Lutz vs. O’Neill: Getting to the Point
Advertising is all around us. Companies of all sorts rely heavily on internet, television, print, and various other types of media outlets as means to reach their audience. Advertising aims to bring in more customers and thereby, more profit. All of this is complicated by the fact that, out of the vast number of products and services available, companies want to prove that theirs are the best. From this is born the tricky and unique language of advertising. In their respective articles, With These Words, I Can Sell You Anything and The Language of Advertising, both William Lutz and Charles A. O’Neill discuss popular ploys used by marketing advertisers to rope in the most customers. Lutz takes a
…show more content…
He and Lutz’s arguments coincide on the grounds that advertising is primarily about selling a product, and that there is unique language involved in doing so. O’Neill suggests that “Advertising is nothing more than the delivery system for salesmanship” and asserts that it is the consumer, not the advertisers, with the power to buy or not buy a good or service. He later delves into the many techniques used by advertising agencies, from their unique advertising speak to the powerful imagery used to capture the attention of their demographic. Lutz, in his contention, does not seem to be trying to appeal to a specific audience. He rather chooses a stance right off the bat and presses the reader to go along with it through a myriad of non-specific examples and little offering of a counter argument. Lutz therein gives the reader little room to come up with his or her own opinion. This could work to Lutz’s benefit or his hindrance because the reader is really only given two choices; to agree or to disagree. A reader in agreement with Lutz’s argument is given every reason to be. A reader in opposition however can easily point to a lack of substantial evidence to back up some of his claims. Though Lutz does give many examples to support his opinion, they are often either broad generalizations or the author simply using of a lot of words to convey a very basic message. Lutz does however appeal to his audience in that he cites many familiar slogans and products and dissects them
A popular technique in the advertising world is “doublespeak.” Lutz explains that “advertisers try to wrap their claims in language that sounds concrete, specific, and objective when in fact the language of advertising is anything but” (133). This type of language essentially states the obvious while sounding seemingly unique which is exploitative to the consumers. The use of rhetorical questions and sweet words that get the audience ready for the sales pitch are a part of “doublespeak.” In this strategy, the advertisers do not go into depth about the products and continue to make general claims that make consumers think that the product is special. Unfinished words, also a part of “doublespeak”, leaves it up to the audience to assume and finish
Rhetorical techniques can make or break a paper. The proper use of rhetorical ‘tools’ such as metaphors or the overall structure of the paper allows for the writer to channel the reader’s attention to the argument(s) they’re trying to make/prove. However, when used improperly, the reader interprets the writer to be a non-credible source because the rhetorical techniques he/she is uses are either too obvious or they do not create an easy and focused experience for the reader. Some of the most significant rhetorical techniques are overall structure of the paper, the use of data and statistic in the paper, and the appeal to credibility. In the papers, ‘Why companies fail to respond to climate change’, by Tobias Finke, and ‘How to Unleash Climate
Many authors have found that persuading an audience is sometimes the easiest way to grasp the attention of many and do so by using logos, pathos and ethos techniques. Sometimes misleading and based around personal opinions, understanding the initial reasons for using these strategies can explain why they are used. Based on my research these rhetorical strategies can be found throughout all three videos provided. The first two videos titled “Drunk History - Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks” and “Drunk History - John Adams vs. Thomas Jefferson” showed the least amount of these strategies, while the last video “Breaking News: Some Bullshit Happening Somewhere” provides the best demonstration of the use of rhetoric.
The article ‘We Are Training Our Kids to Kill’ by David Grossman is an attempt at explaining the effect of mass media on our children as far as violence and the impacting role it plays. Grossman, a self entitled ‘world traveler and an expert in the field of “killology” uses the rhetorical aspects of ethos, pathos, and logos to get his point across. Regardless of the fact that Grossman did build some credibility for himself, used reasoning, emotion, and some facts to support his opinion, he did not use them in a very effective way. I am going to label this article as ineffective. The first reason I’m ruling Grossman’s writing as ineffective is because he seemed to contradict himself throughout his writing. The
Advertisements cannot triumph unless they capture our attention. The advertisers uses different strategies so those advertising messages do not screened out from our head. The language used in these various forms of media in advertisements have a huge impact on their effects on the consumer. William Lutz, the author of “With these words,I can sell you anything” and Charles A. O’Neil who is the author of, “The language of advertising” has contrasting views about system of advertising. Lutz and O’Neil analysis the language manipulation in advertisements in different spheres.
