My Advertisement
(Screenshot of our product)
Persuasion and Advertisement Techniques
Persuasion and Advertisement Unit Reflection
Why is it important to remember who benefits from the advertisement when you view an advertisement?
Advertisements aim to promote products, services, and ideas that benefit the company or organization behind it. While many strategies are used to convey a statement to the viewer such as bandwagon or name calling, it’s important to recognize their main purpose. Understanding how advertisements persuade people to purchase products reveal hidden messages and what companies actually want from their viewers. Surface level details like facts and visuals cover up their underlying goal to influence consumer behavior and create profit. It doesn’t matter whether or not the product is bought or not because the content, messaging, and emotional appeal of an advertisement creates a connection between the viewers and the advertiser. A positive perception of one’s company can influence their target audience to purchase their merchandise later on whether they notice or not.
Choose one form of persuasion and explain why it is effective in persuading you/an audience: logical, ethical, emotional.
Compared to logical and ethical forms of persuasion, I believe that emotions play a bigger role in convincing people to purchase a product or service from an advertisement. This is because items that are sold using emotional impact manipulate the viewer to make decisions based on emotion instead of logic. Whether it be drawing pity or inspiring anger from an audience, persuasion is exceptionally effortless when emotion is added into the equation. Advertisers will use meaningful language in their adverts along with striking visuals and storytelling to invoke an emotional response that resonates with their target audience. This combination of techniques creates an effective advertisement that emotionally attaches with the audience on a personal level.
Choose an advertising technique and explain why it is effective in selling a product.
Bandwagon is an incredibly effective advertising technique because it falls into the category of emotional persuasion. As humans, most, if not all of our decisions are driven by emotion rather than logic which is why bandwagon is a plausible approach in creating an engaging yet persuasive advertisement. It engrains a herd mentality into viewers, a decision-making behavior where people desire to be normal by fitting in the crowd and copying others. Studies show that it takes as low as 5% of individuals to influence the rest of the 95% to follow the herd subconsciously. Companies use this to their advantage by manipulating their advertisements to create a ‘FOMO’ effect among their targeted audience.
Core Competency Reflection
Examples of where I communicated clearly and purposefully on this project can be seen in…
Since my partner and I shared a natural chemistry with each other (partly because we already knew one another,) the majority of conversations were clear and concise. However, it was during the shooting of our commercial when our communication mattered most. Nonetheless, there weren’t any problems conveying my ideas to my partner because he understood the vision I saw as soon as we shot our first clip. It was just a matter of trial and error when it came to getting the angle, quality, and distance of our product correctly. While there were a few mishaps and miscommunications with each other, we easily resolved our problems and continued working together proficiently.
Some things I thought about when dividing tasks among my group members was…
When it came to creating our commercial, dividing tasks was crucial especially because my partner and I had contrasting strengths that could make or break our project if used wisely. I realized early on that a poster was too simple for us whereas a commercial could properly put our skills to the test which we decided to pursue. We agreed to split the work where one person shot the recordings while the other edited them. This worked for the both of us because whenever we traded tasks, our progress was significantly slower due to lack of skill. PowerPoint wise, similar principles applied where one person agreed to type out the analysis of our ad while the other edited the final design. By playing our cards right, we ended up with a successful commercial that we were both proud of.
I knew my group is working well together when I heard/ saw…
I knew my partner and I were working well together because of our natural chemistry which allowed us to brainstorm a plethora of ideas. We built off of each other’s opinions and discussed ways to properly execute our plan of action. By going above and beyond to create a commercial instead of a poster, we were able to challenge ourselves in a rewarding way that complemented our strengths together. Countless ideas bounced around our many discussions and when I saw how our work was coming together, I took pride in our ability to go above and beyond.