The Language of Persuasion in Advertising LSH2203 Critical Thinking

Persuasion Getting someone to do something or believe something they may not want to. The verb is persuade.

When you try and persuade someone, you try and get them to believe/accept your argument.

So who tries to persuade us? Advertisers, Public Relations Officers, Politicians and Advocate Groups.

Advertisers try to persuade us to buy their products.

Everyday we are surrounded by advertising that tries to get us to believe/accept the message that they are sending. What messages are these advertisers trying to get us to believe?

Public Relations Officers try to persuade us to support their companies or brands.

Politicians try to persuade us to support them and their ideas.

Advocacy groups try to persuade us to support their beliefs or points of view.

In this course, we are going to look at advertising.

Did you know? The average person sees around 5,000 advertising messages a day.* *

Advertisers use different techniques to persuade us to buy their products. They try to: get our attention get us to trust/believe their message get us to want their product so we can ultimately buy it

We call these techniques the “language of persuasion”. These techniques have been used for hundreds of years by speakers, writers, and advertisers.

So why do we need to learn to recognise the language of persuasion?

It’s important to be able to analyze what is being “sold” to us, whether it’s products, company images, or ideas.

Because as Critical Thinkers, it is important to look at facts.

We need to: make better judgments about what we buy decide which ideas we believe find out which ideas to listen to make our own decisions

We need to use facts, information and logical thought to come to the most reasonable decision. Ideas or issues We use our knowledge We use our thinking (cognitive) ability We arrive at the most reasonable decision.

Are we logical and focused on facts when we buy products?

Why do you drink/eat what you do? What’s your favourite brand of clothing? Why? 

What do you think about when you buy beauty products? Do celebrities influence you? 

Do you think a product must be expensive to be good? Do you find it difficult to buy products when you don’t recognise the brand name? 

Think about your last five purchases. What did you buy? Why did you buy those things? 

Now, you will be reading about and presenting some of the most widely used persuasion techniques. You will need to know these for your next assessment.

Before you do this, it is worth pointing out that many of the fallacies you learned about earlier in the course are in fact persuasion techniques. 

As you read, see if you can identify some of the fallacies we studied. Some have the same name and some are similar. 

Reading & Presentation Task

In a group, read about some Persuasive Advertising Techniques. Then create a presentation for your class that will help them to understand the techniques.

While you present, the students will complete a worksheet. You should check that they understand the ideas from your presentation.

The students will also give you some feedback on your presentation as practice for your next assessment.

Additional Slides

Watch these four commercials and think about how the advertisers are trying to persuade you to buy their products. 

Did you come up with any other possibilities?  #1 commercial: Warm & Fuzzy (Dog/Horse)  #2 commercial: Intensity by exaggeration (Doritos)  #3 commercial: Bandwagon (Chucky Cheese)  #4 commercial: Intensity (Frosted Flakes)

Persuasion Techniques that are Fallacies/ Barriers 2. Bandwagon 8. Fear (Scare Tactics) 19. Extrapolation (Hasty Generalization) 28. Slippery Slope 30. Ad Hominem 35. Diversion (Red Herring) 38. Scapegoating 39. Straw man