Don’t Get Stuck!!! Qualities of Advertisements

Definition of Advertising and Propaganda

Advertising: Is when a company is trying to sell their product by trying to make/convince you to buy their product, in other words they are trying to make as much money as possibale.

Propaganda: Is advertising and/or infomation that is presented in a biased way. It`s also meant to influence the way we think and/or persuade us. George Bush or other politicians

Advertising Targets: oPeople with MONEY!! oGenerally people between the age of because: o 1. They are the ones who have their own money. o2. They are more likely to change their minds about what they buy and use, because younger people don’t make many decisions on there own and older people are more decided in there ways.

The 14 most Commonly used Advertising Techniques

The kids on commercials are always are perfect looking and wearing the latest styles. That is to try to make younger kids buy the toy, because “it will make them like those kids in the commercial”. Ex: Barbie commercials, Hot wheels 1.Ideal Kids

2. Heart Strings These ads draw you into a nice/sweet story that makes you feel good, you see a family being nice to each other and helping each other. It makes you feel nice and want to buy the product. Ex.: Hallmark, Wal-Mart

3. Family Fun This technique makes it look like you just have to buy the product the commercial is trying to sell. If you do, your family will be happy. Ex.: Game board commercials

4. Sounds Good Music and sound effects are put in commercials to add to the “excitement” of the commercial, particularly ads aimed at kids. The little songs you hear are just a another way to make you think of the product, because the songs sometimes gets stuck in your head. Ex.: McDonald’s

5. Excitement This technique makes the product look more exciting than it really is. The advertisers will add fast beat music or dramatic music and will flash images across the screen. Ex.: Movie commercials

6. Cartoon Characters By having a fun looking cartoon character representing a product kids remember the product. Ex.: Cereal commercials, we all know Tony The Tiger and Toucan Sam and the cereals that they sell.

7. Bandwagon Bandwagon makes it look like everyone is buying the product. It gives the impression that you’ll be a “loser” or will be out of style if you don’t buy the product. Ex.: Gap

8. Scale This technique is when advertisers make a product look bigger or smaller than it really is. They do this by doing close ups to make the product look big and long shots to make the product look small. Ex.: A&W

9. Omission Omission is when advertisers don’t tell you the whole story. Like “Part of a balanced breakfast” is saying that it’s part and not mentioning that the breakfast would still be healthy without it. Ex.: Breakfast commercials

10. Facts and Figures This technique is when advertisers use facts and statistics to make the product look reliable. Ex.: Asprin, “This Asprin relieves pain 10 times faster than the leading brand.”

11. Are you cool enough? Are you cool enough? is when commercials show you people who look “cool” using the product and you’ll be cool too if you use the product. Ex: Pop commercials always have everyone drink the pop and having fun.

12. Repetitions In this technique the advertisers hope that if they repeat the commercial over and over people will buy it. Also the advertisers will repeat the same message over and over again during the short commercial. Ex: Bowflex, Tide

13. Product Placement Companies that sell clothes will put their name on the product, so the person wearing it will be advertising the company. This also goes for other things other than clothes. Advertisers also put their brand name in lyrics in songs, music videos, movies, etc…. Ex: Roots

14. Star Power Star Power is when the company pays celebrities to tell you what to eat or wear, etc… An advertisers thinking is that if a celebrity tells you it’s good you will think it’s good and buy it. Ex: Wayne Gretzky:Ford, McDonald’s, David Beckham:Pop commercials

Length of Commercials The length of a commercial is generally 30 seconds or less, but there are always exceptions. It’s usually 30 sec. or less because they don’t want to bore you to death, make you lose interest and forget about the commercial and the product.

Analyzing the product: Mountain Dew The commercial for Mountain Dew shows a guy on a bike chasing a cheetah to get his Mountain Dew back. This commercial targets 7-39 because it showed young adults in it which set the age. A chase accrued which added a sense of excitement Also the technique of Are you cool enough? Was implied because well the guy chased the cheetah he appeared “cool”.