Purpose Fear appeals in advertising communication are considered by advertisers when other types of advertising appeals do not achieve expected effects. Fear appeals, by arousing the fear that something may threaten consumers’ present lives, are often adopted to persuade individuals to take a particular action. Although this topic has been widely studied, the internal operation mechanism of fear appeals in consumers has not been fully understood or agreed upon. Design/methodology/approach Three experiments were conducted where the type of fear appeal was manipulated (i.e. physical fear appeal or social ear appeal), as well as consumers’ consideration of future consequences (CFC) and mental imagery approaches. Findings This study examined the effects of fear appeal on mental imagery fluency and how it affects advertising effectiveness and the moderating effect of consumers’ CFC were discussed. When receiving advertisements with physical fear appeals, consumers with low CFC had greater mental imagery fluency than did those with high CFC. Furthermore, consumers’ purchase intentions could be improved by increasing consumers’ mental imagery fluency on fear appeal. Therefore, the interaction between fear appeal and CFC on purchase intention was mediated by mental imagery fluency. This study found that consumers responded differently to fear appeal advertising when they engaged in different mental imagery approaches. Originality/value The present study adds to social marketing literature by showing how consumers’ mental imagery fluency influence the fear appeal effectiveness, and this study’s results also enable social marketers to understand the two factors (i.e. consumers’ CFC level and mental imagery approaches) that affect the influence of fear appeals on consumers’ purchase intentions. Moreover, social marketers are recommended to provide consumers with advertising information by using various message types to facilitate consumers’ imagination of advertising appeals. This heightens the importance of consumers’ acceptance and absorption of advertising content, in turn, strengthening their purchase intentions.

This study examines whether fan-celebrity relationship strength affects public opinion regarding whether a celebrity should take responsibility for the misconduct of their fans and the intention to boycott a celebrity. This study involves three studies. Study 1 examines the mediation effects of internal attribution on the relationship between fan-celebrity relationship strength and boycott intention. Study 2 examines the effects of fan-celebrity relationship strength and power distance belief on internal attributions of inappropriate fan behavior. Study 3 investigates whether the social norm level affects the interaction effects between relationship strength and power distance belief. Study 1 indicates that the boycott intention is higher when the participants perceive the fan-celebrity relationship to be stronger. Study 2 indicates that power distance belief moderates the effect of relationship strength on the extent of generated internal attribution and thus influences boycott intention. Study 3 indicates that the interaction between relationship strength and power distance belief affects internal attribution only at a high social norm level. The results of Study 4 support the applicability of the findings of Study 3 in a real-world setting.