Introduction
Adverts are part of our everyday lives. As one of the most effective forms of mass communication, adverts are essentially designed to attract people’s attention and draw them towards a certain product or service that the creator of the advert is selling. The last century has seen individuals and corporations perfect the art of advertising and currently, the advertising sector is a multibillion industry. Exquisite adverts grace our television screens, magazines, newspapers and roadside billboards urging us to buy certain products or services. To appeal to large audiences, the developers of adverts usually utilize fallacies such as pathos, ethos and logos. The aim of this essay to analyze two adverts of the popular car brand “Lexus” and determine their mode of appeal to the public. The essay will also look at the effectiveness of the adverts and their level of influence on the consumer’s buying behavior.
A close look at both adverts reveals that they use different modes of appeals. The first advert that features a handsome man and a beautiful woman standing next to the Lexus appeals by reason. This is because of apart from using the smartly dressed people to show the class of people associated with this car, the advert also talks about several facts about the car that more or less justify why one would want to buy it. For instance, it is stated that the car has a “hand-stitched-leather trimmed interior, front sport seats and aluminum accents”. The car also has “19 inch forged alloy wheels and Brembo front barkers amongst other classy features”. In essence, this advert tries to convince people to buy the car using logical argument. The second advert uses an appeal based on emotion. It features a scantily dressed model standing beside the car. The purpose of the model is to compare the car’s “classiness” with a superior sexuality of a woman to make potential customers feel that they will become socially superior if they buy the car. In addition, the phrase below the picture that states that “Drive this car and make a statement” is once again meant to make people develop feelings of social superiority in potential customers. The first advert would be more effective in selling the car. These days, most people are not easily swayed by emotional adverts and an appeal based on reason is most likely to work. People are looking for quality aspects of goods and services and if these aspects are displayed or presented in the advert, the advert is most likely to influence the consumer’s purchase decisions. The main target of these adverts is the affluent members of the society and as such, they are smart enough to know that a purchase decision cannot simply be influenced by emption. In this regards the first advert that features a man and a woman is likely to be more effective.
In conclusion, it is clear to see that different adverts utilizing different modes of appeal are likely to have differing influences on consumer purchase behavior. However, it has been shown that an advert that is utilizes a reason based appeal is more influential to the potential consumers than one that uses an emotion based appeal. That is why the first advert is superior to the second one.
References
Moore, D. J., Harris, W. D., & Chen, H. C. 2005. Affect Intensity: An Individual Difference Response to Advertising Appeals. Journal of Consumer Research 23: 19-28.
Schrank, J., Stage Fright Productions, & Learning Seed Company. 2002. Why you buy: 21st century advertising. Lake Zurich, Ill: Learning Seed.
