BMW: rear-view camera

 

In this short advertisement, BMW introduces a new device: A rear-view camera. With the help of several persuasive techniques the company makes sure that their device is shown to be unique and therefore memorable for viewers.

First of all, both of the actors in the ad are physically attractive. Physical attractiveness makes viewers want to identify with the people in the ad more (Pratkanis, 2007). In addition, the man and the woman find themselves in a situation everyone has probably experienced before (meeting for a date), which enables the viewer to easily identify with the situation. If a viewer can identify with the communicators in an ad, because communicator and communicatee show similarities, the degree of influence of an ad will be higher (Berscheid, 1966). Finally, the ending of the ad causes the viewer to expect that the guy will probably be getting some more of these kisses or even something better at the end of the night. Sexual innuendos like these model desire, which can then be associated with a desire for the product that is being advertised (Mick & Politi, 1989).

In addition, music accentuates the action in the ad: First, it conveys the happiness and excitement of a date, and then suddenly stops when there is uncertainty to how the woman will react and then picks back up when the tension is resolved. Music has been shown to work persuasively in two ways: Firstly, it stimulates and excites, therefore augmenting pictures and colours that are shown in the ad and making the viewer pay attention (Hecker, 1984). Secondly, it reinforces perception of the advertisement, which the viewer might not even be conscious of (Alexomanolaki, Loveday, & Kennett, 2006).

Finally, this advertisement uses humour as a persuasive technique. Humour has been shown to enhance attention and positive affect (Eisend, 2009). It also leads to a more positive perception of the advertiser credibility and a more positive attitude towards the commercial (Belch & Belch, 1984). In addition, it increases liking of the ad and the brand (Weinberger & Gulas, 1992). 

In conclusion, this advertisement uses humour to enhance liking, and shows the viewer a situation he/she could imagine herself being in. This situation, as the viewer can easily imagine, could have gone horribly wrong but was resolved in a happy ending. With the help of the persuasive techniques that are used, the viewer will remember that BMW has introduced a new device. In addition, the ending might also leave the viewer wondering whether the woman might have reacted differently were it not for the wonderful BMW, which might get the viewer to think about whether he should not buy one himself.


References

Alexomanolaki, M., Loveday, C., & Kennett, C. (2006). Music and memory in advertising: Music as a device of implicit learning and recall. In Baroni, M., Addessi, A. R., Caterina, R., & Costa, M. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Music Perception & Cognition (pp. 1190-1198). Bologna, Italy: ICMPC-ESCOM.

Belch, G. E., & Belch, M. C. (1984). An investigation of the effects of repetition on cognitive and affective reactions to humourous and serious television commericals. Advances in Consumer Research, 11, 4-10.

Berscheid, E. (1966). Opinion change and communicator-communicatee similarity and dissimilarity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4 (6), 670-680.

Eisend, M. (2009). A meta-analysis of humor in advertising. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 37 (2), 191-203.

Hecker, S. (1984). Music for advertising effect. Psychology and Marketing, 1(3-4), 3-8.

Mick, D. G., & Politi, L. G. (1989). Consumers' interpretations of advertising imagery: A visit to the hell of connotation. In E. C. Hirschman (Ed.), Interpretive Consumer Research (pp. 85-96). Provo, UT: Association of Consumer Research.

Weinberger, M. G., & Gulas, C. S. (1992). The impact of humor in advertising: A review. Journal of Advertising, 21 (4), 35-59.

Anna Werner

Moses got the booty.

 

 

No offence intended to any Christians reading this (that includes you, Mother!) but I reckon if Moses had worn a bikini, he'd have gotten his message across a lot quicker than by crashing parties and shouting, 'let my people go' when all the Egyptians were trying to have a good time. However, as you may have noticed, this isn't a picture of Moses - it's an advert for Hawaiian Tropic sunscreen.

The first person to analyse this ad pointed out its use of the extreme consequences creativity template (Goldenberg, Mazursky and Salomon, 1999): it enhances the product's tagline, 'extreme waterproof', by suggesting the product is powerful enough to part the ocean. They also pointed out the use of a 'beautiful natural environment' and an 'attractive model' to make the advert attention-grabbing.

Let's talk about that attractive model, shall we?

