Persuasion in Advertising

How it Works

• Ads are carefully designed messages that influence our opinions, emotions, attitudes and behavior in order to persuade us to do or to believe something.

Bandwagon

• Persuading people to do something by letting them know others are doing it.

Euphemism

• Using a more subtle word or phrase to say something that some may consider too harsh, blunt, or offensive.

Fear

• Statement to threaten or arouse fear in order to change the attitude of the audience.

• “Last weekend, I washed my car, hung out with friends, and helped murder a family in Colombia. C’mon, it was a party. Drug money helps support terror. Buy drugs and you could be supporting it too.”

Glittering Generality

• Fancy slogans or promises that are so attractive to audience that they want to buy the product without questioning it.

Logical Fallacies

• An argument or promise that is not logical – it doesn’t make sense or is not believable.

Name Calling

• Negative words are used to create an unfavorable opinion of the competition in the viewer's mind.

Plain Folks

• A suggestion that a product is practical and of good value for common, ordinary people or using an “ordinary” person to sell a product.

Rewards

• Using toys, gimmicks, kids clubs, rebates, etc. to appeal to the audience.

Testimonial

• Endorsement of a product, idea or person by someone famous.

Transfer

• Good feelings, looks, or ideas are transferred to the person for whom the product is intended.