Guilt decreasing marketing communication: an unexplored appeal

The phenomenon of guilt is relevant to a variety of consumption situations and practitioners around the world have continued to use it as a communication appeal. Marketing literature demonstrated that guilt as a distinct emotion can be aroused by advertising. Nevertheless, the capacity of advertising to decrease guilt was neglected by marketing scholars and the aim of this research is to assess the role of the guilt decreasing appeal in reducing anticipated guilt. Findings demonstrate the efficacy of the decreasing guilt appeal in advertising and they showed that it does not compromise the hedonic component of a guilty pleasure.