We’ve all been on nights out where one of our friends is
attempting to act sober. In fact, they have had far too many vodkas and can
barely walk. Soon enough, they have tripped over their heels and have fallen to
the floor. You check they’re ok and then proceed to take a video of them to put
up on Facebook tomorrow. There’s a problem: your camera’s battery is dead. This
advert is very persuasive in convincing us that the Sony Stamina Camcorder is the
ultimate solution.
As has previously been identified,
this advert uses an inverted consequences template (Goldberg, Mazursky &
Soloman, 1999). In the advert, the man’s camcorder runs out of battery.
Following this, a series of extreme events occur e.g. a car crashes into the
building. The viewer is reminded that they would have been able to record that
had the camera been functional. Thus, there were consequences. Goldberg et al. (1999)
also describe the extreme situations template where unrealistic situations are
used to accentuate the key features of a product or service. Specifically, extreme worth is portrayed. A
functioning camcorder would be extremely useful in this particular scenario, in
order to capture the string of disastrous events. In reality however, it’s not
critical for us to embarrass our drunken friend (as described above). There’ll
be plenty of opportunities! The camera’s worth is significantly less than is
suggested in the advert.
When the man’s camcorder stop’s
working, the camera swerves to the woman in the scene. She is seen to roll her
eyes at the man’s incompetence to work his camera. This is very effective for
many reasons. Embarrassment results in a poor social evaluation and we have a
desire to avoid it wherever possible (Prakanis, 2007). It therefore leads to
compliance. For example, Apsler (1975) found that students were more likely to
help others when they were made to sing a song in front of another person, even
when the two events were unrelated. Similarly, Cann and Blackwelder (1984)
found that students were more likely to help when outside the toilets, compared
to when they were walking in the hallway (80% vs 45%). To avoid embarrassment in the advert’s
situation, all you have to do is by the Sony Stamina camcorder. It’s simple
really.
The embarrassment is increased
because the man in the advert is seen to make a fool of him in front of an
attractive woman. Let’s face it: attractiveness sells. Debevec, Madden and
Kernan (1986) found that participants were more likely to agree with a message
presented by an attractive narrator – whether they were male or female. In this advert, the embarrassment alone is bad
enough, but throwing an extreme situation and an attractive woman into the mix surely
makes for a particularly persuasive advertising campaign.
Apsler, R. (1975). Effects of embarrassment on behavior toward others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
32(1),145-153
Cann, A., & Blackwelder, J. G. (1984). Compliance and
mood: A field investigation of the impact of embarrassment. Journal of
Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 117(2), 221-226.
Debevec, K., Madden, T. J., & Kernan, J. B. (1986).
Physical attractiveness, message evaluation, and compliance: A structural
examination. Psychological Reports, 58(2), 503-508
Goldenberg,
J., Mazursky, D., & Solomon, S. (1999). The fundamental templates of
quality ads. Marketing Science, 18(3),
333-351.
Pratkanis, A. R. (Ed.). (2007). Social influence
analysis: An index of tactics. The Science of Social Influence: Advances and
future progress. New York: Psychology Press
Good Phillipa, maybe a small conclusion would have helped to round off the piece.
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