Google Chrome Advert 2012

This is an advert for Google Chrome from 2012.  Its purpose was to remind people about how the internet can be used in many ways, how interconnected it is and how fast information can travel worldwide. 

This advert used the tactic of similarity to the audience using “just plain folk” altercast.  The advert suggests that a high flying, world famous business woman can be a “plain folk” mum. This means that mums who watch the advert will be able to relate to her as she is an ordinary person who had this simple idea which has now, thanks to the internet and Google Chrome, her product gone worldwide.   It encourages other average people to promote their innovative ideas using Google Chrome. 

Brock in 1965 found that source-recipient similarity can increase influence and persuasion.  He found that a in a large retail store, in the paint department, a paint salesman was more influential when he had performed a similar job to the target (buyer) than when the salesman’s previous job was unrelated yet he was highly experienced.  He also found that the if the worker in the dept store had a similar preference of magnitude of paint to the customer, the customer was more likely to buy that paint than if the worker had a different or no preference. 

Brock, T. C. (1965). Communicator-recipient similarity and decision change.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 654-660.