P&G advert 2012

This is an advert for P&G products, and uses the norm of reciprocity as a persuasion technique. It shows all the work that mums do, and how products from P&G have helped them to help their children become Olympic athletes. It uses the tagline P&G: Proud sponsors of mums, showing that by buying their products we are also helping mothers, and as parents do so much for their children we should repay them for that. Regan (1971) found that participants were likely to buy more raffle tickets when they had previously been bought a drink by a confederate compared to when no drink was purchased.

The advert also uses the similarity altercast, as these are just ordinary women doing their job of being a mother, so people watching the advert will be able to relate to this. Brock (1965) found paint salesmen to be more influential when they had performed a job similar to the one the target faced, compared to when the salesmen was highly experienced but had had an unrelated previous job.

Brock, T. C. (1965). Communicator-recipient similarity and decision change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1, 650-654.

Regan, D. T. (1971). Effects of favor on liking and compliance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 7, 627-639.