In-store price

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In-store price promotions: Does a negative mood make you want

to buy?

By ELINE HEIDA

University of Groningen Faculty of Economics and Business

Master Marketing June 2019

Tweede Willemstraat 54ª 9725JM Groningen

0624981596

eline.heida.1@student.rug.nl Student Number S3483096

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Abstract

Previous research has affirmed that in-store price promotions and affective states have a positive effect on impulse buying. This study proposes that individuals in a negative affective state are more likely to buy something impulsively when an item is on sale than individuals in a positive affective state. Findings from a self-administered experiment reveal no difference in impulse buying tendencies between participants with a positive or negative a affective state. Moreover, the experiment also shows that in-store price promotion did not have a positive effect on impulse buying. These findings shed new light on the literature of consumer behaviour and provide new directions for future research.

Keywords: Affective states, impulse buying, in-store price promotions, consumption, mood

Research theme: Tracking down the effectiveness of marketing and sales techniques Seminar Supervisor: Bob Fennis

Table of contents:

Introduction………...………3

Literature Review………..4

Methodology……….7

Results……….10

Discussion………..……….11

References……….………..14

Appendix………...………..17

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1- Introduction

Imagine waking up in an incredibly bad mood; in order to feel better, you decide to go shopping. You shop not because you really need something, but because you are hopeful that the shopping trip might help you to feel better. During your shopping trip you enter a store with many sale items. Due to your interest in becoming in a more positive mood state, you decide to treat yourself and buy a sale item that you perhaps, do not actually need. The question arises: would you still have bought the sale item if your mood been more positive? This study attempts to answer the following research question: Is an individual in a negative affective state more likely to buy something impulsively when the item is on sale than someone in a positive affective state?

Contemporary stores are full of price promotions. These promotions aim to trigger unrecognized needs and desires so that customers buy items impulsively. In fact, 30-62%

of all in-store purchases are bought impulsively (Inman, Winner & Ferraro, 2009).

Scholars define impulsive buying as the powerful urge to purchase something instantaneously (Rook & Fisher, 1995).

Due to the importance of impulse buying for today’s marketplace, comprehensive research has been conducted on the topic. According to many studies in the psychology literature, affective states have a tremendous impact on impulse buying tendency (Baumeister, 2002; Beatty & Ferrel, 1998; Cunningham, 1979). Research has also shown that people who are in a negative mood have a greater tendency to buy impulsively. An explanation for this propensity could be that individuals who are in a negative mood desire to regain self-control of their affective state by impulsively buying something to make themselves feel better.

This study contributes to the consumer psychology research area by identifying an unexplored yet important determinant of impulse buying: in-store price promotions.

Prior research has documented positive relationships between in-store price promotions and impulse buying. However, no research has been conducted on whether the affective state the customer is in strengthens or weakens that relationship. Furthermore, this study explores whether the reestablishment of self-control plays a role when one buys something impulsively whilst in a negative affective state.

For retail managers and manufacturers, this study will help to make informed choices about what marketing strategies to implement in their stores to drive impulse

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4 buying. Affect-informed marketing tactics could attract customers in positive or negative states, which may encourage them to buy something impulsively. Moreover, marketing managers will acquire insight into whether in-store price promotions contribute to impulse-buying tendencies if customers are either in a positive or negative affective state.

2. Literature review

This study’s purpose is to answer the question ‘Is an individual in a negative affective state more likely to buy something impulsively when the item is on sale than someone in a positive affective state?’ This chapter will therefore define and explain important concepts and the relationships between those concepts. Based on the relations between concepts, hypothesis will be formulated and a conceptual model will be constructed.

In-store price promotion

Although most prices in retail are fixed, in-store price promotions are a source of extra profit for most stores (Shukla & Banerjee, 2013). Retailers tend to spend a considerable proportion of their budget on in-store promotional activities, such as in-store displays, flyers, price discounts, and contests (Chandon, Hutchinson, Bradlow & Young, 2009). Previous research has established evidence of a positive relation between in-store price promotion and purchase intention for the customers visiting the store (Kamakura &

Kang, 2007; Walters & MacKenzie, 1988; Wilkinson, Mason, and Paksoy,1982).

