Super Fruit Advert

        

The persuasive techniques used in the Lemon advert are repetition of "lemon" in conjunction with repetition of the word "super", and a non-qualified slogan. The effect of slogans has been studied by Mulken et al., (2005), and found that slogans like “When life gives you lemons, be super” (those including puns) are more salient in subjects’ minds, and therefore prove to be significantly more influential. The brand character (the superhero lemon) should be effective in influencing people to try lemons. A study by Kraak and Story in 2014 suggests that advertisements containing familiar characters make increase the likelihood that adults and children, in particular, will be more willing to try new, healthier foods.

The most heavily employed advertising technique in the kiwi advert is based on Emotion. Making an emotional plea to people about the kiwi, and giving the kiwi a sad face, should make viewers of the advertisement feel sad too. This effect is called emotion contagion (Small and Verrochi, 2009), which also predicts that people are more likely to act in the way the advertisement suggests (e.g. get more kiwis) when the character is sad rather than happy. The information provided in the advertisement, while being factual, doesn’t require intense cognitive processing, which according to the Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty and Caccioppo, 1986) will not lead to permanent attitude change, but will influence short-term attitudes, e.g. seeing the advert in the entrance of a supermarket might make people more likely to pick up some kiwis in the fruit and veg section (the section nearest the entrance in most supermarkets). Repetition is also used in the advert: “Get a Kiwi” is featured four times, with each one being slightly larger in font size than the written content surrounding it. Caccioppo and Petty (1979) suggest that repetition allows for viewers more opportunity to cognitively process the message, as well as increasing their exposure to it, resulting in attitude or behaviour change. This low level of repetition has also been suggested to increase the likelihood of persuasion in subjects (Campbell and Keller, 2003). “Get a Kiwi” is also written in bold, to make the main message of the advertisement stand out to viewers almost immediately after they start reading the article.

The transformation advert uses transference as its main persuasive technique. Showing “Dave’s” transformation with the caption “Be like Dave. Be Super.” allows viewers of the advertisement to start believing that they, like Dave could transform themselves. The transference technique plays on people’s desires to make themselves better, fitter, more attractive or to reinvent themselves completely. Transference is likely to be an effect persuasive technique as the advertisement displays a positive impact of changing one’s attitudes and behaviours toward super fruits (Wang and Calder, 2009). The advertisement also used the repetition technique of persuasion. The word “super” is repeated at three times in association with “Dave”, maintaining the low and effective level of persuasion identified by Campbell and Keller (2003).

References:

Cacioppo, J. T., & Petty, R. E. (1979). Effects of message repetition and position on cognitive response, recall, and persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 97-109.

Campbell, M. C., Keller, K. L. (2003). Brand Familiarity and Advertising Repetition Effects. Journal of Consumer Research, 30, (2), 292 – 304.

Cox, D. S., Cox, D. A. (1988).  What Does Familiarity Breed? Complexity as a Moderator of Repetition Effects in Advertisement Evaluation. Journal of Consumer Research, 15 (1), 111 – 116.

Kraak, V. I., Story, M. (2014). Influence of food companies' brand mascots and entertainment companies' cartoon media characters on children's diet and health: a systematic review and research needs. Obesity Reviews, 16 (2), 107 – 126.

Mulken, M. v., Dijk, R. v. E. v., Hoeken, H. (2005). Puns, relevance and appreciation in advertisements. Journal of Pragmatics, 37 (5), 707 – 721.

Petty, R. E., Caccioppo, J. T. (1986). The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 19, 123 – 205.

Small, D. A., Verrochi, N. M., (2009). The Face of Need: Facial Emotion Expression on Charity Advertisements. Journal of Marketing Research, 46, (6), 777 – 787.

Wang, J., Calder, B. J., (2009). Media engagement and advertising: Transportation, matching, transference and intrusion. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 19, (3), 546 – 555.

