Design by Meredith Barker
Advertisements are all around us. From the moment we wake up, we are on our phones, encountering ads on social media platforms, emails, text messages, and notifications. Being exposed to advertisements does not stop when we put our phones down. We see ads on billboards, on the side of buses, hear them through the radio and television, and see them at our favorite restaurants and stores. We cannot escape the thousands of advertisements we are inundated with daily. However, we need to recognize the strategies advertisements use to persuade our thinking. Lawrence (2022) defines visual rhetoric as "the art of using visuals-- whether they are photographs, digital videos, holographic, projections, or other graphical media-- to persuade" (p. 105). Using visual rhetoric, advertisements are created to persuade their audience to buy a product or take a specific action. Let's learn more about these persuasion techniques so advertisements do not unknowingly influence us as we encounter them throughout the day.
As researchers Kumar et al. (2023) state, "modeling what makes an advertisement persuasive, i.e., eliciting the desired response from the consumer, is critical to the study of propaganda, social psychology, and marketing" (para. 1). When looking at advertisements the visual design has been intentionally catered to attract viewers and keep them engaged the entire duration of the ad. Lawrence, 2022, states, "producers use visual design to attempt to persuade consumers that they need or want their product" (pg.105). Lawrence says commercials focus more on persuasion than educating or informing their audience (p. 106). After extensive research on advertisements and their persuasion strategies, Kumar et al. (2023) made the following conclusions:
- "Feminine and fashionable emotion strategies are most often associated with beauty products and cosmetics" (para. 3.5).
- "Fast-food and restaurant industries often use eagerness [emotions] as their messaging strategy" (para. 3.5).
- "Vehicle ads use emotion: amazed and concreteness" (para. 3.5).
The data shows one of the more common strategies advertisements use is appealing to the emotions of their audience in order to persuade them.
Not only do the visual strategies of the advertisements matter but how they are presented is equally important to the producer; therefore, it should be information consumers know. According to Dopson (2021) as cited by Lawrence (2022), "video ads created as many as 20-30 percent more conversations compared to image-only advertisements" (p.113). This statistic leads to advertisement producers making more video ads to capture the attention of their audience, at times without the audience even recognizing the engagement technique. Knowing this information as a consumer will help you be on guard when video ads are presented. In video ads, the producer most likely knows that short 30-60-second videos get the most online engagement as opposed to longer videos (Dopson, 2021, as cited by Lawrence, 2022, p. 114).
Now that we know, the most popular and successful advertisements are short videos that appeal to the audience's emotions. Below, you will see other ways advertisers pull us in and persuade us. As you encounter thousands of ads, keep these techniques in mind.
Recognizing Persuasion by Meredith Barker
References
Kumar, Y., Jha, R., Gupta, A., Aggarwal, M., Garg, A., Malyan, T., Bhardwaj, A., Ratn Shah, R., Krishnamurthy, B., & Chen, C. (2023). Persuasion Strategies in Advertisements. Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 37(1), 57-66. https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v37i1.25076
Lawrence, D. (2022). Digital writing: A guide to writing for social media and the web. Broadview Press.
Meredith,
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to how critical persuasion is in advertising, Tengiz and Ozdemir (2023) agreed that “for persuasion, the advertising sector needs to have a good perception of the importance of advertising. Advertising provides product and brand information, adds value to the product and service, activates the target audience to direct sales, and supports businesses…” (p. 13). I agree with you that we need to recognize the strategies advertisements use to persuade our thinking. Those strategies are part of the main reason so much negative comparison takes place as well as the reason we may end up buying way more things than we need. That is where I think we should also learn to recognize whether what an advertisement is claiming actually seems ethical or not. When discussing this topic, Lawrence (2022) made it clear that “we do not live in some utopia where advertising is perfectly ethical, such that informed consumers make objective, rational decisions about products and are not influenced by design and marketing tactics” (p. 106). Truth be told, while I think persuasive advertisement has a positive side to it, there are many negatives as well. I liked your last sentence that by keeping the techniques that advertisers use in mind, we can potentially be more careful.
References
Lawrence, D. (2022). Digital writing: A guide to writing for social media and the web. Ontario, Canada: Broadview Press.
Tengiz, B. A., & Ozdemir, M. (2023). Beautiful utility: Analysis of the effects of viral advertising studies on sociological and mass education in social media and internet environments: An example of Ice Bucket Challenge advertising. TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 22(4). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1409828.pdf
It is interesting to consider the term visual rhetoric. Before reading chapter 4 in Lawrence's book, I had not considered that visuals are a part of rhetoric. However, it makes perfect sense. What we see greatly influences our feelings and ideas. "A writer in the 2020s is also creating graphics, putting text on top of images, putting text into video, writing a script that becomes a video, writing content for a website that also features illustrations, and so on" (Lawrence, 2022). Teachers and students alike are subject to influence by what we see online. This blog post made me think about influencers on social media and how they use visual rhetoric. Teacher influencers have risen to prominence in the education world over the past few years. "Moreover, Carpenter et al. (2019)
ReplyDeletesurveyed over 800 teachers via social media, finding that 91% used Instagram professionally, most often to gain new ideas and to learn from educators on the site" (Shelton, Schroeder, & Curcio, 2020, p. 531). I think that learning from others on social media or on the internet can be incredibly beneficial. However, it would be smart for us all to remember that these influencers and advertisers are intentionally trying to influence our thinking. We should look at all forms of digital media critically.
References
Lawrence, Dan. (2022). Digital writing: A guide to writing for social media and the web. Broadview
Press.
Shelton, C., Schroeder, S., & Curcio, R. (2020). Instagramming their hearts out: What do edu-
influencers share on Instagram? Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education,
20(3), 529-554.
What a great topic you've discussed! I appreciate the practical takeaway you've provided by listing common advertising techniques.
ReplyDeleteYour mention of video advertisements' effectiveness reminds me of another point made by Lawrence (2022): "The idea here is that users stop their scrolling when they see movement. Then, the user is engaged for a period of time, during which they are more likely to click through on the advertisement. There is also the case that videos provide more data and information to the user, so the user can make a quicker or more informed decision about their level of interest in a particular product or service or whatever is featured in the video" (p. 114). This multi-sensory approach explains why video ads are so engaging and potentially more persuasive than static images.
Overall, your post provided an informative overview on ad literacy. In an age where we're constantly bombarded with persuasive content, understanding these techniques is crucial for maintaining critical consumption habits. Thank you for sharing this insightful analysis!
Reference:
Lawrence, D. (2022). Digital writing: A guide to writing for social media and the web. Broadview Press.