In-store price promotion can be defined as “a diverse collection of incentive tools, mostly, short-term, designed to stimulate quicker and/or greater purchase of particular products/services by consumers” (Kotler, 2000: 661). Price promotions usually entail a decreased price for the same quantity of goofs or a maintained price for an expanded quantity. The aim of price promotions is to stimulate a feeling of perceived value for customers to increase purchase likelihood (Grewal, Monroe & Krishnan, 1998).

Impulse buying

Impulse buying is defined as the act of making an instantaneous, unintended and unreflective purchase. The act is instantaneous due to the relatively short time between seeing the item and purchasing the item. Unintended because the customer had no pre- existing intentions to purchase the product. Furthermore, impulse buying is unreflective because the shopper does not think carefully about the consequences of the purchase. The

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5 person’s attention is focused instead on the urge of buying the item (Jones, Reynolds, Weunc & Beattyd, 2003).

Products bought impulsively can differ in terms of the involvement level with that product. Moreover, a product’s perceived benefits, the perceived image gained from purchasing the product, and its sensory attributes are remarkably important factors that influence impulse buying (Kwak, Zinkhan, Delorme & Larsen, 2008). Whether a person can resist impulse buying depends on the person’s self-control (Baumeister, 2012).Many scholars have researched the psychological factors behind this theory of self-control.

They include the impulsivity of the trait, self-identity, self-image, gender and affective state (Lukas & Koff, 2016).

Affective state

A shopping trip often induces positive feelings for individuals. These positive feelings include enthusiasm, attentiveness and vigour. Another way to describe these positive feelings is positive affect. One can also define positive affect as energetic, joyful engagement, and absolute concentration. On the contrary, one can define negative affect as a feeling of distress and sorrowful engagement. It includes disgust, anxiety, and guilt (Lee, 2015). Ego defence is the term used to control negative affects. When in a negative mood, individuals try to repair this mood by “distortion, impairment, energy consumption, and unnecessary non-gratification of impulses”(Gross, 1998: 274).

Relationship between in-store price promotion and impulse buying

Impulse-buying behaviour is mainly stimulus-driven. Hence, marketing managers craft various strategies to stimulate the impulse-buying conduct of their customers. In- store price promotion accounts for one strategy often used to generate impulse consumption. Because consumers obtain a reward from buying items, the buying decision process is accelerated and less energy and time is spent. (Xu & Huang, 2014). Price promotions are effective because they provoke external needs such as less search cost, less decision cost, and more financial savings. Premium price promotions can trigger impulse purchases of hedonic products. Here, individuals feel the need for self- indulgence as well for buying something new different (Liao, Shen & Chu, 2009). This study proposes that in-store price promotions defined as: a price reduction for the same quantity or a price maintenance for an expanded quantity, yield a positive effect on impulse buying.

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6 H1: In-store price promotions have a positive effect on impulse buying

Relationship between affective states and impulse buying

Scholars have conducted extensive research on what affective state is most predominant when a consumer decides to buy something impulsively. When people are in a positive mood, some research reveals that they are more likely to be more generous towards themselves and thus engage in more impulse-buying behaviours (Beatty &

Ferrel, 1998; Cunningham. 1979). On the contrary, other authors determine that consumers who are in a more negative mood state tend to experience less sadness after purchasing something they desire; the sense of control that these purchasing choices permit accounts for the decline in sadness (Rick et al., 2014). Baumeister’s (2002) research shows that the central goal of individuals in a negative mood is to feel better.

Consumers often achieve this affective betterment by relinquishing self-control and spending money. In order to realize long-term goals, people tend to control their behaviour by for instance, eating healthy and holding back impulses. However, when people feel emotionally distressed, this feeling of needing control disappears because they want to return to a positive affect state. Therefore, a negative affect state might encourage impulse via an individuals’ abdication of self-control (Vohs & Faber, 2007).

