Persuasive Advertising Techniques A
Association Techniques
What comes into your mind
when you see an advertisement
for Vimto?
How does it make you feel?
Association
This technique tries to link a product, service, or idea with something already liked by the
target audience. Coke=Family. Nike=Winning/Victory. Vimto=Ramadan. The following
techniques are also types of association.
Warm & fuzzy
This technique uses sentimental images (for example families, children and animals) to
make people feel pleasure, comfort, and delight. It might use relaxing music, pleasant
voices, and words like "cozy" or "cuddly.” This technique works well with some audiences,
but not with others, who may find it too cheesy.
Beautiful people
This technique uses good-looking models (who may also be celebrities) to attract our
attention. This technique is extremely common in ads, which try to make us feel that if we
use their products we will look like the people in the advertising. Or if we use a certain
perfume, then we will attract beautiful people to us for example.
Symbols
Symbols are words or images that bring to mind some larger idea. Usually symbols connect
to strong emotional ideas, such as home, family, nation, religion, gender, or lifestyle.
Advertisers use the power of symbols to persuade us. But symbols can have different
meanings for different people.
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Humor
Many advertisers use humor, funny things, because it grabs our attention. When we laugh,
we feel good. Advertisers make us laugh and then show us their product or logo because
they’re trying to connect that good feeling to their product. They hope that when we see
their product in a store, we will remember that good feeling and select their product.
Nostalgia
Many advertisers try to make us remember a time when life was simpler and quality was
supposedly better ("like Mom used to make"). Politicians promise to bring back the "good
old days" or to bring back a "tradition." This technique works because most people tend to
forget any bad parts of the past, and just remember the good.
TASK
In your group, make sure you understand all of the techniques above. Create a short
PowerPoint, with examples, to teach the class these persuasive techniques. You should all
speak (this is good practice for your next assessment).
After your presentation, go around the class and make sure the other students have
completed their notes for this section correctly.
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Persuasive Advertising Techniques B
Other People’s Opinions
Why do you think other people’s
opinions matter so much to us?
What makes you believe/trust a
person?
Testimonials
Media messages often show people testifying about the value or quality of a product. This
means that the person states that they support or believe in the product. The testimonial
might come from experts, a celebrities or ‘plain folks’ (‘normal’ people). We usually believe
these testimonials because they come from people who are not directly connected to the
company. For example a celebrity who sells L’Oreal products is not an employee of L’Oreal
so we trust them more. (But remember they do get paid for their testimonial). People
believe testimonials more when they come from people we like or trust and especially if the
person is not getting paid.
Celebrities
We often pay attention to famous people. That’s why they’re famous! Ads often use
celebrities to grab our attention. By appearing in advertising, celebrities show their support
for a product. Sometimes companies pay celebrities money just to wear their clothes or say
the name of their product.
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Experts
We rely on experts to advise us about things that we don’t know ourselves. Scientists,
doctors, professors and other professionals often appear in ads so that we trust the
product, service, or idea being sold. Sometimes, “normal people”/ “plain folks” can also be
used as experts, like when a mother says she uses a brand of baby shampoo.
Plain folks
This technique works because sometimes we may believe a "normal person" more than an
expert or a highly-paid celebrity. This technique is often used to sell everyday products like
laundry detergent because we can more easily see ourselves using the product, too. OF
course, most of the "plain folks" in ads are actually paid actors carefully selected because
they look like "regular people.”
Bandwagon
Many ads show lots of people using the product, implying that "everyone is doing it" (or at
least, "all the cool people are doing it"). Everyone likes to be part of a group and these ads
urge us to "jump on the bandwagon.”
TASK
In your group, make sure you understand all of the techniques above. Create a short
PowerPoint, with examples, to teach the class these persuasive techniques. You should all
speak (this is good practice for your next assessment).
After your presentation, go around the class and make sure the other students have
completed their notes for this section correctly.
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Persuasive Advertising Techniques C
Making us feel good
Do you think ‘new’ things are
better than old things?
If someone flatters you, does it
usually work?
Newness
We love new things and new ideas because we tend to
believe they’re better than old things and old ideas.
That’s because the dominant culture in many countries
is one that believes that technology and progress are
great ideals. But this is like an appeal to tradition,
something is not always better just because it is new.
Flattery
Flattery is when people give you compliments to try and persuade you. For example “Mum,
you look so lovely today. Can I borrow some money?”. Advertisers love to flatter us. "You
know a good deal when you see one." "You expect quality." "You work hard for a living."
"You deserve it." Sometimes ads flatter us by showing people doing stupid things, so that
we’ll feel smarter or better than them. Flattery works because we like to be praised and we
tend to believe people we like.