Using attractive people makes use of the liking principle (Cialdini, 2001) - we buy from people we like, and we like people who are attractive. This halo effect means that the attractive female model passes on her good assets (yes, that's assets, get your mind out of the gutter) to the product, making it seem of higher quality, as well as making the consumer like the ad more. This feeds into the liking principle again, so we like the ad and are more likely to remember it and to buy the product it features (Baker & Churchill Jr., 1977).

Maybe you went 'huh?' when you first read the title of this post, because the religious subtext may not be so obvious to you. Believe me, it's there, and it's there in many other adverts too (Moore, 2005), although no one's quite worked out what effect it has on the consumer yet. Maybe, like the halo effect, it's just about sharing attributes: it suggests that like the model, the Moses stand-in, you too will have the divine power to repel water, as well as tacitly suggesting that you will have the power, full stop. Maybe it's about anchoring the advert in a culture-relevant, Western religion-themed situation to make it more relevant to its audience. For those in the know, the religious subtext adds humour to this advert. For those who went 'huh?', you'll probably still be sucked in by this ad's other techniques.

To summarise: Hawaiian Tropic sunscreen means you can repel water with the power of a prophet, or at least with the power of a hot girl in a bikini.

References

• Baker, M. J., & Churchill Jr., G. A. (1977). The impact of physically attractive models on advertising evaluations. Journal of Marketing Research, 14, 538–555.
• Cialdini, R. B. (2001). Influence: Science and practice. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
• Goldenberg, J., Mazursky, D., & Solomon, S. (1999). The fundamental templates of quality ads. Marketing Science, 18, 333–351.
• Moore, R. C. (2005). Spirituality that sells: Religious imagery in magazine advertising. Advertising & Society Review, 6.

Isobel Hall

Pay attention whilst driving or feel the wrath of guilt!

Pheww! That was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster!

This powerful advert by THINK! (the Department for Transport) certainly provides a shock for the audience, and more importantly serves to make roads safer for motorcyclists (and drivers in general) by ensuring people are more aware and pay more attention on the roads. The use of the following persuasive techniques sends a clear message to the public.

Firstly, the vivid appeal of the advert evokes emotions in the viewer, causing a susceptibility that can be used to secure compliance to the persuasive message to ‘Take Longer To Look For Bikes’ (Pratkanis, 2007).

Furthermore, the sudden impact of the crash induces a visceral fear response which shocks the audience. It certainly makes you catch your breath a little! A meta-analysis of fear appeals in public health campaigns such as this demonstrated that indeed the stronger the severity and susceptibility in the message, the more attitude, intention, and behaviour changes the target audience are likely to make (Witte & Allen, 2000).

This advert also benefits from the negativity effect, meaning that negative information receives more attention and is given more weight when we are making judgments (Pratkanis, 2007).

Perhaps some viewers will experience a threat to their self. Everyone wants to be seen as a ‘responsible citizen’, but their self-concept may be tarnished if they are considered to be driving not entirely safely. This is supported by Pratkanis’ (2007) suggestion that self-threat induces social dependency and a desire to re-establish positive aspects of the self. In this case, this requires driving carefully and looking out for motorists to avoid accidents.

Similarly, after seeing the aftermath of the accident, viewers might experience feelings of guilt and responsibility regarding their driving, triggering a desire to maintain a positive self-image by complying with the message (Pratkanis, 2007).

In addition, this advert is provided by the Department for Transport, who are a legitimate authoritative body in the UK, making compliance all the more likely (Cialdini & Goldstein, 2004).

Finally, THINK! have used an injunctive social norm by informing people of what they SHOULD be doing, compared what they already do, thereby making them feel obliged to change their behaviour (Pratkanis, 2007).

Ultimately, these techniques engage the audience and hopefully scare them into paying closer attention when driving!

References:

Cialdini, R. B., & Goldstein, N. J. (2004). Social influence: Compliance and conformity. Annu. Rev. Psychol., 55, 591-621.

Pratkanis, A. R. (Ed.). (2007). The science of social influence: Advances and future progress. Psychology Press.

Witte, K., & Allen, M. (2000). A meta-analysis of fear appeals: Implications for effective public health campaigns. Health Education & Behavior, 27(5), 591-615.

Gemma Waters (Blog number 2)

Buy Diesel shoes and people will lick them clean.