Drink Some Coffee, Nice Hot Cup of Coffee

Coffee or tea? Coffee is becoming one of the most popular drink in the world, with a consumption of 2 billion cups per day (“Coffee Facts”, n.d.). Some suggested that it was effective in improving people’s cognitive function and physical fitness. A regular consumption of coffee could also lower the risks of some diseases. In this advert, a number of techniques were used to encourage coffee-drinking behaviour: Social consensus, high status-admirer altercast, association, similarity altercast, repetition of a message, and credible source.

First, the technique of social consensus was adopted. When the more it appears that people are doing something, the more likely others will follow. Milgram, Bickman and Berkowitz’s (1969) study showed that people observed others’ response and readily conformed to their behaviour. The advert quoted that a majority of people in the UK (74%) drink coffee (“Coffee Facts”, n.d.), knowing others’ choices will form a social agreement on coffee-drinking behaviour.

Another persuasion technique that used in this advert was high status-admirer altercast. The celebrities, famous people, and movie stars influence others as people admire and would like to win their approval by following what they do. Lefkowitz et al. (1955) found that the likelihood of people jaywalking increased when they observed people dressed in a suit than that of dressed in a denim doing so. Dressing in a suit indicated high status, and thus was more influential to people’s behaviour. In this advert, ‘Sherlock does’ was used to persuade coffee-drinking behaviour. Sherlock Holmes was a well-known British fictional character. He was a consulting detective, who was also good at logical reasoning and forensic science. An internet meme, fan-made strip of conservation from a radio situation comedy was produced from a scene in the second episode "The hounds of Baskerville" of Sherlock (Season 2, TV series co-produced by BBC and WGBH) as shown below (“Nice hot cup of coffee”, n.d.). Originally Sherlock was just talking about coffee, but the meme boosted the popularity of the scene and created the idea that Sherlock drinks coffee. Therefore, ‘Sherlock does’ in the advert persuaded people to drink coffee.

"Nice Hot Cup of Coffee" meme

The technique of association is persuasive by linking an idea to a positive or negative concept. It can transfer a meaning from the subsequent concept to the original idea (Staats & Staats, 1958). Developing from the phrase ‘Sherlock does’, Sherlock gives the impression of being intelligent, knowledgeable and logical. There was a possibility of associating coffee-drinking behaviour and these positive characteristics that Sherlock possess. As a result, the idea of ‘smart’ was transferred to the consequences of drinking coffee.

Similarity increases with persuasion and influence. The idea of Similarity Altercast was illustrated in Berscheid’s (1966) study. The advert was an example using similarity altercast as ‘Brits do drink coffee’ highlighted that people in the UK, from a similar culture behave similarly, as majority of them drink coffee. Recognising people with a similar background could increase the compliance of coffee-drinking behaviour.

The advert made use of repetition of a message. Zajonc (1968) found that mere exposure increased favourability, believability and acceptance of something. The phrases ‘Drink coffee’, ‘Drink some coffee’, and ‘nice hot cup of coffee’ in the advert were repetitive. As such effect of persuasion disappears when individuals attend to the message carefully, the wordings used were slightly varied (for example, by adding ‘some’ between ‘drink coffee’) so as to maintain the effect of repeating a message (Schumann, Petty & Clemons, 1990).

Researchers found that using a credible source was more effective in persuading (Hovland & Weiss, 1951). In this advert, a peer-reviewed medical journal was used to provide statistical information of how coffee consumption reduced risks of diseases. The phrase ‘researchers said so’ with arrows pointing towards the source and statistical figures raised readers’ awareness to their trustworthiness. It increased the reliability of the message that the advert tried to convey.

References

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

Cano-Marquina, A., Tarín, J. J., & Cano, A. (2013). The impact of coffee on health. Maturitas, 75(1), 7-21.

Coffee Facts. (n.d.). Retrieved from: http://www.britishcoffeeassociation.org/about_coffee/coffee_facts/

Hovland, C. I., & Weiss, W. (1951). The influence of source credibility on communication effectiveness. Public opinion quarterly, 15(4), 635-650.

