Revisiting Precipitation-Induced Smoking: The Role of Hedonic Versus Utilitarian Advertising Message on Smoking-Related Intervention

Background: Smoking-related intervention remains an important social marketing challenge. This article investigates the role of precipitation in driving smoking initiation and, by extension, examines how the nature of the persuasive appeal of anti-smoking messages can mitigate this effect. Focus of the Article: Research and Evaluation, Insights on Social Marketing-Mix (i.e., 4Ps). Research Question: This article aimed to investigate the role of precipitation in driving smoking initiation as well as to examine how the nature of the persuasive appeal of anti-smoking messages might moderate this effect. Importance to the Social Marketing Field: This research extends prior literature exploring how external factors might impact cigarette consumption. Also, this study brings a new understanding regarding the role of affect in everyday consumption and enriches the literature studying downstream consequences of negative affect and emotion regulation. Moreover, this research contributes to the theory of consumption motive and yields managerial implications into the social marketing domain regarding curbing precipitation-induced smoking. Methods: This research utilizes a survey (Study 1) and a controlled laboratory experiment (Study 2). Results: The results provide converging evidence that precipitation tends to induce one’s negative mood, which in turn triggers urges to smoke (Study 1—marginally significant main effect of weather: p = .058). Furthermore, the hedonic (vs. utilitarian) anti-smoking message is more likely to mitigate the precipitation-induced cigarette smoking (Study 2—significant interaction between weather and persuasion type: p = .04). Recommendations for Research or Practice: This research deepens the understanding of how natural environment, and precipitation, in particular, is linked to cigarette-smoking behavior and contributes to the literature on cigarette consumption and affect regulation. For social marketers and policy makers, the findings offer actionable insights into leveraging social marketing-mix (i.e., 4Ps) in the context of smoking-related interventions. Limitations: Conceptualization of negative mood was broad. Future research should investigate the specific types of negative moods (e.g., anger, depression, sadness) for a more nuanced understanding of the precipitation effect.