Below is a list of techniques which advertisers commonly use to persuade us to buy their products.

1. Association of ideas 6. Before and after

2. Key words 7. “The camera never lies”

3. Guilt 8. Repetition

4. “Science” 9. Brand names

5. Expertise 10.“Keeping up with the Joneses”

Find out exactly what each of these techniques involves by reading the descriptions below and matching them correctly with one of the labels from the above list. Write your answers in the spaces provided.

(a)_______________________

Some products are advertised as having a remarkable and immediate effect. We are shown the situation before using the product and this is contrasted with the situation that follows its use. Taking a tablet for a headache in such advertisements can have truly remarkable results. For not only has the headache gone, but the person concerned has often had a new hair-do, acquired a new set of clothes and sometimes even moved into a more modern, better furnished house.

(b)_______________________

One thing reminds us of another especially if we often see them together. These reminders are sometimes more imaginary than real: for some people snow may suggest Christmas, for others silver candlesticks may suggest wealth. The advertiser encourages us to associate his product with those things he thinks we really want – a good job, nice clothes, a sports car, a beautiful girlfriend – and, perhaps most of all, a feeling of importance. The “image” of a product is based on these associations and the advertiser often creates a “good image” by showing us someone who uses his product and who leads the kind of life we should like to lead.

(c)_______________________

Advertisements often encourage us to believe that because someone has been successful in one field, he should be regarded as an authority in other fields.

The advertiser knows that there are certain people we admire because they are famous sportsmen, actors or singers, and he believes that if we discover that a certain well-known personality uses his product, we will want to use it too. This is why so many advertisements feature famous people.

(d)_______________________

Maybe we can’t always believe what we’re told, but surely we must accept what we’re actually shown. The trouble is that when we look at the photograph we don’t know how the photograph was taken, or even what was actually photographed. Is that delicious-looking whipped cream really cream, or plastic froth? Are the colours in fact so glowing or has a special filter been used?

It is often difficult to tell, but you can sometimes spot the photographic tricks if you look carefully enough.

(e)_______________________

If you keep talking about something for long enough, eventually people will pay attention to you. Many advertisements are based on this principle.

If we hear the name of a product many times a day, we are much more likely to find that this is the name that comes into your head when the shopkeeper asks “What brand?” We usually like to choose things for ourselves, but if the advertiser plants a name in our heads in this way he has helped to make the choice for us.

 

 

(f)_______________________

In this age of moon flights, heart transplants and wonder drugs, we are all impressed by science. If an advertiser links his claim with a scientific fact, there’s even a chance we can be blinded by science. The question is simply whether the impressive air of the new discovery or the “man-made miracle” is being used to help or just to hoodwink us.

(g)_______________________

Advertisers may try to make us want a product by suggesting that most people, or the “best” people, already use it and that we will no doubt want to follow them. No one likes to be inferior to others and these advertisements suggest that you will be unless you buy the product.

(h)_______________________

The manufacturer needs a name for his product, and of course he looks for a name that will do more than just identify or label: he wants a name that brings suitable associations as well – the ideas that the word brings to mind will help sell the product.

(i)_______________________

Most advertisements contain certain words (sometimes, but not always, in bold or large letters, or beginning with a capital letter) that are intended to be persuasive, while at the same time appearing to be informative. In describing a product, copy-writers insert words that will conjure up certain feelings, associations and attitudes. Some words – “golden”, for example – seem to have been so successful in selling that advertisers use them almost as if they were magic keys to increase sales.

(j)_______________________

Advertisers may invoke feelings that imply you are not doing the best for those you love most. For example, an advertisement may suggest that any mother who really loves her children uses a certain product. If she does not, she might start to think of herself as a bad mother who does not love her family. So she might go and buy that particular product, rather than go on feeling bad about it.