Application Paper #3

Inoculation Theory: Anti-Obamacare Ads Erika M. Saca CSUF Comm. 518 Dr. Doug Swanson September 25th, 2013

Last week I came across an ad on Youtube1 that was a bit disturbing. It showed a girl in her early twenties walking inside a doctors office accompanied by a nurse. The nurse pointed out that the patient had just enrolled in Obamacare. She directs the patient into the examination room and tells her to relax and spread her legs. Suddenly an Uncle Sam mascot emerges from in between her legs with forceps. The commercial closes with a message Dont let government play doctor. Opt out of Obamacare.

I was curious to find out who was behind this propaganda? Who was it trying to convince? Further research brought me to more news about the current situation with the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. A White House campaign is underway to get young people to enroll in the Affordable Care Act on October 1st, 2013. According Shears article in the New York times, Republicans are trying to prevent people from enrolling, fearing that once people begin receiving the benefit they will be loath to give it up (Shear, 2013). A recent article in Time Magazine reports that the target group of the Uncle Sam ads is young adults. Pickert wrote, Young adults are crucial to the ACAs successThe White House has said the exchanges will need to enroll 2.7 million healthy 18-25-year-olds to remain solvent. (Pickert, 2013).

Inoculation theory explains the reasoning behind whats going on with this AntiObamacare campaign. McGuire introduced the theory of inoculation in the 1960s. According to Lim and associates (2007), McGuires theory of inoculation was based on a biological analogy that explains how we resist changes in attitudes caused by propaganda.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7cRsfW0Jv8

3 Similar to the process of immunizing individuals against a virus by administering a weakened dose of the virus, an inoculation message was assumed to protect people from a persuasive attack by exposing them to weakened forms of the attacking message ahead of time. The theory posits that refutational preemption triggers threat, motivating individuals to counter-argue a subsequent attack message, thereby conferring resistance to attitude changes caused by the persuasive attack. (Lim, J. , & Ki, E., 2007, p. 714).

Nabi (2003) writes inoculation allows people the opportunity to develop defenses against belief-attacking messages because (a) observing the effective refutation of counterarguments may reduce their impressiveness and (b) exposure to counterarguments may alert people that their beliefs are susceptible to attack and encourage them to develop arguments to rebut such assaults (Nabi, R., 2003, p. 200). Compton (2012) further notes,

Threat presumably motivates counter-arguing, and it is what distinguishes inoculation-based resistance strategies from other methods of weakening subsequent attempts to change an attitude or belief (Compton, J. , & Ivanov, B., 2012, p. 2).

Inoculation Theory in Anti-Obamacare Campaign The people behind the anti-Obamacare ads are forewarning public members about the threat of government being involved in their healthcare. From their standpoint, this campaign is preparing the American public to be weary when the government knocks on their door persuading them to enroll in ACA. Obamacare is portrayed as a threat to young people, who will be recruited in the coming weeks.

4 The White House, on the other hand, has its own campaign underway. Shears New York Times article writes, White House officials call the Republican efforts a sabotage campaign and concede that the assault on the law will make it harder to persuade people to sign up for insurance. In Florida, Missouri and Ohio, state officials have already moved to undercut efforts to enroll people in coverage. (Shear, 2013). According to the article the White House aides are confident that their campaign, which has the support of Hollywood celebrities, will be more influential than Republican politicians.

The counterarguments are out and with supporters like Katty Pery and Jennifer Anniston, the impressiveness of the same old Republican politicians is sure to be diminished. When trying to influence a younger generation, a Tweet from Katty Perry is much more powerful than the creepy mascot ad. The Presidents PR tactics have historically been more in tune with younger audiences. His efforts in response to the Anti-Obamacare campaign are not the exception.

References

An, C. , & Pfau, M. (2004). The efficacy of inoculation in televised political debates. Journal of Communication, 54(3), 421-436. Compton, J. , & Ivanov, B. (2012). Untangling threat during inoculation-conferred resistance to influence. Communication Reports, 25(1), 1. Lim, J. , & Ki, E. (2007). Resistance to ethically suspicious parody video on youtube: A test of inoculation theory. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 84(4), 713-728. Nabi, R. (2003). "feeling" resistance: Exploring the role of emotionally evocative visuals in inducing inoculation. Media Psychology, 5(2), 199-223.

6 Pickert, K. (2013). Spread Your Legs for Uncle Sam. Time, U.S. September 19, 2013. Retrieved from http://nation.time.com/2013/09/19/spread-your-legs-for-unclesam/#ixzz2ffrbTagG Shear, M. (2013). Ad Campaigns Complete as Health Law Rollout Looms. The New York Times, September 21, 2013. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/22/us/politics/reignited-battle-over-healthlaw.html?_r=2&