Advertisers Sell Images Not Products Essay

What captures the attention of people when they view an advertisement, commercial or poster? Is it the colors, a captivating phrase or the people pictured? While these are some of the elements often employed in advertising, we can look deeper and analyze the types of appeals that are utilized to draw attention to certain advertisements. The persuasive methods used can be classified into three modes. These modes are pathos, logos, and ethos. Pathos makes an appeal to emotions, logos appeals to logic or reason and ethos makes an appeal of character or credibility. Each appeal can give support to the message that is being promoted.

Advertising in a mass consumer society such as America is a very competitive industry. Advertising companies continually come up with new and more creative techniques of increasing sale. Advertising companies decide which group of people would be more attracted to a specific product and link that product to the feelings of excitement and anxiety of the targeted customers. The ads are carefully crafted bundles of images, frequently designed to associate the product with feelings of pleasure stemming from deep-seated fantasies and anxieties (Craig 197). For example, usually advertisements of beer and cars demonstrate masculine men, loners and free of

In his 1982 article, “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals,” Jib Fowles informs readers of various psychological human needs, defined as appeals. These appeals are used in advertising, to persuade consumers to purchase a product. Due to the prevalence of advertisements in today’s society, consumers have learned to block out advertisements. By using any of the fifteen appeals such as the need for sex, or the need for affiliation, companies can get into consumers’ minds, with hopes of selling their products. In other words, by appealing to consumers desires, the chance of marketing success

In today’s society, no matter where you are, there is always a good chance that you have seen an advertisement. These little creatures are everywhere. You may see them when you are reading a magazine, watching TV, or surfing the internet. We have become so used to them. Advertisements are good at making us stop what we are doing and giving them our full attention. What is an advertisement? An advertisement is an announcement made to the public. In Jib Fowles’ article, “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals,” he is informing us that companies are spending millions of dollars on advertisements to grab our attention in order to manipulate us into spending or thinking of spending our hard-earned money on their product. Even though a lot of people do not want to believe that a paper that is eight times eleven with an image and no more than five words is manipulative because we want to think that we are not that easy to trick. Nike created an advertisement for one of

Advertising appeals to emotions, rather than reason. Most ads try to attract your interest or stimulate your desire by either scaring you into doing something or appeal to your emotions by tying a product to your “happiness or well-being”. Successful ads also use compelling visuals to entice the audience into action. Many also use celebrities because research shows we are more likely to associate truthfulness with a known celebrity figure.

When it comes to the topic of commercials, most of us readily agree that commercials are irritating. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the purpose of the commercial. Whereas some are convinced that commercials are meaningless, others maintain that commercials tell a story. Effective commercials are repetitive and illustrate a story. Marketers use rhetoric marketing, the art of persuasive speaking and writing, when persuading an audience to buy a product. Rhetoric marketing is especially effective through the illustration of a story. It is effective because the marketer is able to relate to the consumer with a story or message. Advertisers also use the appeals of logic, credibility, and emotions to intrigue interest in a company. Coca-Cola’s advertisement, “Falling,” depicts the product as a confidence building companion suitable for young love through a series of logical and emotional appeals that visibly promotes the brand’s credibility.

The average person will watch approximately 2 million commercials throughout their lifetime. In this technologically driven environment, it’s the most effective method of appealing to an intended audience. However, there is a lot more to an advertisement than meets the eye. There are numerous methods being used in order to appeal to the audience. Corporations and businesses focus on rhetorical appeal when it comes to creating a successful advertisement.

