In today’s assignment we are to analyze different techniques that the advertisement industry resorts to with an eye of attracting more potential clients.
Firstly, we have to state that advertising, whether we want it or not, has really grown into an all-embracing aspect of our life. In other words, there is hardly a product on earth that you can come up with which is not subject to being ‘pushed’ (Leach, 1993).
However, it is self-evident that not every advertisement reaches its main goal – to make the product likable and popular with customers. In certain cases even the opposite effect may be achieved – the too persuasive and meddlesome advertising might put us off. Thus, it is of vital importance to study techniques of good advertising and here comes in our research.
Every advertisement can be described as a kind of manipulation, and from the psychological standpoint of view, it is very well recognized that our mind is subconsciously ‘manipulatable’. What is left to understand are the methods by which advertising can make a person act in the way it anticipates him to act.
‘It looks like hypnosis’, an unbeliever might exclaim. The incredulous fact about it is that advertising absolutely resembles mesmerizing techniques, using language as the main tool to achieve the goal. Apart from language, advertising uses imagery, labels, etc. and even brazenness to promote the product.
In this paper we will go through some classical examples of advertising, and on these examples we will be able to get a glimpse how it all really works in real conditions.
There are, undoubtedly, a number of advertisements, to say the list, all over the Internet, and, perhaps, we need to explain our choice of particular ones. Well, the underlying criterion for our choice was the uniqueness of examples and their banality, on the other hand. These seemingly incompatible notions can without any shred of doubt be brought together in advertisement: in a way any advertisement uses techniques that are inherent to this type of discourse – let us call it advertising discourse. What is more interesting: in what respect does the advertisement stand out among a deluge of other advertisements? What can potentially make it catchy and the advertised product irresistible? That remains to be seen.
As our examples we will choose advertisements of pepsi cola. The reasons for it are that pepsi has been actively advertised over the years, its advertising has been bright and extravagant, popularity of pepsi as a beverage has been soaring despite concerns about the drink being largely unhealthy, after all.
Before we go down to particular advertisments it is worth mentioning techniques that are generally used by the pepsi company. Firstly, what is really important within this context is the use of imagery. Most of us, probably, can summon a colorful picture associated with the drink. Actually, pepsi cans themselves are garish but in an appealing way.
Secondly, the pepsi company has produced many a slogan over the years that, perhaps, still sticks with us. It is necessary to make a reservation, nevertheless: pepsi advertisements are not usually verbose. Their main focus is on the picture, their call to our eyes and mouth, rather than ears. Indeed, mouth-watering images of cola are well-recognized.
Thirdly, pepsi advertisments have been intrusive and obtrusive, appearing almost ubiquitously on both our TV screens and the Internet. Though, aspects like intrusiveness go beyond the advertising discourse, we believe it to be also a characteristic, and in case of cola, a very dominant one.
As it is seen from the overview of pepsi cola ‘advertisement style’, it is rather common set of techniques. The question that needs to be answered, however, is: why on earth has cola been so attractive to customers?
The oversimplified answer might run like: ‘Cola is very tasty’, ‘Pepsi cola is addictive’ The plausibility of these statements or even the truth is out of the scope of the paper: it is not meant to be an advertisement for cola, anyhow. Though, neither is it supposed to criticize cola, for the sake of objectivity, we must add: cola is fatty, cola is unhealthy, cola is sugary Is it all secret for us? By no means.
Buying a can of cola how many times have we struggled with sense of guilt? Not many. We just do not care about it. Addiction? Likely. Yet is it only taste or something more? May be, a sense of belonging to glamour, to fashion?
‘Pepsi for those who think young’, runs one of the slogans. ‘Come alive, you are in a pepsi generation’, runs another. Notable modern catchphrases these are. However, will you not be astounded if we come back 50 years ago or so, when a pepsi ad features romantic idylly: a businessman husband with his domestic wife? The picture is black and white, its appeal to the values of the 1960s – family life, peace, stability. These values are still pivotal ones in our society but already not for the young generation: freedom, rebellion, and gauntlet to the moral standards have gradually superseded the dream of being happily married. That is why on modern ads of pepsi the emphasis has been absolutely shifted. Thus, one feature of successful pepsi advertising is synchrony with time and even more, with its spirit (Pendergast, 2000).
It is astonishing but a fact that pepsi, actually, has managed to adopt its numerous critical acclaims to its own advantage. Ads starting from 1980s on pepsi ads have continually exploited the slim-and-skinny desires of ours. Thus reads an exceedingly cheeky slogan for pepsi: ‘diet Pepsi promotion, you drink and get nothing’. Words stand in a bold font, and who really cares that this just a fallacious gimmick, an appeal to our vanity. The effect is sealed by an image of an exceedingly knock-out model with a perfect body. We subconsciously want to resemble the girl, and somehow it clicks in our mind that cola might help, even though we know the opposite true (Fox News, 2011).
The way companies may outplay and outwit their customers can be shown on another classical example. Smoking advertisements brazenly announced: ‘Smokers die younger!’ What was the effect? What was the key word seen by smokers and non-smokers alike? No, not die but young. Thus, smoking became associated with youth, not death, with a protest and gauntlet, not disease. Besides, the words also resonated with a popular song: ‘If I die young’ (Studlar, 2002)
The most recent advertisements of pepsi have taken even our passion for wild nature by depicting a polar bear drinking cola! And these experiments are seen no end to.
References
Donley T. Studlar (2002) Tobacco Control: Comparative Politics in the United States and Canada.
Leach, William (1993). Land of Desire. New York: Pantheon Books. p. 375.
Mark Pendergrast (2000). For God, Country and Coca-Cola.
"Diet Pepsi's Skinny Can Stirs Controversy at New York's Fashion Week". Fox News. February 11, 2011.