Previous sections established a positive relation between in-store price promotion and impulse buying. The reviewed literature showed that negative affective states have a positive effect on impulse buying. To answer the central research question the following hypothesis may be formulated:

H2: The effect of in-store price promotion on impulse buying becomes stronger when a consumers’ affective state is negative, oppositely to positive.

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7 Figure 1

Conceptual model

3. Methodology

This study attempts to determine whether individuals in a negative affective state are more likely to make impulse purchases when exposed to an in-store promotion than individuals in a positive mood. More specifically, the study’s experiment will investigate whether individuals in a negative mood are more likely to impulse buy as a result of their aspirations to generate in a more positive mood.

Participants and design

To validate the hypothesized relationships, a self-administered and structured online experiment was distributed among mostly undergraduates through diverse social media channels. In total, 100 responses were recorded (69 women and 31 male, age: M = 24.09, SD = 5.97). The participants were randomly assigned to a 2 (Affective state:

positive versus negative) x 2 (in-store price promotion vs. no in-store price promotion) between subject factorial design. Participants were told to fill in a questionnaire about impulse-buying tendencies.

Procedure

The experiment commenced with a short introduction explaining that the present study wished to gather data about impulse-buying tendencies and it asked the subjects to partake. After reading the introduction, participants were asked to read a mood-

+ +

In-store price

promotion Impulse buying

Affective state of the buyer (negative)

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8 manipulation story. Half of the participants were given a positive story to induce positive moods; the other half read a negative story to induce a negative mood. After the mood- manipulation procedure, participants were, again, randomly divided into two groups. Half of the participants were shown an in-store advertisement for a JBL Bluetooth speaker on discount, the other half was presented with the same advertisement but without the discount. After reviewing the JBL Bluetooth speaker, both groups were asked to evaluate the likelihood of purchasing. Participants were then queried with a set of questions about their current mood. These questions measured whether the mood manipulation at the experiment’s outset had succeed. The final questions of the experiment collected demographic information such as age and gender. Lastly, the subjects were thanked for taking part in the experiment and were asked whether they would like to receive information about the study’s outcomes.

Independent Variable

To test whether a significant difference of impulse-buying tendencies is present between an advertisement with a discount and an advertisement without a discount, participants were assigned to one of two different conditions after reading one of the two stories. In the first condition, subjects were shown an advertisement of a portable Bluetooth speaker from the brand JBL. The advertisement depicts youngsters sitting on the beach around a campfire having a good time. The advertisement’s foreground features an image of the Bluetooth speaker with its original price. The original price is crossed out; next to it, a price in Euros equivalent to a 40% discount is displayed. In the second condition, the exact same advertisement was shown, however, with the original price intact and not discount (Appendix 1).

Dependent Variable

In order to measure participants’ likelihood of buying the Bluetooth speaker impulsively under both price conditions, the 5-point Likert scale developed by Xu &

Huan (2014) was used. This scale attempts to reveal the extent to which participants are likely to buy the speaker after encountering the JBL advertisement. The scale uses 13 different statements like ‘I can’t suppress the feeling of wanting to buy it’ and ´I want to buy it even though I did not plan for it in advance’ (Appendix 1). Results showed a reliability score of .89 (M=2.45, SD= .83).

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9 Moderator

The experiment used the mood inductions texts from Verheven and Göritz (2009) to manipulate the affective state of the participants. The authors tested various positive and negative stories and found out that in particular two stories were most successful in inducing a desired mood state for a web experiment. Hence, the two most successful stories were used and participants were randomly divided into two different conditions;

each condition encountered only one of the stories. In the first condition participants were prompted to read a humorous, yet philosophical scene about a university professor teaching a life lesson to students. In the second condition, participants encountered a negative story about the unsavoury aspects of a death penalty carried out with an electric chair in the United States (Appendix I). A mood manipulation check was performed at the end of the experiment by means of the international 5-point Likert PANAS scale. This scale uses 10 positive and 10 negative terms to measure the participants’ mood. Examples of such statements are ‘attentive’, ‘inspired’, ‘scared’ and ‘upset’. The results of a Cronbach Alpha reliability test exhibited an internal reliability of .594 (M = 3.07, SD = .52) of the positive items when the item ‘active’ was deleted. For the negative items, internal reliability scored a .72 (M = 3.81, SD = .59) when the item ‘nervous’ was deleted.

