Advertising
What do the companies with the following logos sell?
If you answered shoes, video games and hamburgers,
you’d be right. How could you tell what these companies
sold by just looking at tiny pictures?
The answer, of course, is through advertising.
Advertising is a part of our lives in many ways – we see
adverts on billboards and posters above the streets when
we’re driven to school every day. We read them in
magazines, newspapers and books. We watch them on
television and on the internet. We hear them on the radio.
According to Forbes magazine, the shoe company Nike
spent over R63 billion last year on advertising.
When companies or people advertise, they do it to draw
the attention of the public to the product, service or idea
they are trying to sell. They try to persuade people to buy
things, pay for services or act in certain ways. The
advertisers usually have an idea of which groups of people
are most likely to buy their product. This is called their
target market. The advertisements that a company
creates are meant to convince its target market to buy
their product or use their service.
Types of advertisements
There are many different types of advertisements. We will
focus on advertisements found in print, broadcast and
digital media.
Print media advertising is advertising that appears on
printed material. E.g. in newspapers, in magazines, on
brochures, pamphlets, posters and billboards.
Broadcast media advertising is advertising that is sent
to a wide range of people at the same time over the
airwaves. E.g. Radio and television commercials.
Digital media advertising is advertising that is sent over
the internet. E.g. YouTube adverts, banner adverts at the
tops of website pages, online pop-up ads, the newsletters
you receive in your emails.
Elements of an advertisement
Advertisements are made up of different parts. These are
called “advertising elements”. Print advertisements, for
example, are usually made up of about six main parts:
Header – This is the title of the advertisement. Its job is to
attract the attention of the reader. Sometimes it does this
job together with the image. Sometimes it does this job
alone if there is no image in the advert.
Image – Much like the header, this part of an
advertisement is meant to draw the attention of the reader
and make them want to find out more about the product or
service.
A body – This is the part of the advert with the most text
(writing). Advertising text is called “copy”.
A “call to action” – This is the part where the advertiser
asks the reader (or viewer, listener, player) to do
something. They might ask the reader in an obvious way
to “order now”; or “call us on…”; or “click to subscribe”.
Sometimes the advertisement asks the reader to do
something but in a less obvious way. For example, a
company selling denim jeans using the slogan “only the
brave” as an indirect call to action – through its slogan, it
implied that the reader should buy its jeans to prove that
they are one of the “brave”.
A slogan, sometimes called a “payoff line” – This is a
short, catchy phrase that a company uses to make its
products or services memorable. To quote the slogans of
our earlier examples, Nike’s slogan is “just do it”; PS4
claims that “greatness awaits”; and McDonald’s’ slogan is
“I’m Lovin’ It”. Did you notice how Nike and PS4’s slogans
are also subtle call to actions?
Contact information – This can be a phone number, a
website, a list of shops that sell the product, an address
etc.
Persuasive techniques
Advertisers study and use many different methods to
convince their target markets to purchase their products or
services. These methods are meant to appeal to us in
certain ways.
Advertisers often appeal to emotions to sell their product
or service. They try to make you feel something about the
product or service. This is called pathos. Look at the
image below:
(Image source: [Link])
We all know that when you open a coke, you’re opening a
bottle of flavoured, caffeinated, carbonated sugar water.
The advertiser, however, appeals to our emotions in the
above advertisement by suggesting we think of happy
experiences that involved or may involve a bottle of Coca-
Cola instead – a picnic on a sunny day, for example. They
are indirectly suggesting that their product helps us to be
happy.
Sometimes advertisers appeal to our sense of respect for
authority. This is when they claim that people in positions
we respect agree with an idea; or use and recommend a
product or service that is being sold to us. Look at the
image below:
(Image source: [Link])
Some advertisements appeal to logic and try to give you
evidence that your life will improve if you adopt their idea,
buy their product or pay for their service. They do this by
quoting statistics and studies or by telling us what makes
their product bigger, faster, stronger, safer or in any other
way better than competing products.
(Image source: [Link])
There are many other techniques used by advertisers
besides the above. Look at the “additional reading” list
below for more examples.
Additional reading:
(Source: [Link]
techniques)
1) Altruism – The ad presents an altruistic story and hopes
the viewer associates the story with the product and/or
service.
2) Analogy – A similarity between like features of two
things, on which a comparison may be based.
3) Arouse Curiosity – The ad catches the curiosity and
therefore the attention of the customer.
4) Bandwagon – Trying to convince viewers that a product
is good because “everyone” is buying it; encouraging
people to “jump on the bandwagon”.
5) Card Stacking – Telling the facts from one side only.
6) Cartoon Character – An animated character that
promotes a product.
7) Children – In most houses, children have a say in every
big or small purchase made. Most parents just give in to
the tantrums, a fact well known to the advertisers. Out of
ten commercials one sees through any medium, 8 have
children featured in them who are generally a little more
perfect than the target audience. These perfect children
then go on to become role-models that have to emulated
by other children.
8) Comparison Appeal – This brand is better than other
brands of the same product.