In the essay by O Neil The Language of Advertising mentions that Ads tries to change the consumers’ persceptions of who they are as he write, “O Neill state that advertisers create in comsumers a sense of need for products”. While it’s true that promoting a product means the customer needs to feel they need it, however’ this claim is not accurate to say it changes consumer’s perception of who they are since we see in this ads’ language shown above that it talks about the product, rather than trying to make the audience feel insecure or change their views of about themselves. It does not use words like, “Get this and Make yourself beautiful.” Rather, its’ main purpose is to promote the product and gain an audience for the product.
The world Is like one big marketing ploy. Advertisements are everywhere from subtle movie appearances to billboards and everything in between. Advertisers continue to find more ways to push their products with the hopes that the next method will prove more successful than its forerunner. The articles “Illusions Are Forever” by Jay Chiat and “Champagne Taste, Beer Budget” by Delia Cleveland illustrate the result of successful advertising and how it works. Quite a few of these seldom fail to prove fruitful .The most effective forms of advertising are high-end product placement and celebrity endorsement.
The typical person looks at 3,000 ads every day or more, as professors teaching our students to understand marketing principles, and how to communicate more effectively. With an audience, we have to face the reality of the advertising world today and understand that the examples we face today are fairly commonplace. Buying the product of interest will bring us happiness, popularity, status, prestige or any number of other outcomes that are certainly better than where we find ourselves. “The FTC Improvement Act of 1975 expanded the Federal Trade Commission regulatory powers over unfair or deceptive acts or practices this ensured that companies would make truthful claims about their products ,these claims are often measurable and objective” (Thorne,
As a conclusion, I appreciate your amazing essay. It was interesting to learn from your perspective. How you used rhetorical strategies to give credibility to the readers, feel sympathy and use logic was good, it was very effective. I will look forward to read another fascinating essay from you.
ental blocks come in many forms. You don't have to sit in front of a computer unable to type. You may want to write but never find the time. You find excuse after excuse to avoid writing. Procrastination becomes your second name. Excuses range from shopping, taking care of the kids, meeting friends, talking on the telephone, watching TV soaps, reading too much, constantly redecorating the house, lingering over meals and being lost in thought. None of these activities are bad. It's just that most of them could be reduced, eliminated or controlled freeing up time to write.
In the article, “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals”(1982), Jim Fowls, a professor at the University Of Houston, discusses the different ways advertisers are reaching people on a daily basis. He claims that advertisers main goal is to appeal to the audience’s motives and desires, aiming to make the ad as memorable as possible. Every person has a need that he wishes to satisfy, if the advertisement successfully calls this need “then the persons can be hooked”(Fowls, p. 275). Fowls introduces a list created by the psychologist Henry Murray from Harvard University of 15 human needs that advertisement can appeal to. Murray’s classification of needs is a useful tool to understand the effectiveness of an advertisement.
While Lutz does correctly examine that advertisers use different methods to persuade consumers to buy products, he falls flat on his face when he takes up 11 pages explaining things that should be obvious to any high school graduate. If you pick apart someone’s words enough you can make anyone seem like the devil, and unfortunately that’s what has
Advertisers would obviously like to sell their goods which makes them develop different means and techniques for luring customers. Instead of being straightforward with consumers, advertisers exaggerate the product’s positive effects or utilize really big and rarely used words the customers might not understand. The onion, uses this article to expose the tricks advertisers use to lure customers to buy their products. In addition, the author uses humor, hyperbole and sarcasm he makes his opinion less offensive and more effective.
2) Rob Walker refers to the advertising business as the “commercial persuasion industry” and offers the notion of “murketing” as this industry’s current method of operation.
Advertising is a widespread method of marketing in society. Although the methods by which sellers advertise have changed over the decades, the