Fighting Back with Memes: The Effect of Meme-based Public Service Announcements on Counter-arguing Anti-vaccine Memes Across Different Attack Types

Yeon, J. (PhD student), Yoon, H. J., Kim, H. (Grady Alumni), Han, J-Y., Seo, J. K. (PhD candidate), Seo, Y. (Grady Alumni), & Ko, Y. (Grady Alumni) (2025, March). “Fighting Back with Memes: The Effect of Meme-based Public Service Announcements on Counter-arguing Anti-vaccine Memes Across Different Attack Types,” paper accepted for presentation at the American Academy of Advertising 2025 Annual Conference, Pittsburgh, March.

Abstract: This study explores the impact of memes in public health campaigns to counter social media anti-vaccine memes on individuals’ perceptions and attitudes. Drawing upon the benign violation theory of humor, we hypothesize that memes directly targeting vaccine-hesitant individuals or anti-vaxxers in Instagram PSA posts can disrupt the balance between violation and benign appraisals, leading individuals to feel more offended and less amused, thus reducing their attitude toward the post. We conducted a 2 (meme usage: memes vs. no memes) × 2 (attack types: source attacks vs. substance attacks) online factorial experiment to test this. The findings reveal the backfire effects of source-attacking memes, as they increased perceived offensiveness and negatively impacted attitudes toward the post. This study offers practical implications for public sectors interested in utilizing memes as a communication tool.