9) Deal Appeal – This technique involves making the
audience a compelling offer, and telling them exactly how
to get it. Key words associated with this technique are
“free” and “save”.
10) Emotional Appeal – Writers may appeal to fear, anger
or joy to sway their readers. They may also add climax or
excitement. This technique is strongly connected to the
essay’s mood.
11) Establish Credibility – “I have the honor of serving as
president of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference, an organization operating in every southern
state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.”
12) Exaggeration – Exaggerating products and their uses
is another of the good advertising techniques and
examples of the technique can explain how this works in
the favor of the advertiser.
13) Exigency – Creating the impression that your action is
required immediately or your opportunity will be lost
forever.
14) Facts and Figures – Statistics and objective factual
information is used to prove the superiority of the product.
15) Fantasy – Super athletes, superheroes, movie stars,
the beautiful, the rich, the powerful, or things associated
with them are featured with the hope that the consumer
will tend to transfer the qualities of these people to the
products and themselves and buy the item.
16) Fear – Using fear to sell a service and/or product.
17) Green – If you buy this product then you are helping
the environment.
18) Glittering Generalities – An emotionally appealing
phrase so closely associated with highly valued concepts
and beliefs that it carries conviction without supporting
information or reason.
19) Humor – The use of humor may help people
remember the ad and want to buy the product because of
the positive association with it.
20) Hyperbole – This is one of the more enjoyable
persuasive techniques. It involves completely overstating
and exaggerating your point for effect. (Like when your
mom says, “I must have asked you a million times to clean
your room!” Get it?).
21) Image Advertising– Presenting a desirable situation or
lifestyle in order to convince the viewers that if they use a
product, they, too can have this lifestyle; beautiful people.
22) Innuendo – Causing the audience to become wary or
suspicious of a competing product and/or service by
hinting that negative information may be being kept secret.
23) Irony – Irony is present if the writer’s words contain
more than one meaning. This may be in the form of
sarcasm, gentle irony, or a pun (play on words). It can be
used to add humor or to emphasize an implied meaning
under the surface. The writer’s “voice” becomes important
here.
24) Jingle or Slogan – A “catchy” song or phrase that
helps you remember a product.
25) Lifestyle Appeal – In this technique, an advertisement
provides a glimpse from a particular lifestyle or way of
living. The hope is that the audience will desire this
lifestyle and transfer that longing to the product.
26) Magic Ingredients – The suggestion that some almost
miraculous discovery makes the product exceptionally
effective.
27) Mascot – Mascot the audience can identify with like
Smokey the Bear.
28) Metaphor – A figure of speech in which a term or
phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally
applicable in order to suggest a resemblance.
29) Name Calling Appeal – In this technique, the
advertiser compares its product or service to the
competition in a way that is favorable to the advertiser.
30) Nostalgia – This appeal implies that this product takes
you back to the “good old days” or back to nature, etc.
31) Parallelism – When an author creates a “balanced”
sentence by re-using the same word structure, this is
called parallelism. Always strive for parallelism when using
compound or complex sentences. Jingles and/or slogans
can be improved using parallelism.
32) Patriotism – The suggestion that purchasing this
product shows your love of your country.
33) Personification – This technique gives human
characteristics to a product, or service.
34) Plain Folks – The product is not elitist and suitable for
ordinary people.
35) Promise a Benefit – The ad promises a benefit to the
consumer.
36) Red Herring – Highlighting a minor detail as a way to
draw attention away from more important details or issues.
37) Repetition – Repeating an element within one
advertisement so that viewers will remember the
advertisement and will buy the product.
38) Reverse Psychology – A persuasion technique
involving the false advocacy of a belief or behavior
contrary to the belief or behavior which is actually being
advocated.
39) Rhetorical Question – Sometimes a writer will ask a
question to which no answer is required. The writer implies
that the answer is obvious; the reader has no choice but to
agree with the writer’s point.
40) Savings or Free – You will save money or get
something free if you buy this product.
41) Scale – A product looks bigger or smaller in the ad
than the actual product.
42) Sensory Appeal – The product tastes good, looks
good, or feels good. Sounds or pictures appealing to the
senses are featured.
43) Shocking the Viewer – An effective method of
advertising, shocking viewer gets them more interested in
the product, because it is a shift in their comfort zone.
44) Simple Solutions – One product and/or service solves
several problems at the same time.
45) Slice of Life Appeal – A problem is presented in a
“realistic” manner by “real” people.
46) Snob Appeal – The use of the product makes the
customer part of an elite group with a luxurious and
glamorous life style.
47) Testimonial Appeal – In this technique, a celebrity or
authority figure endorses the product. This could be a
celebrity, sports star, or “professional”.
48) Transfer – Words and ideas with positive connotations
are used to suggest that the positive qualities should be
associated with the product and the user.
49) Weasel Words – “Weasel words” are used to suggest
a positive meaning without actually really making any
guarantee.
50) Word Choice – Is a person “slim” or “skinny”? Is an oil
spill an “incident” or an “accident”?