The key issue of ethical applications of fear appeals, which has been generally avoided in marketing literature, is reviewed. The authors develop an evaluation framework, the ethical effects-reasoning matrix (ERM), using multiple interest groups (stakeholders) and multiple ethical reasoning perspectives. The framework is intended to aid in isolating and identifying conflicts that may arise when fear appeals are considered from a variety of ethical perspectives involving many interested publics. An example is provided to indicate application of the framework as well as conflict resolution techniques.
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