The role of existential guilt appeals in charitable advertisements

This study focuses on existential guilt and it explores the relationship between existential guilt, inferences of manipulative intent, attitude towards the brand, and donation behaviour intentions. A scale was also developed to measure existential guilt. Although it is exploratory in nature, it fills the gap in the literature that guilt is not a unified construct and should be measured separately. This research found that consumers perceived World Vision's ad to be non-manipulative and suggested that consumers had a very strong attitude towards the brand. The results implied that advertisers could employ more intensive existential guilt ads for credible brands and potential contributions are also discussed.