Bribery
This technique tries to persuade us to buy a product by promising to give us something else,
like a discount, money back, a coupon, or a "free gift.” Sales, special offers, contests, and
competitions are all forms of bribery. Unfortunately, we don’t really get something for free
– usually part of the sales price covers the cost of the bribe.
TASK
In your group, make sure you understand all of the techniques above. Create a short
PowerPoint, with examples, to teach the class these persuasive techniques. You should all
speak (this is good practice for your next assessment).
After your presentation, go around the class and make sure the other students have
completed their notes for this section correctly.
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Persuasive Advertising Techniques D
Linking to negative ideas
Do you think that fear motivates you to buy
things?
What kind of things would a
student/Emirati/woman/young person be
afraid of?
Fear
This is also an association technique but it uses something disliked or feared by the audience
(like bad breath, failure, high taxes or terrorism) and then offers a solution. These
advertisements use fear to sell us products that claim to prevent or fix the problem.
Slippery slope
This technique says something bad is just the first step down a “slippery slope” toward
something seriously negative. It’s easy to claim that a small step will lead to a result most
people won’t like, but the truth is that small steps can lead in many directions.
TASK
In your group, make sure you understand all of the techniques above. Create a short
PowerPoint, with examples, to teach the class these persuasive techniques. You should all
speak (this is good practice for your next assessment).
After your presentation, go around the class and make sure the other students have
completed their notes for this section correctly.
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Persuasive Advertising Techniques E
Speaking styles
What are some common words you see in
advertising?
Do you know whose slogans these are?
Just do it. Lovin’ it. Finger Lickin’ Good.
Why do we know things like this?
1 Steve Jobs describing map apps on the iPhone
Intensity
The language of advertising is full of words that that try exaggerate products. Some are
superlatives. Words like the greatest, best, most, fastest, lowest prices. Some compare two
things (comparatives) for example: more, better, improved, increased, fewer). Other words
are adjectives that are very strong and hype up a product. This product is: amazing,
incredible, lasts forever.
Maybe
If advertising can’t say something is a fact, sometimes they use words called "weasel words"
like “may, might, can, could, some, many, often, or up to”.
Repetition
Advertisers use repetition in two ways: sometimes a word or phrases is repeated to keep
making the main point to viewers. Or the whole message can be repeated many times so
people see it again and again. For example, most people know advertising slogans like “Just
do it!” because they have seen this message repeated many times.
Euphemism
This is a when people use a more pleasant word instead of a word that people think
negatively about. For example, “dead” is an unpleasant word so a person selling insurance
might say “Imagine if your husband passed away tomorrow” instead. We might say
“overweight” instead of “fat” or “low-income” instead of “poor”.
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Rhetorical questions
These are questions that are set up to get us to agree with the speaker. The correct answer
is obvious. For example: "Do you want to get out of debt?" "Do you want quick relief from
headache pain?" “Are you happy being overweight?” When the listener thinks “Yes! I do
want to get out of debt!” maybe they will be more interested in the product.
TASK
In your group, make sure you understand all of the techniques above. Create a short
PowerPoint, with examples, to teach the class these persuasive techniques. You should all
speak (this is good practice for your next assessment).
After your presentation, go around the class and make sure the other students have
completed their notes for this section correctly.
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Persuasive Advertising Techniques F
Evidence and Proof
Are there laws about what advertisers can say?
Do you usually believe facts and figures? Why or why not?
What products use numbers in their advertising?
Explicit claim
An explicit claim is when the advertiser directly states a fact clearly. For example, some ads
state the price of a product, the main ingredients or where it was made. If a product makes
a promise like “works in 20 minutes” then it is an explicit claim. Most advertising doesn’t
make explicit claims because then they can be tested and they are not always true!
Scientific evidence
This technique is similar to the expert technique. It uses scientific things like graphs,
statistics, white lab coats or science equipment to "prove" something. It often works
because many people trust science and scientists but remember the scientists might just be
an actor in a white coat!
Simple solution
Life is complicated. People are complex. Some advertisers try and offer us a simple solution.
There are many reasons why people gain weight for example, but some advertisers say that
“just eating this food each day will fix all of your health issues!”
Extrapolation
This is when advertisers use only a few facts to make huge conclusions. It is similar to a
hasty generalisation. This product worked for Mariam and Sara – it can work for you!
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TASK
In your group, make sure you understand all of the techniques above. Create a short
PowerPoint, with examples, to teach the class these persuasive techniques. You should all
speak (this is good practice for your next assessment).
After your presentation, go around the class and make sure the other students have
completed their notes for this section correctly.
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