Persuasion Is All Around You!
“Can You Hear Me Now?”
What is persuasion?
A means of convincing people:
 to buy a certain product
 to believe something or act in a certain
way
 to agree with a point of view
Also known as propaganda techniques.
Propaganda is an approach to influence
many people at once.
Common persuasive techniques
often used in advertising
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Slogan
Repetition
Bandwagon
Testimonial
Red Herring
Circular Argument
Appeal to numbers,
facts, statistics
Card Stacking
Emotional Appeal
 Snob Appeal
 Plain Folk
 Slippery Slope
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Slogan: “Can you hear me now?”
A catchy phrase or statement often used to
sell a service or a product
Repetition:
The name of a product is repeated many times
HEAD ON Apply
directly to the
forehead
HEAD ON Apply
directly to the
forehead
HEAD ON Apply
directly to the
forehead
Bandwagon
A statement suggesting that everyone is
using a specific product, so you should
too
Millions of people have discovered Proactiv®
Solution...from people like you to celebrities
like Vanessa Williams, Jessica Simpson and
Elle Macpherson... they all say Proactiv
Solution helped banish their breakouts and
get them on the path to clear, beautiful, starquality skin.
Testimonial
A well-known person supports a product
or service. Here Tiger Woods eats
wheaties, so you should too.
Red Herring:
An attempt to distract the reader with details not relevant to the product or argument. Sometimes uses words
that cause a strong feeling. Once the reader is feeling strongly, he or she may be more likely
to agree with the writer.
“Living green” attempts to make the reader think that by eating at subway, they are being healthy and being
environmentally aware, something not necessarily even true. In the Duracell commercial, the word “danger” is
used persuade the audience of the power of these batteries.
Red Herring Continued…
Wit and humor are a type of distraction
(red herring)
Uses humor to sell a product; it is not uncommon that the
humor itself is not even relevant to the product.
Circular Argument:
-states the conclusion or outcome as part of the argument or reason you
should buy the product.
Any that show before and after pictures are using circular argument
"The SUBWAY®
chain helped
save my life
over and over. I
can't ever
repay that."
.
Appeal to numbers, facts, statistics.
Attempts to persuade the reader/audience
by showing how many people think
something is true and providing facts,
numbers, and stats to prove it.
“Four out of five dentists recommend
sugarless gum for their patients who
chew gum”
Card-Stacking
A different take on the Appeal to
Numbers and Facts strategy, card-stacking
manipulates information and statistics to
make a product appear better than it is
often by ommiting facts that prove the
opposite or use unfair comparisons
 Ex: Commercials for pharmaceuticals
usually list the side effects in small print
or in an inconspicuous way.
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Emotional Appeal
Positive feelings/desires are connected to a product/user
Transfers positive or negative feelings we have of something we know to
something we don’t.
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Sex Appeal
Love/ Popularity
Fame
Wealth
Power
More Emotional appeal: Words of praise for
a product or person; using nice words like
goodness or patriotism.
More Emotional Appeal : popularity, acceptance (you’ll be
irresistible if you use this product)
More Emotional Appeal:
If you want to be
brighter, you’ll support
Bill Brite.
Clipart-Microsoft Office XP 2002
Look on the bright
side!
Vote for Bill Brite !
More Emotional Appeal:
Sex appeal
Snob Appeal
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Aims to flatter by making people feel that they would be of a
higher social rank if they used/purchased the product.
Makes assumption/ insinuation that this product/idea is better
than others…
Thus, those that use it are too.
“Avant Garde” ahead of the times.
The Ultimate
driving machine
Plain Folks
seeks to make the company/person appear ordinary,
and hence more trustworthy
 Appealing to regular people's values like family,
patriotism
 Opposite of Snob Appeal
State Farm
Like a good neighbor…
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Slippery Slope
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A fallacy in which a course of action is objected to
on the grounds that once taken it will lead to
additional actions until some undesirable
consequence results. Search on youtube for slippery
slope commercials and you’ll find some that are
currently popular on tv.
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"I hope the art mural at 34th and Habersham will
not be allowed.You open the gate for one, you open
it for all and you'll have it all over the city. A person
wanting to paint on buildings is nothing more than
upscale graffiti. More than likely it will go too far."
Your task:
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Learn all about the various persuasive techniques by reading this
packet.
Next, research commercials on youtube that employ these various
techniques. Use only school appropriate commercials. You may also
use magazine adds (feel free to cut them out/print and attach them)
Decide on 10 commericials or adds that illustrate 10 different
techniques. You can use each technique only once, EXCEPT
emotional appeal, which you can use up to 3 times; please specify
the type of emotional appeal you’re using (Sex Appeal, Love/
Popularity,Fame,Wealth, or Power)
Fill out the next page with the information for the
commericials/adds you’ve selected.
1.
Technique: ____________________________
1. Commerical (Product being sold): ______________________________
2. Explanation of how that commercial used that technique:
2.
Technique: ____________________________
1. Commerical (Product being sold): ______________________________
2. Explanation of how that commercial used that technique:
3.
Technique: ____________________________
1. Commerical (Product being sold): ______________________________
2. Explanation of how that commercial used that technique:
4.
Technique: ____________________________
1. Commerical (Product being sold): ______________________________
2. Explanation of how that commercial used that technique:
5.
Technique: ____________________________
1. Commerical (Product being sold): ______________________________
2. Explanation of how that commercial used that technique:
6.
Technique: ____________________________
6. Commerical (Product being sold): ______________________________
7. Explanation of how that commercial used that technique:
7.
Technique: ____________________________
1. Commerical (Product being sold): ______________________________
2. Explanation of how that commercial used that technique:
8.
Technique: ____________________________
1. Commerical (Product being sold): ______________________________
2. Explanation of how that commercial used that technique:
9.
Technique: ____________________________
1. Commerical (Product being sold): ______________________________
2. Explanation of how that commercial used that technique:
10.
Technique: ____________________________
1. Commerical (Product being sold): ______________________________
2. Explanation of how that commercial used that technique:
Audience Awareness
Advertisers know how to
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target their audiences
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use appropriate persuasive technique
Who’s the audience?
Audience?
Audience?
Purpose?
Persuasive
technique?
Audience?
Purpose?
Persuasive
technique?
Audience?
Audience?
Purpose?
Audience?
Purpose?
Audience?
Purpose?
Persuasive
technique?
Audience?
Persuasive
technique?
Making Connections
What is your favorite jingle?
 What slogan for a product do you find
yourself saying?
 What TV commercial has influenced you
to make a purchase?
 Since Barack Obama and Steve Nash shop
at Frys, does that mean we should too?
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Ms. Kemp’s Product
Product:
 Who will use the product?:
 Who will buy it?:
 Who is the focus?:
 Graphic Organizer:
 Persuasion technique:
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Class Ad
We are going to create an ad to try and
persuade people to visit Arizona.
 Product:
 Who will use the product?:
 Who will buy it?:
 Who is the focus?:
 Graphic Organizer:
 Persuasion technique:
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Now it’s your turn…
Create an effective ad to persuade
people to buy your product or
service.-(commercial or print ad)
Don’t forget to determine your
purpose, audience, and use one of
the propaganda techniques.
Use your graphic organizer to get
started and organize your thoughts.
Brainstorming
What are some products or services you
can’t live without?
 Think of improvements for existing
products or…
 Come with a completely new product or
service
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Reflection
“Persuasion is all around you”
In addition to TV commercials, where else
do you see persuasion all around you? Is
that persuasion influencing you or your
family in any way? Explain.