Commercials-+The+Art+of+Persuasion

Much of what you see on TV are paid commercials and advertisements meant to persuade the viewer to purchase certain products or services. There are many different kinds of commercials including political ads, product advertisements, service advertisements and more. Advertisers must consider the purpose of their ad. They must also consider the target audience that they are trying to persuade or "hook" into a certain behavior. They must also consider what that behavior will be. Usually there will be a slogan, jingle or some other attention grabbing "hook" that gets the viewer to want the product or service or at least to remember it.

A commercial is a video or tv ad, whereas an advertisement is usually referring to a print ad that might appear in a newspaper or magazine. Some great print ads are posted here: @http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/70-creative-advertisements-that-makes-you-look-twice/


 * Slogans:** are catchy phrases that might repeat the product name or have some other message.


 * Jingles:** are songs that may include a slogan or phone number or other message.


 * Attention Grabbers:** are other ways to hook the audience. The ipod commercials are a good example of this as they use a popular song that rocks the viewer and shows how they "need" and must have this product, even though 10-15 years ago we lived without ipods.

A commercial usually also includes the company's product or logo or both. The point is to get the viewer to remember the product and have it imprinted on their memory so that when they go to the store they will recall the product. There has been a lot of controversy about subliminal advertising that supposedly "slips" other messages into the ads. There is a lot of psychology to advertising. Color theory (what colors affect people and how they are affected, example: red makes people have energy so many sports products use red in their logos), crowd mentality, peer pressure and more are considered when devising the commercial. Commercials target the consumer, the person who wants the service or product. It makes them feel they need the product by causing them to want the product. The commercial if successful affects the consumer's behavior. There are two types of behaviors.


 * Functional Behavior:** The product or service will help you do something better. Examples of this are refrigerators, stoves, lawn mowers, snow blowers. They improve your life by helping you function.


 * Emotional Behavior:** The product makes you feel proud and satisfied that you bought it. You might feel part of the "in" crowd because of the product or service. Examples might be a certain new car (hybrid), a new fancy computer, digital camera, fur coat etc.


 * What is Advertising**

1. Message must be paid for.

2. Message must be delivered to audience through mass media.

3. Message must persuade audience to act/believe a certain way.

Most advertising utilizes a Marketing Strategy, which is used to promote and distribute the product or service and includes advertising (print and tv), coupons, surveys, and the company's website.


 * Purpose of Advertising**

1. To stand out from the crowd

2. Target the consumer

3. Contribute to the revenue of the company

4. Promote brand loyalty

5. Enhance customer satisfaction

6. Life of product


 * These commercials can be categorized by what they are trying to accomplish.**
 * There are 5 basic categories. All ads are meant to persuade action by the viewer, but there are some that are specifically this type.**

1. Brand: Remember the brand not the product. Mrs. Field's, Nike, Mobil, Sprint

2. Informative: Teaches you about the product. (Infomercial is a type, but not the only one.) Examples how certain anti-lock brakes work, special features of product, medical and car and dental often are this type. Some political ads take this approach.

3. Comparative: Coke vs. Pepsi compares 2 or more products with the one who paid for the commercial coming out as the better choice. Again political ads may use comparisons of candidates and their platforms.

4. Defensive: Losing product from comparative comes back with an ad that rebuts what the comparative claimed they were bad at. Political ads do this a lot and can become attack ads in their defense.

5. Persuasive: Don't provide information or comparisons but instead play upon the consumer's emotions to show the product as desirable and emotionally satisfying. Car ads, alchohol, cigarettes, Apple computer, athletic stuff.

All advertising is persuasive to a degree. A really good ad can make people think a want is a need. Advertising can sway people to a product or service, but if the product/service is no good people will not buy.

=== Now that you have a better understanding of Advertising you will work on a research project utilizing the internet. Use the Internet to find 2 examples of each type of commercial. Make sure the commercials are school appropriate (no cigarettes, drugs or alchohol). === === Click create a New Page at the upper left of this screen. Name your page B1 or A1 with your first name last initial. Save the page and embed the 10 videos that you find. Most video has embed code that you can load. To do this you will need to copy the embed code, click edit on the wikipage and click Widget. Choose video widget and paste the embed code into the appropriate box. Click save and you should see your video on the page. If you can't get the embed code then create a hyperlink to the ad and paste that link on the page. Click and make sure the link works. ===

After you've pasted the commercials into the wiki page you will need to explain the type of ad you found and how it illustrates that ad type. You also need to explain who the ad is targeting, what the "hook" is (attention grabber, slogan, jingle). Then tell if you think the commercial is or isn't successful and why or why not.

When you have a finished wikipage let me know and I will activate your name link taking us to your page.

Some websites to try for your research include: @http://www.museum.tv/collectionssection.php?page=5 [|http://www.retrojunk.com]


 * A1 Video Production**

Alexis H Collin S Jacob Br Jacob Bu Michael B Cal C Tom D Mason Niki L Rob Mc Patrick Mc Jacob M Gaby Jordan R Kaitlyn Nicole S Aaron VH Wolfgang Andrew W Bennett W Jessica W Luke M


 * B1 Video Production**

Brianna B Jesse B Antonio D Andrew F Joel G Brandee H Chris H Monica H Derrick H Elle R Morgan S Kevin V