Adverts use many different persuasion techniques to get their target audience to buy into the brand, for example bandwagon this technique is when an advert includes a current trend, the producers believe that if they add the latest trends in their ads the product will become a trend and become memorable as it plays on the audience desire to all be part of the same collective group. However, this technique needs to be subtle, as when you buy the product you need to be also seen as an individual and that you aren’t copying everyone else buying the brand. An example of this is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ3d3KigPQM this advert is for T-Mobile they used a flash mob to promote their brand, as flash mobs were the new craze at the time, therefore people were manipulated into thinking if they joint T- mobile they were part of a community and setting a new trend. Another persuasion technique used in advertisement is association; this is the idea of promoting a certain brand with a certain emotion or lifestyle. It’s marketed in a way that doesn’t present the link but we make the connection between the product and what the advert is telling us the product will do if you buy it therefore it meets the target demographics that were already desired. Emotional responses are also created for example; the extra chewing gum advert is based around a love story; I believe the connection they want the audience to make is you’ve got a better chance having a love story like the adverts if you have fresh breath therefore more people are going to start buying the chewing gum, this could also be seen as bandwagon as the chewing is the common denominator between the boy and girl., refers to the idea that chewing gum builds interactions with people. Beautiful people: - The main purpose of advertisement is to persuade a certain audience to buy a product, to do this advertisement use what’s known as beautiful people. The people that typically advertise the brand are not your average looking men or women, they do this as it makes the brand more intriguing and often commercials relate to the idea of sex appeal as sex sells. “What is beautiful is good” and the use of attractive confident people reflects the product. By using this technique companies are able to grab the attention of males and females and increase their interest in the product. Another technique that reinforces this idea is celebrity endorsement; the addition of a celebrity to an advert is a good promotional device as it makes the brand memorable and adhere to the chosen target audience. For example, an advert uses celebrity’s testimonials is H&M, this clothing brand uses David Beckham to model the clothes. He is the main feature of the advert as he is very well known, he is modeling men’s clothing, as men especially teenage boys are not intimidated by him and women find him very attractive therefore psychologically men believe if David Beckham can wear it I can too and paradoxically we think it’s going to attract the opposite sex. I believe the main technique used in advertisement is humor, adding humorous elements to an advertisement grabs the viewer’s attention and makes you remember the advert. Emotion is brought to the advert as the audience will reaction to this hopefully producing a happy feeling. Therefore, the product has a feel good factor thus we consciously and subconsciously link the good feeling we experience to the product. An example of this is the new Haribo advert; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9scm3NCIH_E this advert uses humor as the grown business men are speaking in funny children’s voices, this is something we wouldn’t typically hear so when we hear it we automatically find it assuming. Harbio’s target audience is generally for young children however this advert will make the younger generation and the older generation laugh as it’s in an everyday business setting and the topic of conversation everyone will be able to relate to and find funny/unusual, therefore it includes everyone. We now associate the product with this advert and await seeing the next advert. Repetition is used a lot within advertisement as the main objective of an advert is to promote a brand to make you buy it therefore the product needs to stay in the target demographics head after the ad is over. The best way of achieving this is if the audience is seeing the same iconography, color or hearing a sound over and over so then it’s associated to the brand. Some adverts decide to create a slogan for their brand for example McDonalds use the slogan ‘I’m loving it’ this is very short and snappy and the voiceover is always the same therefore it builds a connect with the consumer relating McDonalds to happiness. Cadbury’s chocolate is one of the best selling food companies in the world, they don’t have a slogan either do they use a song, images or celebrity endorsement, they use repetition through the color of their packaging, they use the color purple this is unique and memorable as no other brand uses this color, consequently it is automatically related back to Cadbury’s. During this Cadburys ad (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2jmOJ9ag5M) the color purple is constantly subliminally shown throughout like on the actors top, the books in the background and the plant pot. The color and product become familiar could be more likely to buy into it. Producers have to be careful
that they don’t over repeat themselves as sometimes it becomes annoying and puts people off the product like the go compare advert. The man representing this brand has been named according to the telegraph ‘The most annoying person on TV’ therefore the popularity of this company has decreased. Fear is also a very effective technique in advertisement as it builds tension and results in as emotional response. Adverts that use fear normally want to get a message across therefore they use a powerful subject and tone to engage a particular demographic in order and have a strong impact. One way of doing this is through ‘talking head’ this is when the main actor in the advert is talking out to the audience through their point of view. This makes the audience feel like they are personally address and makes them feel on edge, making them feel like they need to listen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQtTREndJKk Some adverts use animation in their advertisements, normally this is used for more serious subjects such as health and things to do with general living (insurance, gas and electric). I believe advertisements do this as they need to get a lot of information across and these topics most people find boring, therefore they need to captivate the audience attention so they pay attention to what’s going on and don’t lose interest. Another reason why animation is affective with getting certain topics across is because it makes it less serious but highlights the main information you need to know, subjects that are uncomfortable and complicated for the general public to understand need to be simplified by the media and appropriate for all ages like this canesten advert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4ed7Or7ssk this advert is a solution to a problem advert as it’s a treatment to an infection in the female body, they can’t use full body nudity so they used an animation to show what the cream does and how to use it. Realist adverts present a realist narrative that draws power from the portrayal of the real life events, so people can relate to certain situations. This bupa advertisement is realist as everything this cancer patient is going through in what really happens, all the symptoms are the same and it’s a shock to the audience and triggers emotion as you are feel and see the pain this man is going through. The actor is a normal working class man with a family and the audience will feel sorry for him. The ending is upbeat as he gets through his illness but in the back of our minds we know this is not the case for everyone, I believe this is done as already from the advert it’s all you are building a relationship with this programme. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxK743gc0PI On the other hand, some adverts use anti-realist narrative will have the freedom to indulge in the inclusion of fantasies for example aliens and vampires with the use of CGI. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=1BCieS2Opco The Mcvities Jaffa Cake advert uses this as an animal appears when the product is opened, this is anti-realist as which could never happen in real life however it captivates our attention as it’s something we don’t see everyday and would want to realistically happen. It makes the brand memorable as it plays on the target audience’s demographics as Mcvities use different animals for different adverts as they are cute and cuddly therefore gives the product a feel good factor. Advertisement can be standalone which means that the advert has a beginning, middle and end and have a totally different concept to the previous adverts like the Persil advert https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=TdLMJ2_OLBk , the story is told in one advert therefore isn’t going to be carried on and is a one off. In the next ad they will create a new story, I believe brands do this so each advert is memorable and you don’t know what the next advert is going to be about. Some brands do the opposite to this and create an advert series, BT use this structure https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qhqpW1qG8U as there adverts follow an episodic narrative, which follows three flat mates in a series called ‘ Flat 6’ during this example they finally get one of there flat mates a date, however we are left in suspense as we don’t know how the date went or he is even went therefore we look out for the following advert to find out more information, by using series adverts you hook the audience and get them thinking as you are opening up their imagination of what could happen next.