurs in social marketing advertisements can provoke shock reactions, leading to higher cognitive elaboration on the target topic. These effects are moderated by social norms and have spillover effects on the intention to change behavior, as well as on the perceived helpfulness of the advertisement. The findings are highly relevant for practitioners seeking to create more poignant prosocial advertisements, but also for researchers who wish to better understand the role of offensiveness in triggering cognitive elaboration.