Persuasive Advertising

In schools, we are taught to learn persuasive tactics in order to successfully portray our ideas, beliefs, or anything else that would take some convincing. In high school, we learn the art of persuasive essays- using subjective phrasing backed by objective facts. At the college level, public relations and marketing classes are available to enhance the influence that pictures and catchy tag lines have. Both of these are applicable to the modern and new-age style of advertising which is ever-present in today's media.

One of the newest tactics in modern advertising is the process of "Cool Hunting." Utilized by the proclaimed "Merchants of Cool," this encompasses the trials of hired professionals interviewing random people and focus groups for the purpose of feeding companies information about what is "cool" in the modern society. They plunge into the depths of the contemporary minds and discover what the turn-ons and turn-offs are that drive consumers toward or away from products or ideas. These analysts return to the companies that pay them, a fee which is generally around several hundred dollars, and divulge the information to the advertising branch of said company. Considering the amount of money that is to be made from this information, the cost is miniscule.

Product placement has been around for a long time now, but is becoming evermore prevalent in cinema and television. Product placement is when companies pay movie or television producers to incorporate their product into a certain number of scenes. In "Back to the Future", starring Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox, Pepsi paid a substantial amount of money so that when Marty McFly (Fox) goes to the diner, he specifically orders a Pepsi instead of a soda, and he receives a bottle full of the beverage, with the patented Pepsi logo in plain view. In HBO's hit series "Sex in the City," an entire episode is centered around a billboard for Absolut Vodka. The Absolut company paid HBO Studios to have a conjoined project, and Absolut's sales increased by roughly 40 percent. It may some like nothing, considering how aware we are of these products, but when we see the protagonist of a great movie or a group of women would try to embody endorsing a certain product in their everyday lives, we subconsciously do the same.

The art of narrowcasting is a newer feature of the advertising market, but it is becoming increasingly more effective. Narrowcasting is when marketers gear their advertisements toward a specific demographic, as opposed to the general population of consumers. This concentrated marketing minimizes costs and increases awareness amongst users of a general product for their company's product. Even more specific is the tactic known as branding, in which companies associate their product with this group of people. In the case of Coors Light, they have labeled football fans as beer drinkers. To show the correlation of football and beer, they have taken coaches interviews and sideline antics and incorporated it to moments of Coors Light prowess, as in this video featuring ex-Ravens coach Brian Billick. This is a prime example of a marriage between product and demographic.

These tactics, new or old, are sure to continue for as long as they are successful, or at least until a slightly more intrusive, yet effective form comes along to take their places. It's amazing to think about how much our lives are infected with advertisements, yet we don't even realize it. Somebody is doing their job very well.