1. How Companies Influence Your Thinking and Get You to Buy Their Products!

2. Glittering Generalities We use words that have vague meanings, hoping that you don’t think too hard about it and buy our products. Dishwasher tablets claim they will give you “virtually spotless dishes” ○ Virtually means almost. Virtually spotless sounds nice but if you think about it, do you want any spots on your dishes? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljxTrcPBeMk

3. Plain folks We use down-home, old-fashion appeal to sell our products. “Lemonade just like Grandma used to make” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsATVa3c6lc

4. Emotional Appeal We target your fears, anger, pity, love, or sense of humor to sell our products. “Send flowers to a certain someone today to show them you care.” “Don’t be bullied into buying more than you need.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yotq4zr0dRc

5. Testimonial Our product is endorsed by an expert or someone famous, so you should use it, too! Hanes underwear hopes that you will buy their products because Michael Jordan wears them. If I wear a TAG watch like Tiger Woods, I’ll be able to golf like him, right? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tglJAHHwO58

6. Scientific Approach The data and statistics show that our product works! “Reduces plaque by 92%” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ULR68LTmbw

7. Snob Appeal We show people who are elegant, wealthy, intelligent, or who have good taste using our products. You want to be like them, right? So, use our product! “When only the best will do” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDSuR1o5j6E

8. Bandwagon Everyone else is using our product, so you should, too! Hop on the bandwagon! McDonalds advertises that they have “Over 1 billion served.” You don’t want to be left out of the 1 billion, do you? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3BzR1FMDc4

9. Transfer We group unrelated things for a stronger effect. They may not necessarily go together but we hope you don’t think about that! McDonald’s Big Mac sandwiches are “thick and juicy.” What does thick have to do with juicy? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGgpPQvXUE0

10. Name-Calling We blame problems on specific people, groups, or ideas. We insult our competitors. That makes you want to buy our products, right? This is most often used in political ads. Think of the ads right now with Terri Lynn Land and Gary Peters. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE9U4mMqKP4

11. Card Stacking We only talk about the great things about our product (or list them first), stacking the cards in our favor. Our product is perfect, right? Think about prescription drug commercials. They tell you all the good stuff about their drug and at the very end, in a super fast voiceover, you hear that the product has horrible side effects. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu0rXFhsM8w

12. Infomercials What propaganda techniques does this Oxiclean commercial contain? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTpXh33Mbeg

13. Infomercials What propaganda techniques does this Hurricane Mop commercial contain? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKFz1C1AsDs

14. Infomercials What propaganda techniques does this Smart Mop commercial contain? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr6qaG8RlUk