Lines of Appeal and Advertising Techniques
Advertising, in its simplest form, is the way in which the vendor or manufacturer of a
product communicates with consumers via a medium, or many different media. Its
purpose is to sell products and ideas, and to do this it must tap into its audience’s sense
of need.
This handout will begin by considering how different theorists have sought to describe
the needs of consumers. This will give us a platform for assessing how advertisers seek
to exploit those needs.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
In 1954, Austrian Psychologist Abram Maslow put forward the idea of a hierarchy of
human needs; his concept was that each stage of the hierarchy needs to be satisfied
before the next stage can be addressed – like climbing a flight of stairs. Starting at the
lowest stage the hierarchy is as follows:
• Physiological needs: food, drink, sleep, sex, relief from pain
• Safety needs: security, protection, freedom from danger, order
• Love and Belonging needs: friends, companions, family, being part of a group
• Esteem needs: respect, confidence based on the good opinion of others,
admiration, self-confidence, self– acceptance, self-worth.
• Self actualisation needs: fulfil one’s potential, develop potential, do what you
are best suited for, discover the truth about yourself, create beauty, produce
order, promote justice.
Maslow’s hierarchy was a psychological
study and was not intended to relate to media
studies but it did influence attitudes to the
media. Advertisers soon became increasingly
interested in what motivated people to buy a
product and market research became the one
of the most important parts of the advertising
process.
(Right: Maslow’s hierarchy is often represented as a pyramid.)
Self-actualisation
Esteem
Love
Safety
Physiological
Appeals
According to Gillian Dyer (Advertising as Communication, Routledge 1988) advertisers
use, among other techniques, the following lines of appeal. They use images of or
references to these things to tap into our desires - and fears:
• Happy families - everyone wants to belong
• Rich, luxurious lifestyles - aspirational
• Dreams and fantasy
• Successful romance and love
• Elite people or experts
• Glamorous places
• Successful careers
• Art, culture & history
• Nature & the natural world
• Beautiful women - men AND women like looking at beautiful women, so the
thinking goes: men admire them, women admire what makes the men admire
them.
Self-importance & pride
Comedy & humour
Childhood - can appeal to either nostalgia or to nurturing instincts
These lines of appeal are effective because they deal with our social needs.
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15 Basic Appeals
15 Basic Appeals are listed by Jib Fowles in Mass Advertising As Social Forecast.
Need for sex - surprisingly, Fowles found that only 2 percent of the television ads, he
surveyed used this appeal. It may be too blatant, he concluded, and often detracts
from the product.
Need for affiliation - the largest number of ads use this approach: you are looking for
friendship? Advertisers can also use this negatively, to make you worry that you’ll
lose friends if you don’t use a certain product.
Need to nurture - every time you see a puppy or a kitten or a child, the appeal is to your
paternal or maternal instincts.
Need for guidance - a father or mother figure can appeal to your desire for someone to
care for you, so you won’t have to worry. Betty Crocker is a good example.
Need to aggress - we all have had a desire to get even, and some ads give you this
satisfaction.
Need to achieve - the ability to accomplish something difficult and succeed identifies
the product with winning. Sports figures as spokespersons project this image.
Need to dominate - the power we lack is what we can look for in a commercial “master
the possibilities.”
Need for prominence - we want to be admired and respected; to have high social status.
Tasteful china and classic diamonds offer this potential.
Need for attention - we want people to notice us; we want to be looked at. Cosmetics
are a natural for this approach.
Need for autonomy - within a crowded environment, we want to be singled out, to be a
“breed apart.” This can also be used negatively: you may be left out if you don’t
use a particular product
Need to escape - flight is very appealing; you can imagine adventures you cannot have;
the idea of escape is pleasurable
Need to feel safe - to be free from threats, to be secure is the appeal of many insurance
and bank ads
Need for aesthetic sensations - beauty attracts us, and classic art or dance makes us feel
creative, enhanced
Need to satisfy curiosity - facts support our belief that information is quantifiable and
numbers and diagrams make our choices seem scientific
Physiological needs - Fowles defines sex (item no.1) as a biological need, and so he
classifies our need to sleep, eat, and drink in this category. Advertisers for juicy
pizza are especially appealing late at night.
Children are considered a special target group when it comes to advertising, and
strategies are used to especially target them. When analysing an ad you need to consider
what kind of appeal is being made - does this ad tap in to your desire to be considered
successful by your peers, for instance, or is it more about making you feel as though
you will belong to a happy group if you own a certain product? Often advertising
creates need - in order to sell a product that we did not know existed, advertisers have to
make us aware that we need it.
Approaches to textual analysis of advertising
1. Persuasive tools
HUMOUR
Aspects of humour such as ambiguity and punning add layers of meaning to a text and
will make it more satisfying to decipher and consequently more memorable. For
instance, Guinness, “Not everything in black and white makes sense.” The slapstick
humour of the “You’ve been tangoed” advertising made them notable and imitable.
REPETITION
Slogans, images and brand names can be repeated and will give greater credibility to a
campaign. Slogans remain in the memory long after the advertising campaign has
finished. Everyone (above a certain age) remembers “A Mars a day helps you work, rest
and play.”
SHOCK TACTICS
Luciano Benetton proved
that shock tactics grab not
only the attention of the
consumer but also that of
the media and in doing so
increase the effectiveness
of the campaign many
times over. More recently,
Barnardo’s achieved
similar results with a
campaign on child
protection.
