The article is dedicated to determining the impact of social advertising on the behavior of separate individuals and society in general depending on the message content. For this purpose, an opinion poll on perception of advertising was held in August 2015. 80 people have taken part in this survey. 11 social advertising banners containing advertisements of shocking and ironic nature have been selected. The research results have demonstrated that social advertisement placement is not optimal, because usually only residual financial resources are spent thereon. It has also been revealed that ironic advertising is more popular, but less effective, while the shocking one, on the contrary, is less popular, but has potential to change the society’s behavior. This research will be of interest for the researchers studying advertising and social sphere, as well as for the professionals working in this field and, finally, for the scholars studying behavioral economics.