Charity advertising has become diversified for more than twenty years. Previous research focused on charity advertising in non-profit organization (NPO) contexts. However not only NPOs but also corporations sponsor charity ads. As one of popular emotional appeals, guilt appeals are used to promote charitable giving. This study compares three types of advertising sponsor including NPO, corporation, and mixed type with sponsor-charity fit on the effects of guilt appeal in charity advertising. The present study employs an experimental design to investigate the effects of the guilt appeals (guilt appeals vs. non-guilt appeals), type of advertising sponsor (NPO vs. corporation vs. mixed) and sponsor-charity fit (high fit vs. low fit) in charity advertising effectiveness. Mixed type is defined as brand-cause alliance or cause-related marketing. A 2x3x2 factorial design is conducted. Twelve different scenarios are established and the ad effects are measured by attitudes toward the ad, purchase intentions, and attitudes toward the ad sponsor. Does guilt work with all types of sponsors? Results of the experiment indicate an interaction between type of advertising sponsor and guilt appeals. The guilt appeals are more effective when the NPO is the advertising sponsor or when the company frames the charity ad as CRM. However, the non-guilt appeals are more effective than the guilt appeals when a corporation is the ad sponsor. Guilt appeals are found to backfire under the two following circumstances: (1) when a corporation is the ad sponsor with a high fit between sponsor and charity, or (2) when mixed type with low sponsor-charity fit is framed in the ad. According to these findings, this study suggests that marketers should choose appropriate advertising appeals while considering their role as advertising sponsor and the sponsor-charity fit.

It’s significant for charities to incorporate persuasion strategies into their communication to create engagement and encourage donations. This is especially important in circumstances of war due to the millions of people who are forced to flee and need emergency assistance. UNHCR is currently located in the war-torn area of Ukraine and needs support to continue their humanitarian aid. Thus, this study aims to examine how the UNHCR uses persuasion strategies in their advertisements concerning the refugee crisis in Ukraine to prompt donations. The object of the study causes the following research questions: What persuasion strategies does UNHCR use to generate contributions through commercials related to the refugee crisis in Ukraine? In which way are the three pisteis of rhetoric: logos, ethos, and pathos, used? What meaning can the commercials be seen communicating on a manifest and latent level?  As the study focuses on different ways of convincing, rhetorics as a theoretical framework becomes natural to use. The classical and visual rhetoric thus serve as a support in the critical visual rhetoric analysis carried out in the study. A generic targeted selection has been used to select and analyze four commercials from the UNHCR's YouTube channel. The results show that UNHCR frequently uses rhetorical means to persuade donations, including the three pisteis of rhetoric and other persuasion strategies that appear mainly at a latent level. / Att tillföra övertygelsestrategier i sin kommunikation är för välgörenhetsorganisationer betydelsefullt för att skapa engagemang och uppmuntra till donationer. Det är särskilt viktigt under sådana omständigheter då det råder krig, med anledning av de många gånger miljontals människor som drivs på flykt och behöver nödhjälp i situationen. UNHCR befinner sig för nuvarande i det krigsladdade området i Ukraina och behöver stöd för att kunna fortsätta bedriva hjälpinsatser. Därmed syftar denna studie till att undersöka hur UNHCR arbetar för att övertyga till donationer i reklamfilmer om flyktingkrisen i Ukraina. Studiens syfte leder till följande forskningsfrågor: Vilka strategier för att övertyga till bidrag använder UNHCR i reklamfilmer som rör flyktingkrisen i Ukraina? Hur har man använt sig av retorikens tre pisteis: logos, ethos och pathos? Vilken mening kan reklamfilmerna ses kommunicera på en manifest respektive latent nivå?  Då studien fokuserar på olika sätt att övertyga blir retoriken naturlig att använda som teoretiskt ramverk. Den klassiska samt den visuella retoriken fungerar således som stöd i den kritiskt visuella retorikanalysen som genomförs i studien. Med hjälp av generiskt målstyrt urval har fyra reklamfilmer från UNHCR:s YouTube-kanal valts ut och analyserats. Resultatet visar att UNHCR frekvent använder sig av flertalet retoriska grepp med syfte att övertyga, däribland retorikens tre pisteis men också andra former av övertygelsestrategier som ter sig främst på en latent nivå.