Most people tend to take advertisements for granted; they are unaware of the huge impact they have on us. So many tricks and techniques are used in ads for the sake of hooking our attention. These techniques address our emotions rather than our reasoning. They make use of our being sentimental more than rational to make us buy the product or embrace the idea being offered.
The most common strategy they employ to catch our attention and make us fond of the product being advertised is emotional transfer; they tend to generate emotions in us. For example, they show us a very happy and attractive man or woman driving a car. They may tell us nothing about the car, but we, following our feelings, associate that happiness to the brand of the car being presented. We foolishly feel that if we purchased that brand, we would be as happy as the screen handsome man or woman presenting the vehicle or any other product. They also make use of colors since the latter are able to evoke different emotions; for instance: red evokes excitement, blue evokes trust, green evokes fresh and fertile. Humor is also a vital element in advertising; if we, consciously and with a critical eye, watched ads, we would notice that most of them, if not all of them, are presented in a funny way. The reason behind the use of humor is the fact that it is easily memorable and it appeals to our emotions.
Ads don’t stop at the level of stirring positive feelings in us, but they go further to target our insecurities. In other words, they exploit our fears to entice us to buy a specific product such as “no one will like you if you are not well shaven” or “woman don’t like bald man”.
There is another technique which is very common is advertisements too, namely testimonials. They choose someone that we really like and respect to endorse and give a specific product more credibility. This someone may be an actor, a footballer or even a doctor. Other times, they tend to make use of ordinary people like you and me so as to get your attention and push you to buy that product since it is presented by someone who belongs to your social category.
Product usage is also another technique advertisers use to grab the consumer’s attention; this strategy involves showing a person using a specific product and enjoying it and at the same time, without being aware of that, showing us how to use it. We, by instinct, tend to emulate what others do, especially if they are from those whom we admire and respect such as: actors and successful sportspeople.
These are only a few getting-attention tricks advertisers use to make us consume products or believe in some ideas. We should be aware of the influence advertising in particular, and media in general exert on us; we don’t have to be victims and slaves of what the screen presents. Rather, we should look at anything with a critical eye and analyze things with our reasoning instead of letting our emotions guide us.
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Said Bouslama is an English middle school teacher. Said Enjoys reading and writing in English. He also likes practicing sports and socializing in his free time. [/symple_box]
