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Why do commercials use propaganda techniques? Is it to influence our emotions or is it because they lack actual factual support for their claims? The answer is both. Propaganda techniques are used by advertisers, salespeople, and politicians because they lack adequate factual support for their points, so they appeal to our emotions by using propaganda techniques. In the particular commercial for the Samsung Galaxy smart phones, Name Calling, Plain Folks, and Bandwagon propaganda techniques are used. It is no secret that smart phone creators have to appeal to average consumers and get them to Jump on board to buy their product.
So in a not so surprising way to gather new customers, Samsung releases a commercial the same day another major competitor (Apple) releases their sixth version of their top selling smart phone. The commercial is a mock up of Apple customers waiting in line for the “next big thing”. Throughout the commercial average consumers are sitting outside an unnamed store in a long line waiting to purchase an unnamed phone. It begins with the typical Apple consumers boasting about the new groundbreaking features that the new smart phone will have.
Some of these features were mocked as if they were more innovative than they actually were such as a woman with an exhilarating and surprised tone saying “the headphone Jack will be on the bottom! ” Other features were mocked in a negative tone such as the annoyance of having to buy a new adapter to connect your new phone to your already purchased dock with one customer saying that it is okay because Apple makes the “coolest adapters”. Halfway through the commercial, a consumer is then shown using a Galaxy phone which leads to the person next to him in line welcoming him back and asking him if the Galaxy phone worked out or not.
Much to his dismay, the consumer replies that he is just saving a spot (which later turns out to be for his elderly parent’s) and that he enjoys his Galaxy phone. Another line from the people waiting in line is that they are “finally getting everything they didn’t get last year” which quickly Jumps to a scene of two Galaxy smart phone users touching their phones to share a playbill. This leads to the consumers in line being curious and shocked with one consumer in a surprised voice saying “by touching your phones?! The final scene is cut to a man seeing his friend and telling him that he saved him a spot. In reply, the Galaxy user tells him hat he didn’t need the spot because he already has a Galaxy smart phone which has 46, a bigger screen, instant sharing of videos, and the ability to views emails and videos at once. The last line from the commercial is a man saying “We’re going to get that for sure, maybe not this time but the next time for sure” and finally closes with the line: “The Next Big Thing is Already Here”.
In the commercial for the Galaxy smart phone, the Plain Folks technique is used because the advertisement is not using anyone that is remotely famous but instead it uses ordinary people to suggest that the product appeals to regular people. The commercial also uses the bandwagon technique when various consumers are shown using their Galaxy phones and implying that the people in line are not up to date or in the know with the smart phone Tanat NAS as many Treasures as teen Galaxy.
I nee various scenes tonguing different cities in the U. S. Of users with a Galaxy phone also suggest that everyone else is doing it or should have a galaxy smart phone. Lastly, the Name Calling technique is used when the commercial depicted average consumers boasting about new and innovative features that weren’t so new or innovative and also were already found on the Galaxy smart phone. These “new and innovative” features discussed were small digs at Apple.
There’s a growing majority of consumers who feel as though Apple has hit a plateau in creating innovative smart phone features, so these small digs can be used as name calling or the use of emotionally loaded language or negative comment to turn people against a rival product. The primary one is the advertisement is name calling because although plain folks and bandwagon techniques were used, the main purpose of the commercial was to criticize a major competitor and their customers in a mocking way and also to boast about features found in the Galaxy.