SEX
One of the most basic human needs and one of the most effective persuasive tools is sex,
we see images of sexy men and women all around us, our psyches are saturated with
them.
2. Shortcuts to meaning
In advertising time and space is at a premium. You don’t waste time with too much text
nor do you waste money with an advert that needs to be huge. The following tools are
used as time/space savers.
STEREOTYPES
These are useful in ads because they are easily identifiable and the stereotype tends to
bring with it certain messages. They are a short cut that can add immediate meaning.
Stereotypes tend to be accepted without much questioning; this often allows us to accept
the message contained within the advertisement without much questioning. However,
given that a considerable proportion of our self-identity comes from the images and
messages in the advertising that surrounds us, stereotyping in advertising is seen as
potentially harmful.
Gender stereotypes are the most common. Men are shown as primarily functional,
associated with heavy machinery, business decisions, wearing executive suits and
watches, being taller than women etc etc. Women are decorative, associated with
kitchen equipment and domestic financial decisions, often shown lying down on beds
and floors.
You must be ready to spot any sort of stereotyping in your analysis of an advert. Why
was that stereotype used? Is it likely to cause offence? Does it distort the intended
message of the ad?
INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCES
Using other texts to create or add immediate meaning to an advertisement is a useful
device. Is the ad a parody? Does its use music, characters or media stars? Film and TV
parodies all help to add ideology and attract an audience.
MUSIC
This can be used in a number of ways as an attention grabber, as
a narrative short hand and an emotive device. Advertisers often
use music to target audiences. Advertisers have become fond of
using older tracks to promote youthful, happy memories in older
consumers too.
ELITE PERSONS
Famous people are used to endorse products and if the audience
admire that person or aspire to be like them they will be more
likely to buy the product. A good example of this is Gary
Lineker and Walkers crisps.
3. Signs
POSITION SIGNS
The position of the camera always gives the audience a particular point of view, this
could be meaningful. For example, if the picture is taken from a low angle the subject in
the advert will be imbued with authority.
TREATMENT SIGNS
The type, angle, strength of the lighting, overall colour of the image, focus, composition
and framing all affect the meaning.
CONTENT SIGNS
People, objects, clothes, sounds etc. It is self evident that who or what the image
contains will communicate this greatest part of the overall message.
SIGNS IN COMBINATION
What does the image, together with any music, or with the anchorage provided by the
caption suggest, as opposed to the image just by itself?
4. Persuasive ideologies
REWARD AND PUNISHMENT
These are probably the most important persuasive devices in advertising. Physical
rewards are offered like “buy one get one free” or the face cream that will keep you
“young looking”. More frequently psychological rewards are offered; Whiskers cat food
has added vitamins, you will be a good owner if you feed this to your cat. The other side
of the coin also applies (as always) if you don’t use Whiskers you will be a bad owner
and your cat will be unhealthy.
NEEDS, FEARS AND ASPIRATIONS
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is relevant here. Advertisers play on the need to be safe,
secure, part of a relationship, part of a group, accepted etc. Insurance schemes, Pension
plans often use security as a persuasive device. Fashion ads often use the desire to part
of a group, to belong, to persuade. People also need esteem and aspirations - they need
to feel they are important and as such they are offered opulent lifestyles. Consumers are
often lulled into believing they are buying into a better life in this way.
VALUE MESSAGES
Many advertisers carry with them a message about life that cannot be denied, e.g “Love
hurts” and the advertiser will attempt to persuade you that the advert is undeniable too
just by using these types of phrases.
Language of Advertising
The purpose of advertising language is to persuade. Whereas the slogan and the image
can be humorous or attention-grabbing, the body copy is always to extoll the benefits of
a product and thus persuade the audience to buy buy buy! In his influential book,
Confessions of An Advertising Man (Atheneum, 1988) David Ogilvy lists the most
persuasive words in advertising as
suddenly
now
announcing
introducing
improvement
amazing
sensational
remarkable
revolutionary
startling
miracle
magic
offer
quick
easy
wanted
challenge
compare
bargain
hurry
These words act as triggers to interest audiences in a product. They are also over-used,
and may, these days, be counted as clichés.
Advertising makes use of a direct mode of address (the most commonly used word in
advertising is ‘YOU’) and short, active words. When analysing an ad you have to
identify the key persuasive words and consider their effect on an audience. Be critical:
are the advertisers taking a tried and tested approach or are they being original? Does
the approach work?
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Over to you…
Now you can look a little more deeply into adverts. Do some research and answer these
questions.
1. Find an advertising campaign that uses humour as its main persuasive device. Write
down the target audience for the advert.
2. Write down five slogans for product recently advertised. What makes these slogans
effective and memorable?
3. Which advertisers have used shock tactics lately and why are they shocking?
4. Collect five examples of sex being used as a persuasive device in adverts.
5. Write down as many stereotypes found in advertising as you can, try to link them to
actual campaigns.
6. Find three examples of intertextuality in an advert. How effective is it as a
technique?
7. Give three examples of elite persons in current advertising campaigns. Why have
they been used?
8. Find five examples of “reward and punishment” persuasion in current campaigns.
Handout based on materials from MediaKnowAll and the Trinity University Cumbria Media Studies
website