Analysis

To assess the success of the mood manipulations, a One-Way ANOVA was conducted to determine the presence of a significant mood difference between both groups. Finally, a two-way factorial ANOVA has been performed to test both hypotheses of the experiment.

4. Results

Manipulation check

In line with the manipulation check of the international 5-point Likert PANAS scale, subjects were asked to rate several positive and negative statements. To verify if the negative and positive stories had successfully manipulated participants’ mood, a One- Way ANOVA was performed. The results showed a statistically significant difference between both the negative condition and the positive condition (F(1.98) =5.75, p= .02).

Because the outcomes revealed a significant difference in participants with a positive mood (M=3.42, S=.52) and a negative mood (M= 3.27, S=.59) they were usable for further analysis in this study.

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10 The effect of in-store promotion strategy and affective states on impulse buying

Table 1 shows the results of a 2 (type of promotion: discount vs. no discount) x 2(

affective states: positive vs. negative) between-subjects analysis of variances. The results of the table express that both main effects in-store promotion [F(1.96) = 1.02, p = .314]

and affective states [F(1.96) = .51, p = 48] did not have a significant effect on impulse buying. Neither mood nor in-store promotion influenced subjects’ tendencies to impulsively purchase the JBL speaker. Hence, H1 was not supported.

Furthermore, the two-way analysis of variances revealed that the interaction effect between affective states and in-store price promotion did not have a significant effect on impulse buying [F(1.96) = .011, p = 0.98]. Here, the interaction effect implies that the relationship between in-store price promotions and impulse buying does not become more substantial when a buyer is in a negative affective state. Therefore, H2 was not supported.

Table 1

Two-way analysis of variance of type of promotion and affective state

Variance source Type III SS df MS F p-value

Type of promotion .716 1 .716 1.023 .314 . Affective state .356 1 .356 .509 .477 Type of promotion x Affective state .008 1 .008 .011 .917 Error 67.228 96 .700

Total 671.020 100

Note: SS = sum of squares; MS = Mean squares; df = degree of freedom.

5. Discussion

This study extends previous conducted research by examining the role of affective states on the relationship between in-store price promotion and impulse buying tendencies in the retail environment. It was proposed that individuals in a negative affective state were more likely to buy a sale item impulsively than individuals in a positive affective state. A self-administered structured experiment tested the proposition by manipulating the mood of the subject either positively or negatively. As such, this present study is the first to examine the role of in-store price promotions on impulse buying tendencies influenced by mood states.

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11 First, the experiment reveals that in-store price promotions have no significant effect on impulse buying tendencies. When a store contains items on sale, more impulse-buying behaviour does not automatically follow. Second, despite successful mood manipulations, experiment results established no significant difference between positive and negative mood states when buying a sale item impulsively. Individuals in a negative affective state are not more likely to buy something impulsively on sale than individuals in a positive affective state. Based on this finding, this study also reveals that individuals purchasing impulsively do not do so in order to relinquish self-control of their affective states.

The results contribute to the extant literature in two ways. First, prior studies have suggested that individuals are more likely to impulse buy when an item is on sale (Kchaou

& Amara, 2014; Liao, Shen & Chu, 2009). This study rebuts that understanding and comports with Walters (1991), who indicates that in-store price promotions can negatively affect sales and even cause a substitution effect in a different product category.

Simonson, Carmon & O'Curry (1994) also support this finding; they suggest that when consumers are doubtful about what they want and about the values of products, a price promotion provides reason against buying the brand.

Second, this study suggests that the negative affective state of a consumer does not necessarily lead to impulse buying. Earlier studies helped establish this study’s prediction that customers in a negative mood state are more likely to impulse buy to regain control of their affective states. (Baumeister, 2002; Rick et al., 2014; Vohs & Faber, 2007)..