Advertising is a form of communication used to encourage or persuade an audience to continue or take some new action. But when advertisers produce an ad, they have many different variables that come into play if they want to successfully persuade consumers. The first most important step they have to figure out is, what type of audience they are trying to target. They then create images and intend to appeal specifically to the values, hopes, and desires of that particular audience. This is why someone would rather pick the well-known Malboro cowboy ads over the new female cigarettes of Virginia Slims. Each of these ads targets a specific audience;

Different strategies are used in all advertisements. Every aspect of the advertisement is strategically planned to appeal to the audience. For example, an advertisement that does a great job of using sex appeal to reach its audience is “Carl’s Jr all natural burger”. This ad appeared during the super bowl forty-nine, and it was a big hit. The ad features ,22-year-old model buxom, Charlotte McKinney. Throughout the video it shows her walking through the town and appearing as if she is nude. She gets all the attention from the guys in the town as she saunters past. in one scene there’s a man reaching for a tomato as she walks by, she turns around and gives him a flirty look and it emerges as if he is grasping her gluteus. At the end she appears in a bikini nearly nude “I love going all natural,” she purrs, opening wide to take a bite out of a big, juicy, “all natural” hamburger. Advertising appeals aim to influence the way consumers view themselves and how buying certain products can prove to be beneficial for them.

How do advertisements get into the audience's mind to be more appealing? In the words of psychologist Harry Hollingsworth advertisements need to do four things: attract the consumers attention, focus the attention on the message, get the spectators to remember the message, and take the desired action which in turn shows the effectiveness of the ad (citation.) In turn, if a company has an appealing ad with a good message in the eyes of the audience, it will be more effective; especially since it is engraved in day to day life of the average consumer.

Advertisers will often times go above and beyond traditional ways of pitching products and adapt clever ways to sell emotions or desires through commercial advertising. More than simple print ads, video advertisements are able to play on the mythologies and beliefs of modern pop culture, appealing to specifically targeted individuals or social groups through the suggestive themes and symbols being portrayed. Associations of things like sex or status to certain products can entice specific audiences towards buying or desiring them. A pair of jeans will not necessarily bring abundant amounts of sex to one’s future, and using a certain type of body wash will not make

     We live in a fast paced society that is ruled by mass media. Every day we are bombarded by images of, perfect bodies, beautiful hair, flawless skin, and ageless faces that flash at us like a slide show. These ideas and images are embedded in our minds throughout our lives. Advertisements select audience openly and subliminally, and target them with their product. They allude to the fact that in order to be like the people in this advertisement you must use their product. This is not a new approach, nor is it unique to this generation, but never has it been as widely used as it is today. There is an old saying 'a picture is worth a thousand words,' and what better way to tell someone about a product

Advertising has been defined as the most powerful, persuasive, and manipulative tool that firms have to control consumers all over the world. It is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service. Its impacts created on the society throughout the years has been amazing, especially in this technology age. Influencing people’s habits, creating false needs, distorting the values and priorities of our society with sexism and feminism, advertising has become a poison snake ready to hunt his prey. However, on the other hand, advertising has had a positive effect as a help of the economy and society.

In the 21st century, companies cannot sell any products without advertising. Currently, most people will not buy anything before watching an ad for said product. Many people are happy when they see advertising. When people go out, they see advertising is everywhere. Consumers see it on trains, buses, taxicabs, and even when they drive on the highways .Advertisements are prevalent on the internet, TV, radio, magazines, and even different kinds of social media. Promoting ads encourages the economy to develop and helps in creating new jobs. Advertising is necessary in our life because it has multiple positive aspects that impact us on a daily basis. Despite their good, there is no way that a person can escape ads, because they are everywhere. One way that is used the most and is in some ways very controversial is use of sex to sell products. One of the most successful American businessmen, Leo Burnett, said, “Good advertising does not circulate information, it penetrates the public mind with desires and belief,”(Intext citation).. Nike ads are successful at taking attention by using appeals of font, choice of Jennifer Van Allen, targeted audience, as well as other rhetorical elements.

Advertising is a persuasive communication attempt to change or reinforce one’s prior attitude that is predictable of future behavior. We are not born with the attitudes for which we hold toward various things in our environment. Instead, we learn our feelings of favorability or unfavorability through information about the object through advertising or direct experience with the object, or some combination of the two. Furthermore, the main aim of advertising is to ‘persuade’ to consumer in order to generate new markets for production.