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Mostly what we are exposed to in advertising is propaganda, and to define it better, the authors of the book, “Propaganda and Persuasion” state orphaned as the following, “Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist. ” Its clever techniques are displayed everyday on television without notice.
Companies use a variety of techniques to get your business, and if you have ever acted in response to a supposedly great product, you have been persuaded by the suggestive power of propaganda. Not only are adults being persuaded but so are children and teenagers. It manipulates our opinions and convinces us to act or purchase something we otherwise would not have. Some of the popular methods used in everyday situations and advertising are: testimonials, glittering generalities and name-calling techniques. “After using Proactive solution for two weeks, my face got noticeably clearer. Sound familiar? It is a great example of a classic testimonial. Businesses love to show everyday people giving an allegedly honest account of how great their product is. Proactive acne solution is one of the many facial care products on the market today. How can a company stand out? Many use testimonials! Slogans like, “The Answer for acne,” and “Skin you want, now! ” make it almost a definite choice to solve all one facial woes. People tend to always take word of mouth advice rather than from the salesman.
Testimonials take their approach from this concept. Someone just like you and with clearer skin resulting from the use of their product makes it more appealing. Because people have gotten wise to the fact that most testimonials are done by paid actors, ads sometimes include the phrases, “not paid actors,” and “real people. Must admit, we have been swayed by these types of advertisements, but the testimonial method is not the only technique used by the Proactive Company. In fact, many commercials use a variety of methods to entice the potential buyer.
Making the ordinary seem extraordinary is what we call a glittering generality. Glittering generalities are general and sometimes unclear terms that are difficult to narrowly define and can have diverse meanings for different people. Advertisers and propagandists love to use moral terms and phrases like: American, patriotism, super, democracy, and freedom. When mostly political advertisements talk to us about democracy, we immediately think of our own definite ideas about democracy, the ideas we learned at home, at school, and possibly in church.
Our first and natural reaction is to assume that the ad or speaker is using the word in our sense, and that the speaker believes as we do on this important topic. This lowers our resistance to the sales pitch or persuasion and makes us far less suspicious than we ought to be. For instance, let’s examine a quote from President George W. Bush, “See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don’t attack each other. Free nations don’t develop weapons of mass destruction. Here the President loosely uses the term “free” in an attempt to persuade and convince us of the supposed characteristics of a free nation. Keeping this in mind, understand that the word “free” as many people identify it to be can stand for something obtainable without payment, something or someone released, and something unhindered or basically free. Taking another moment to read the aforementioned quote, think about what the word ‘free” means to you? Is it in agreement, of what you consider to be free?
Most people will not agree and some people will. This is a glittering generality. Advertisers use doubt to sell their products and hope we agree with their view. General statements aside, another tactic entitled name-calling is the opposite. The cable/internet company Compact is a great example. In one commercial, Compact uses many approaches in selling their purportedly lightning fast internet service. Recently, Compact used husband and wife turtles as a decoy to insult competitors and to prove how great their service s.
Using the “name-calling” approach, the two turtles that are referred to as the Slowly, mock the slow speeds of their hinted competitors Verizon and EarthLink who both sell DSL internet. Mr.. Slowly is trying his hardest to push a notebook computer while Ms. Slowly yells, “push it to the left” in order to improve the speed of his internet connection. Frustrated, Mr.. Slowly yells, “You push it, you push it real good. ” While comical, this ad wrap up with the feeling that Compact’s product is superior and competitors are inferior.