Moreover, in contrast to previous research, this study reveals that a positive affective state also does not lead to more impulse buying (Beatty & Ferrel, 1998;Cunningham, 1979).

Results hold that an individual’s mood is not determinative for impulse buying when entering a store. These findings bring new perspective to this area of consumer research, as factors other than affective states may influence the stimulation of impulse buying.

Practical implications

The results of this study may offer some implications for marketing managers and retailers. In-store sales promotions could lead to more sales, but they will not produce more impulse purchases. If a retail manager strives to generate more impulse buying from customers, she or he ought to implement other marketing tactics. Because this study reveals no difference between impulse buying of individuals in either a bad or a good mood, sales employees do not necessarily have to approach one of the two groups. The

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12 chance for someone to make an impulsive purchase remains equal for both mood groups Hence, retailers can focus on both happy and sad customers.

Future directions and limitations

This study involves potential limitations that may facilitate future research on the topic. One limitation is that the experiment made use of a Bluetooth speaker from the brand JBL. Some of the participants might not have liked the brand or simply did not desire a Bluetooth speaker. These aspects may have weakened some participants’

likeliness to buy the product impulsively. Moreover, the context of this study was in an offline retail environment even though, the survey and therefore the promotion was conducted in an online setting. Had the context of the study been online, a different outcome might have been generated. Future research might therefore be devoted to determining whether affective states can influence the relationship between online price promotions and impulse buying.

One strength of this study is that its mood manipulations were successful.

However, participants did not interact with an in-store promotion in an actual real context.

For this reason, it is expected that the reported results may be conservative in nature.

Future research might test these findings in an actual store and validate the findings from this study.

Conclusion

This paper began by proposing that individuals in a negative affective state, are more likely to engage in impulse buying when an item is on sale. The experiment revealed that, in contrast to previous conducted research, a consumer’s negative or positive mood did not determine impulse-buying behaviour: in either mood consumers were equally inclined to impulse buy. This finding sheds new light on the literature of consumer behaviour and provides new directions for future research.

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6. References

Baumeister, R. J. 2002. Yielding to Temptation: Self-control Failure, Impulsive Purchasing, and Consumer Behavior. Journal of consumer research, 28(4): 670-676.

Beatty, S. E., & Ferrell, M. E. 1998. Impulse buying: modelling its precursors. Journal of retailing, 74(2): 169-191.

Chandon, P., Hutchinson, J., Bradlow, E., & Young, S. 2009. Does in-store marketing work? Effects of the number and position of shelf facings on brand attention and evaluation at the point of purchase. Journal of Marketing, 73(6): 1–17.

Cunningham, M. R. 1979. Weather, mood, and helping behavior: Quasi experiments with the sunshine samaritan. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37(11):1947- 1956.

Grewal, D., Monroe, K. B., & Krishnan, R. 1998. The Effects of Price-Comparison Advertising on Buyers' Perceptions of Acquisition Value, Transaction Value, and Behavioural intentions. Journal of marketing, 62: 46-59.

Gross, J. J. 1998. The Emerging Field of Emotion Regulation: An Integrative Review.

Review of general psychology, 2(3): 271-299.

Inman, J. J., Winer, R. S., & Ferraro, R. 2009. The interplay among category characteristics, customer characteristics, and customer activities on in-store decision making. Journal of Marketing 73(5): 19–29.

Lee, L. 2015. The Emotional Shopper: Assessing the Effectiveness of Retail Therapy.

Foundations and trends in marketing, 8(2): 69-145.

Liao, S., Shem, Y., & Chu, C. 2009. The effects of sales promotion strategy, product appeal and consumer traits on reminder impulse buying behaviour. International consumer studies, 33: 274-284.

Lucas, M., & Koff, E. 2016. Body image, impulse buying, and the mediating role of negative affect. Journal of Business Research, 105: 330- 335.

Jones, M. A., Reynolds, K. E., Weun, S., & Beatt, S. E. 2003. The product-specific nature of impulse buying tendency. Journal of business research, 56(7): 505-511.

