Purpose- is to examine as to how inner conflict of consumers can be used as a tool of behavioral modifier for an effective societal advertising.

Design/methodology/approach- Primary focus is on examining the role of conflict in prompting rationalization that keeps habitual behavior intact and the role of high potency information in blocking rationalization. It further investigates place of advertising media in this respect from a different perspective.

Findings- It is found that people are more likely to incline towards rationalization than to refrain from it in normal state of conflict. Blocking undue and unnecessary rationalizations may help to reach useful behavioral modifications like tobacco consumption.  It is found that high potential cognitive conflict have the clout to block such undue rationalization. Strategic designing of anti tobacco advertising campaign has a definite role in this regard.

Originality/Value- majority of anti-tobacco campaign focus on information regarding risk associated with this habit and raise only mild conflict among the tobacco users. This type of conflict finds rationalizations as easy escape-route. This aborts the objectives of the campaign. Only high potency conflict can block rationalization that leads to favorable resolution. In the present study this fact has been tried to be established using a specific research design 

Keywords- Cause Advertising, High Potency Conflict, Consumers’ Dissonance, Rationalization, Resolution.