ADVERTISING TECHNIQUES We live in a world of visual stimulation. In the car, on the metro, or strolling through town, we absorb the invitations to look, buy, do, react, often unconsciously. Because we are so accustomed to the barrage of media stimulation that blankets billboards or floats across our screens, we often take for granted our media savvy. Part of becoming more media literate is the ability to identify the techniques used by advertisers to persuade us. These techniques are the tools of advertisers to convince us to buy their product. Once you become familiar with them, you will see them all around you. ADVERTISING TECHNIQUES Lesson Objective This lesson presents eight advertising techniques and several ads. After studying each technique, you can comment on their use in the ads below. After analyzing the ads, you can discuss the effects of them on their target audience. 8 advertising techniques 1. Appeal to fear In advertisements, speeches or even newpaper articles we see that writers and speakers appeal to their audience's sense of fear. If you can make people scared, then they will believe or buy anything. We see it in advertising, political campaigns and public service announcements. It is an age-old technique used many campaigns from the 'War on Terror' to the 'War on Drugs' 8 advertising techniques 1. Appeal to fear In advertisements, speeches or even newpaper articles we see that writers and speakers appeal to their audience's sense of fear. If you can make people scared, then they will believe or buy anything. We see it in advertising, political campaigns and public service announcements. It is an age-old technique used many campaigns from the 'War on Terror' to the 'War on Drugs' 8 advertising techniques 1. Appeal to fear In advertisements, speeches or even newpaper articles we see that writers and speakers appeal to their audience's sense of fear. If you can make people scared, then they will believe or buy anything. We see it in advertising, political campaigns and public service announcements. It is an age-old technique used many campaigns from the 'War on Terror' to the 'War on Drugs' 8 advertising techniques Bandwagon Effect 2. The bandwagon effect is a propaganda technique that suggests one should do something because everyone else is doing it. It is an argumentation fallacy, because something does not have to be true if everyone is doing it. It comes from the idea of a parade, where happy people go by on bandwagons and people in the crowd have the urge to 'hop on'. The bandwagon effect is an age-old technique used to recruit soldiers for war or sell hamburgers to the masses. This McDonald's ad is a good example of the bandwagon effect. We see happy people walking by and eating at the restaurant. If we want to be as happy as the people in the ad, then we had better eat at McDonald's. 8 advertising techniques Shock Advertising 3. Shock advertising is used to gain attention. If an advertisement is controversial, then it gains free publicity through the press and on blogs. Even though this kind of publicity can be negative, it is still publicity nonetheless. Shock advertising leads to brand awareness and an eventual rise in sales. Many companies that use shock advertising do not even show their product. The interest is solely on creating a very memorable impact on their audience. Studies show that shock advertising can be effective for increasing brand awareness and sales There are many examples of shock advertising from Benetton to Calvin Klein. The image included here is of Isabell Caro who posed for Oliviero Toscani and Nolita Jeans before dying of anorexia. This picture of her emaciated body shocked many viewers and gave Nolita Jeans a lot of publicity. 8 advertising techniques Conflict 4. Including a conflict situation in an ad helps sell a product or an idea. This advertising technique relies on the audience's interest in seeing the conflict resolved. If you think about how children are intrigued by fights in the schoolyard, then you understand how conflict in advertising draws our attention to a product. Conflict in advertising can sometimes lead to shock advertising if scandalous or controversial, which goes one step further in creating a media-hype and drawing attention to the product or brand. An ad as simple as this one for Benetton in the early 1990s includes a conflict that the audience wants to see resolved. We ask questions like: "Why are these men handcuffed together?" "Who has the key?" "Is one a police officer and the other a criminal?" Asking questions like these engages the audience with the image and eventually the product and brand. 8 advertising techniques Testimonial 5. If someone tells you about a personal experience with a product, then you are likely to believe that person. If that 'someone' is a celebrity, you may be even more likely to buy a product that he or she is promoting. This kind of story about a personal experience is known as a 'testimonial'. Testimonials are used in advertising and political campaigns to appeal to the audience's sense of ethos, i.e. that which gives someone credit or a mandate. If a third, independent party has approved of a product or idea through experience, then the speaker's voice is validated. What's more, the audience may be able to identify with person giving the testimonial. This is why the person from the testimonial usually comes from the same demographic group as the target audience. The 'Got Milk?' campaign is a good example of advertising that relies on testimonials and celebrities. This particular ad featuring Susan Sarandon comments on the importance of milk in providing the nutrients tha families need. She is speaking as both a film star and a mother. Many mothers can understand this importance to provide nutrients for children. Many people simply think: "If Susan Sarandon drinks milk, so should I!" 8 advertising techniques 6. Problem / Benefit If you can convince someone that they have a problem, you can sell them a solution. This is the kind of persuasive technique used by advertisers and politicians, known as the problem / solution technique. If an audience can identify with one characteristic of the problem, then they can be persuaded to believe that they must buy into the solution. This technique can be found in the Tylenol ad opposite. Many people find air travel a stressful experience. If you can identify with the stress and headache that this passenger is suffering from, you may want to buy Tylenol too. 8 advertising techniques 7. Anti-advertising An anti-ad draws your attention to and makes you aware of the conventions of advertising. In effect anti-ads seems to tell the audience that they are smart enough to see through the tricks played by advertisers. Not only does an anti-ad break the rules of advertising. It shows you how and why they have done this. The notion of anti-advertising started in the 1950s with the 'lemon' ad from Volkswagen. 'Lemon', is another world for a bad car. Calling their cars 'lemons' shocks readers into reading the rest of a lengthy infomercial about their strict inspection process at the Volkswagen factory. 8 advertising techniques 7. Humour Many of the most memorable ad campaigns around tend to be funny. Advertisers use this strategy to attract customers to their product. Audiences like to be entertained, but not pitched. People will pay more attention to a humorous commercial than a factual or serious one, opening themselves up to be influenced. The key to funny advertising is assuring the humor is appropriate to both product and customer. Humor tugs at our emotions, eliciting a positive emotion like laughter, which creates an impression. It also connects consumers to the commercial itself, and hopefully to the product being marketed. Our reactions to humor make it an effective tool for advertising. Humor in advertising: • Grabs the audience’s attention • Associates the positive emotion elicited from the advertisement with the brand • Makes a lasting impression https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=12&v=e8aj1AlYvxI Advertisement German Coast Guard Embrace Life MTV Global Warming Ad Party All Night Pro-Aging UnHate What kinds of advertising techniques are used and to what effects? ADVERTISING & SOCIAL RESPONSABILITY • CAN ADVERTISING CHANGE THE WORLD FOR THE BETTER? IF SO, HOW CAN THEY DO THIS? • DO ADVERTISERS HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO PROMOTE SOCIAL PROGRESS? • HFIND AN AD ON YOUTUBE THAT MIGHT INSTIGATE SOCIAL PROGRESS. PRESENT THIS TO THE CLASS IN A MINI-PRESENTATION. EXPLAIN HOW THIS AD INSTIGATES SOCIAL PROGRESS.