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14 Kamakura, W., & Kang, W. 2007. Chain-wide and store-level analysis for cross-category management. Journal of Retailing, 83(2): 159–170.

Kchau, A. S., & Amara, R. B. 2004. The role of sales promotion in inducing impulse purchases. International Journal of Management Excellence, 3(1): 362-372.

Kotler, P. 2000. Marketing management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Kwak, H., Zinkhan, G. M., Delorme, D. E., & Larsen, T. 2008. Revisiting Normative Influences on Impulsive Buying Behavior and an Extension to Compulsive Buying Behavior. Journal of international consumer marketing, 18(3), 57-80.

Rick, S., Pereira, S. C., & Burson, K. A. 2014. The benefits of retail therapy: Making purchase decisions reduces residual sadness. Journal of consumer psychology, 24(3):

372-380.

Rook, D. W., & Fisher, R. J. 1995. Normative influences on impulsive buying behaviour.

Journal of Consumer Research, 22: 305-313.

Shukla, P., & Banerjee, M. 2014. The direct and interactive effects of store-level promotions on impulse purchase: Moderating impact of category familiarity and normative influences. Journal of consumer behaviour, 13: 242–250.

Simonson, I., Carmon, Z., & O’Curry, S. 1994. Experimental evidence on the negative effect of product features and sales promotions on brand choice. Marketing science, 13(1): 23-40.

Verheyen, S., & Göritz, A. S. 2009. Plain Texts as an Online Mood-Induction Procedure.

Social Psychology, 40(1): 6-15.

Vohs, K. D., & Faber, R. J. Spent resources: Self-regulatory resource availability affects impulse buying. Journal of consumer Research, 33(4): 537-547.

Walters, R. G. 1991. Assessing the Impact of Retail Price Promotions on Product Substitution, Complementary Purchase, and Interstore Sales Displacement. Journal of Marketing, 55(2): 17-28.

Walters, R. G., & Mackenzie, S. B. 1988. A structural equations analysis of the impact of price promotions on store performance. Journal of Marketing Research 25: 51–63.

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15 Wilkinson, J. B., Mason, J. B., & Paksoy, C. H. 1982. Assessing the impact of short-term supermarket strategy variables. Journal of Marketing Research, 19: 72-86.

Xu,Y., & Huang, J. 2014. Effects of price discounts and bonus packs on online impulse buying. Social behaviour and personality, 42(8): 1293-1302.

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7. Appendix I

The experiment

Thank you for agreeing to take part in this survey measuring impulse buying tendencies. It will help me to graduate for my master Marketing and will take you approximately 5 minutes. Be assured that all answers you provide will be kept in the strictest confidentially. Please click on the button below to begin.

Condition 1

“Philosophy of Life”

A philosophy professor stood before his class with some items in front of him. When the class began, without speaking he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks about 2" in diameter.

He then asked, “Is this jar full?” They agreed that it was.

So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly, causing the pebbles to roll into the open areas between the rocks.

He then asked the students again, “What about now. Is the jar full?”

His students chuckled and agreed that it was.

Eagerly, the professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. The sand made its way into the remaining empty space of the jar.

He then asked once more, “Now tell me is this jar full?”

This time the students were absolutely sure and they responded excitedly with a unanimous, “YES!”

At that moment, the professor produced two cans of beer from under the table and proceeded to pour their entire contents into the jar – effectively filling the space between the sand, pebbles, and rocks.

The students laughed and watched with intrigue and curiosity.

“Now,” said the professor, as the laughter subsided, “I want you to imagine that this jar represents your life. The rocks symbolize the important things in life – like your family, your significant other, your health and well-being, and your children? Things that are most important to you and enduring; that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter to you, like your job, your house, or your car. The sand is everything else – the small stuff. If you put the sand into the jar first”, he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have enough room for the things that are most important to you.

Today’s lesson is about paying attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Make time for loved ones. Play with your children. Visit an old friend. Invest time in yourself. Focus on your health and well-being. Take your partner out dancing. Laugh for no reason at all. Have fun! There will always be time for work, chores, and fixing the garbage disposal.

