Good Call

The above advert features the comedy styling of ‘Good Call’ Foster’s guys Brad and Dan. Set at a swanky doo, the average duo find themselves giving advice to the glamorous Holly Valance about dress codes whilst using the opportunity to promote their new drink; Foster’s Gold.

This 40 second clip is full of advertising tactics used to persuade us to buy their particular brew. Primarily, the association made with the product to a good-looking celebrity and their lavish lifestyle heavily influences how people perceive said product (Pratkanis, 2007). As Kahle & Homer (1985) demonstrated, endorsements that were made by attractive celebrities led to more people liking a particular product (in their case a razor was used) than endorsements made by unattractive celebrities. This may sound particularly shallow of us…and it is! We don’t even have to like the celebrities in question; the same study showed that those who disliked the celebrity were more likely to purchase the product than those who liked them.

Interestingly, by moving on to Brad and Dan, note that there is nothing to distinguish them from two average guys (as made evident by their relaxed approach to dressing appropriately). It has been shown through the likes of Festinger (1954) that people tend to base their opinions relative to people who are similar to them. If we consider the target audience of the drink, by having two similar guys drinking the product, it is more likely to result in us purchasing that particular product. Similar tactics can (and are) used by politicians in their appeals to get the common-folk to like them; which demonstrates exactly how powerful a tactic the idea of similarity can be (Pratkanis, 2007).

By combining attractive celebrities with average Joes (and with an added hint of humour), we can see that Fosters have concocted an ideal recipe for a persuasive advert, without even mentioning what the product tastes like at all!

Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7, 117-140.

Kahle, L. R., & Homer P. M. (1985). Physical attractiveness of the celebrity endorser: A social adaptation perspective. The Journal of Consumer Research, 11, (4), 954-961.

Pratkanis, A. R. (2007). Social influence analysis: An index of tactics. The science of social influence: Advances and future progress, 17-82.

Jamie Hart