Persuasion Knowledge and the Effectiveness of Media Advocacy in Debunking Korean Tobacco Company Corporate Social Responsibility Programs

Guided by the Persuasion Knowledge Model, which focuses on people’s awareness of attempts to persuade them, this study assesses the effectiveness of a media advocacy strategy for debunking the motives attributed to tobacco company corporate social responsibility programs (TCCSR). It does so by examining, first, the extent to which news frames influence perceptions of TCCSR and, second, the mechanisms through which they do so. In South Korea, where the smoking rate is high, experiment data were collected from college students, a demographic heavily targeted by TCCSR. Results show the following: First, a news story framing a TCCSR program as self-serving generated more negative attitudes toward the tobacco company and higher perceptions that its CSR program had an inappropriate persuasive intent than a story framing the program as prosocial. Second, perceptions of prosocial motive TCCSR were negatively related to persuasion knowledge, and perceptions of self-serving motive TCCSR were positively related to persuasion knowledge. Third, persuasion knowledge had a negative impact on attitude toward smoking as a general behavior (ATTs) by way of attitude toward the tobacco company (ATTtc). Last, perceptions of CSR motives had significant indirect effects on ATTtc and ATTs. Theoretical and practical implications for countering tobacco marketing messages are discussed.