This advert for Diesel shows an attractive man sitting in an armchair with an older man lying at his feet, appearing to worship the younger man’s shoes. By combining the techniques of attractiveness, contrast and an extreme situation, this advert is successful in trying to persuade people to buy Diesel shoes.

Using an attractive model helps sell the Diesel brand. Joseph (1992) found that physically attractive people in adverts were more likely than unattractive people to have a positive impact on the products they are being associated with. In this case, the attractive model is creating a positive image of the shoes; giving the impression that Diesel shoes are worn by attractive people, and you too could be attractive if you bought them. Furthermore, using attractive models increases people’s perceptions of the expertise the model has of the product, (Bower & Landreth, 2001). This means we will trust that the attractive man is a credible source, giving an impression of a quality product that we would be silly not to buy. Attractiveness not only suggests that this is a good product, but also that the model is an expert we can trust.

The contrast between the attractiveness of the two men also aids the persuasive message. Tormala & Clarkson (2007) found that after being exposed to a high credibility source, people rated a persuasive advert with a moderate credibility source as less persuasive than people who were initially exposed to a low credibility source. The perceptual contrast effect is used here: pairing an attractive man with an unattractive man means each makes the other look more extreme. With regard to the credibility argument, this means the attractive man will appear to be even more of an expert source of knowledge, and create an even better image of the product.

The extreme situation template is used here to create an unrealistic image of how much other people will love your new Diesel shoes. For example, having a man on the floor, rubbing his face on someone else’s shoes is an exaggeration, but it gives the impression that these are THE shoes to have, and that they will gain you respect from other people, (Goldenberg, Mazursky & Solomon, 1999).

The main technique used here is attractiveness, but by also using contrast and an extreme situation, Diesel are exaggerating the persuasive message even further, which is what makes this advert so effective.

References

Bower, A., & Landreth, S. (2001). Is beauty best? Highly versus normally attractive models in advertising. Journal of Advertising, 30, 1-12.

Goldenberg, J., Mazursky, D., & Solomon, S. (1999). The fundamental templates of quality ads. Marketing Science, 18 (3), 333-351.

Joseph, W. B. (1982). The credibility of physically attractive communicators: A review. Journal of Advertising, 11, 15-24.

Tormala, Z., & Clarkson, J. (2007). Assimilation and contrast in persuasion: The effects of source credibility in multiple message situations. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 559-571.

Katherine Stevens

Burger King vs. MacDonald's

A student from last year’s cohort simply stated that this advert (run by Burger King in 2006) was using the competition template. This is one of the six templates identified by Goldenberg, Mazursky and Solomon (1999) that the majority of the adverts they analysed conformed to.  I do not disagree with the interpretation that this advert seeks to suggest that eating experience at Burger King is superior to that of MacDonald’s and hence belittle it’s competitor but I also think a number of other techniques are being employed which are worth exploring.

In order to link the advert to MacDonald’s Burger King has chosen to use the term ‘clown’. This is clever because not only does it quickly associate the observer with MacDonald’s but it also can be interpreted as a derogative term. The word clown has connotations of a fool. Hence this could be an example of another one of Goldenburg et al.’s (1999) templates- the consequences technique. The consequence being: if you eat MacDonald’s you are a fool. This negative consequence is further emphasised by the contrast between the clown and king (yes, you’ve guessed it, another one of Goldenburg’s et al.’s (1999) templates!).

The use of all three templates tap in to a basic human desire- to have a positive self-image. We want to eat somewhere we feel like a king rather than clown. The desire to avoid an insult or jeer was explored by Janes and Olson (2000) who found that participants exposed to video recordings of someone being ridiculed by a comedian were more likely to subsequently conform to the instructions of the experimenter than those that watched a film clip containing non-target comedy. So by created an atmosphere or connotation of ridicule we can increase conformity because people seek to avoid the negative feelings associated with insults.

The messages described above are the focus of the advert rather the taste and value of the food itself- although we are given an example of the product and price. The radiating beams of angelic light really hammering home the point how the superiority of their brand. Although, if we are honest, the burgers never actually look that good!

By Alex Bamsey

References

Goldenberg, J., Mazursky, D., & Solomon, S. (1999). The fundamental templates of quality ads. Marketing Science, 18(3), 333-351.

Janes, L. M., & Olson, J. M. (2000). Jeer pressure: The behavioral effects of observing ridicule of others. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26(4), 474-485.