Media Literacy Strategies Part 1

Bandwagon A psychological phenomenon whereby people do something primarily because other people are doing it, regardless of their own beliefs, which they may ignore or override. When someone adopts a popular point of view for the primary purpose of recognition and/or acceptance by others. The suggestion that everyone is using or doing something: “Gatorade: Canada’s #1 bestseller”

Cartoon/Cute Characters Creates sensitivity, emotional appeal Use of comics and cartoons to grabs attention and increases marketing response.  Many of the most successful brands relied on the attention-grabbing power of cartoons when promoting their products Cartoons can convey a message far more quickly than a written notice, for example. For one thing, you don’t need to be able to read to understand a cartoon Cartoons also have childhood associations with humour, happiness and fun

Celebrity Endorsement Also referred to as testimonial. Using well known person or organization to promote a product. We tend to pay attention to famous people. That’s why they’re famous! Ads often use celebrities to grab our attention. By appearing in an ad, celebrities implicitly endorse a product; sometimes the endorsement is explicit. Many people know that companies pay celebrities a lot of money to appear in their ads (Nike’s huge contracts with leading athletes, for example, are well known) but this type of testimonial still seems to be effective.

Emotional Appeal

Emotional Appeal (continued)

Facts and Figures The implication that figures and statistics prove a point beyond dispute: “No-ache pills. A guaranteed 100 mg of pain relief.” Fools audience into thinking their headache will be gone, but really it is only referring to the mg in 1 tablet Lexus GS Hybrid 120 Heartbeats commercial: http://www.youtube.com /watch?v=Ht-_CxBB-kc