Lefkowitz, M., Blake, R. R., & Mouton, J. S. (1955). Status factors in pedestrian violation of traffic signals. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 51(3), 704.

Milgram, S., Bickman, L., & Berkowitz, L. (1969). Note on the drawing power of crowds of different size. Journal of personality and social psychology, 13(2), 79.

Nice hot cup of coffee. (n.d.). Retrieved from: http://9gag.com/gag/3382370/nice-hot-cup-of-coffee

Schumann, D. W., Petty, R. E., & Clemons, D. S. (1990). Predicting the effectiveness of different strategies of advertising variation: A test of the repetition-variation hypotheses. Journal of Consumer Research, 192-202.

Staats, A. W., & Staats, C. K. (1958). Attitudes established by classical conditioning. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 57(1), 37.

Zajonc, R. B. (1968). Attitudinal effects of mere exposure. Journal of personality and social psychology, 9(2p2), 1.

Say NO to processed sugar!

 

The main aim of this advertisement is to persuade people to significantly reduce or cut down their intake on processed sugar, due to the adverse consequences of a diet high in processed sugar. A number of persuasive techniques are used here. 

Firstly, the use of an image of a person wearing a lab coat gesturing with their finger, and associated with the speech bubble ‘Say NO to processed sugar!’, infers an authority figure. The use of perceived authority figures can lead to higher level of  agreement; this effect was famously demonstrated by Milgram (1963), where it was found that participants complied with orders to give another person electric shocks because the person giving the orders was wearing a white lab coat, therefore perceived to have authority.  This advertisement in the same way aims to achieve compliance to a perceived authority figure, to reducing processed sugar. 

The information about health concerns listed on the advertisement can be considered negative information. Negative information tends to receive more attention than does positive information when judgments are being made. Cacioppo, Gardner, and Berntson (1997) suggested the bias towards negative information arises because the negative evaluation system responds with a larger output, therefore will play a larger role in decisions and judgments. The idea behind this information is that people will pay attention to the negative information and consider it in their decision to reduce their consumption of processed sugar. 

 

The listed information provided regarding the health risks associated with a highly processed sugar diet is below a title reading: ‘according to experts’. This is an example of inferring a credible source for the information. This form of message promotion has been found effective by Dean, Austin, and Watts (1971), who reported that their highly credible source induced greater persuasion when message recipients were adamantly opposed to the communicator's position. The current target audience for this advertisement is people who consume a lot of processed sugar, therefore oppose the view that processed sugar is a bad thing.  The perception of a credible source in this advertisement has purpose in challenging these opposing attitudes towards processed sugar. 

 

Rhetorical questions are a powerful tool of persuasion; such a technique is not used in weak arguments, as the overt response to this would sometimes end in disagreement (Cacioppo & Petty, 1981). In this advertisement, the rhetorical question ‘Sound scary?’ is used in association with the list of negative health impacts of processed sugar. This is a strong argument, as the overt answer to this question would in the majority of cases be ‘yes’, and disagreement to the question would be low. 

Lastly the persuasive technique of message repetition is used with the repeated text: ‘say NO to processed sugar!’ at both the top and bottom of the page. Such repetition of the same message leads to more exposure of it, and offers more opportunities to think about the message (Cacioppo & Petty, 1979). The idea behind this advertisement is to repeat exposure to the idea of cutting processed sugar out, so that the audience considers the message more.

References:

Cacioppo, J. T., Gardner, W. L., & Berntson, G. G. (1997). Beyond bipolar conceptualizations and measures: The case of attitudes and evaluative space. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 1, 3–25.

 

Cacioppo, J. T., & Petty, R. E. (1979). Effects of message repetition and position on cognitive response, recall, and persausion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 97-109.

 

Cacioppo, J. T., & Petty, R. E. (1981). Effects of rhetorical questions on persuasion: A cognitive response analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 432-440.

Dean, R., Austin, J., & Watts, W. (1971). Forewarning effects in persuasion: Field and classroom experiments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 18, 210-221.

Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. The Journal of abnormal and social psychology, 67, 371.