Take care of the rocks first – the things that really matter and are most important to you. Set your priorities… the rest is just sand.”

Just as the professors finished speaking, one of his students raised her hand and said, “What does the beer represent?”

The professor smiled and chuckled aloud, “I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that, no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of beers! Class dismissed”.

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Imagine that you walk into a store and see this advertisement. To what extent do you agree with the following statements concerning the above displayed advertisement? (1 to 5 likert scale)

1. I become very excited when I see it.

2. It makes me feel pleased and gratified.

3. I feel an urge to buy it.

4. I fall in love with it at first sight.

5. I want to buy it even though I did not plan for it in advance.

6. I want to buy it even though I do not really need it.

7. I want to buy it without thinking.

9. I want to buy it spontaneously.

10. It is a struggle to leave it unpurchased.

11. I can’t suppress the feeling of wanting to buy it.

12. I want to buy it because I like it rather than because I need it.

13. If I buy it, I might feel regret.

Condition 2

On August 6th, 1890, the New York Times reported what approved witnesses – experts in their fields, primarily electricians and physicians – had observed the previous morning: the first execution of a man strapped to an electric chair. New York became the first American state to implement the death penalty via “electrocution” in 1888. Witnesses were able to watch and describe the death of the first beneficiary of the long-discussed and sought after means of execution. The electric chair was thought to mean the same for the end of the 19th Century as the discovery of the doctor’s guillotine did for the end of the 18th Century: humanitarian progress.

Instead, those who were present at the execution saw what the masses of people who were positioned outside of the prison gates in Auburn, New York could not – a humanitarian catastrophe! On August 5th, 1890 at 6:42, William Kemmler faced execution by electrocution after being convicted of striking and murdering his lover with an axe while in a state of intoxication. Approximately 700 volts of electrical current was passed through Kemmler for 17 seconds, enough shown to successfully execute a horse the previous day, before the electricity failed. “Kemmler the First”, as the New York Times had dubbed him that spring as they eagerly watched fully enamored with the new death apparatus, was not dead! Witnesses noticed Kemmler was still breathing. “Have the current turned on again, quick — no delay.”

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This time Kemmler’s flesh sizzled and bled, his blood vessels burst, and his hair roasted — the smell was unbearable.

“Kemmler was literally toasted to death”, one witnesses stated in disgust and too upset to say more.

“I am innocent!” – the last words of Pedro Medina before he was executed on March 25th, 1997 in Florida for the murder of a 52-year old woman in Orlando. Witnesses to Medina’s death saw a spectacle fit only for only the movies.

“It was absolute horror!” one witness proclaimed. Something went wrong when the electricity was turned on –Medina began to burn. Witnesses saw bursts of blue and orange flames shoot out from behind the mask that was cloaked over his face. One witness said, “They shot upward a foot high for a full ten seconds!” Thick, white smoke filled the death chamber. It reeked like burning human flesh. “It was terrible! His head became a single fireball.” The Cuban immigrant was burned alive by the state of Florida after living in the USA for 17 years. Images of Medina after the execution showed a man whose face was completely bald and fixed with a stare that appeared both tense and peaceful. Almost as if calm washed over him as he finally succumb to intense and horrifying pain. A few minutes before, powerful electrical shocks were dealt to his formless, fatty body, which had been covered by a sheet and strapped to an angular wooden electric chair. As the electricity was applied, the black head covering, drawn tightly to the face, slipped upwards. His eyes, nose, and upper cheeks became contorted and tightly pressed together into a single spasm. His face turned uncontrollably and his body cramped.

Few initiatives have sought to abolish the death penalty, with too few judges in the highest courts willing to raise

“capital punishment” as a fundamental question of constitutional law. Nowhere can it be found in the opinions of the courts that state-ordered killings could be, in themselves, inhumane, a violation of human rights, useless or unworthy of a constitutional state.

Imagine that you walk into a store and see this advertisement. To what extent do you agree with the following statements concerning the above displayed advertisement? (1 to 5 likert scale)

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Condition 3