The Appeal of Advertising

Advertising can be defined as a form of communication with certain characteristics: it is paid communication; the advertiser is identified; advertising is not a form of personal communication; it is persuasive; and it is delivered through various media, which are often but necessarily mass media (for instance billboards or mail advertising). Advertisers range from large corporations to small businesses operated by a single person, but also include governments, political parties, special interest groups, institutions, and individuals.⁷⁵ Advertisements usually target certain audiences (individuals, retailers, other businesses, special interest groups) to market products (commodities, services, locations where to buy products, ideas, ideologies, and political goals), create attention and raise awareness of products or issues, and reinforce existing brands and images. Advertising appears in many different formats in order to reach certain groups or to fit the advertiser’s budget. Print advertisements and radio and television commercials are certainly the most common formats, but companies and institutions also make use of infomercials and advertorials, sponsoring, billboards, product placement, logos, promotions, and internet advertising.

I follow the view that advertisements should be seen as texts or discourses. They tell us a very short narrative, however trivial it may be. Stories have a long history in all cultures and this

73 See: Glynn.

74 Low costs and increasing accessibility to non-professionals revealed, for example, the power of this new form of mediating information recently during the 2004 presidential election campaigns in the U.S. The web logs, also known as blogs, not only played an important role but also challenged and influenced some of the mainstream media coverage.

75 Advertisements by individuals are in most cases referred to as classifieds.

is why advertisements are often generally accepted or even liked. Pateman suggests that people enjoy advertisements for two reasons: they are “visually pleasurable” and “pleasurable as discourses (both verbal and visual), partly because they call upon some of our more sophisticated linguistic and cognitive competences.”⁷⁶ He compares their intellectual pleasures with those provided by crossword puzzles.

As different types of stories are embedded in different cultures, advertisers have to acknowledge the background of the addressees: ads try to “fuse a company’s brand with the target group’s values and valued images.”⁷⁷ That is why advertisements often do not work in different countries or even regions. Different value systems in each culture and subculture create the necessity to make ads in specific context of place and time. Many themes, however, are of universal human nature and can appeal to a worldwide audience. Advertisements tailored towards an international market are rather uncommon, though, and need to be carefully crafted to avoid any cultural problems.⁷⁸

Pseudo-Events

Daniel J. Boorstin argues that advertisements are, among many other phenomena in American culture, “pseudo-events.” As people demand more and more things to happen, to be possible, to excite them at ever shorter intervals, such “pseudo-events” are created to satisfy these needs, and ads can show perfect images that appeal to them and court them. ⁷⁹

A number of characteristics constitute this allure of advertisements: Firstly, they are generally neither true nor false but somewhere in-between. Ads can state obvious things that are not obvious to the consumer, such as production processes that tend to impress the layperson.

Statistical data that ostensibly show the advantage over competitors’ products are frequently used to create credibility. This data is verifiable but usually does not state all the facts or is presented in such a way that it seems better than it actually is. Another example is the use of comparative adjectives, a technique that might use a rival’s product as comparison or not. For example, an ad might state that “product A is better than product B,” that “product A is better than all the

76 Trevor Pateman, “How is Understanding an Advertisement Possible?” Language, Image, Media, eds. Howard Davis and Paul Walton (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983) 201.

77 John O’Shaughnessy and Nicholas Jackson O’Shaughnessy, Persuasion in Advertising (London: Routledge, 2004) 64.

78See: Ricks.

79 Daniel J. Boorstin, The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America (New York: Atheneum, 1972) 3-6.

others,” or simply “product A is better.” It is important that the consumer believes the message, even though it does not necessarily have to be true and can in many cases not be verified or falsified, for instance in cases of taste.

Secondly, the technique of the self-fulfilling prophecy creates its own reality. If you create the image that a certain soft drink makes one appear or feel younger and more active, such a message may make this come true because it is perpetuated and conveyed by advertising.

Boorstin gives examples of endorsements of products by celebrities, who represent a certain lifestyle. If they endorse the product and the message is carefully planned, these endorsements do not only improve the product’s prestige but also create its own reality. A product and a brand name can even become the same, another type of self-fulfilling prophecy, as can be seen in the terms kleenex, hoover, or xerox. Not only our language is influenced and changed by advertising, our perception of the world around us is changed. The pseudo-event of advertising becomes part of our culture.

Boorstin names the half-intelligible as a third characteristic. Technical specifications as well as newly created or foreign language words create a certain mystique that suggests that we, as consumers, have to keep up with the fast progress. This explains the frequent use of German words and pseudo-terms, such as Fahrvergnügen or Überauto, which will be discussed below.

These half-intelligible terms also create the impression that products are improving, are being refined, perfected, and are generally superior. Since a product such as toothpaste does not significantly change, new characteristics, new images, new “pseudo-events” have to be invented:

whitening, different flavors and colors, protection against something that we were not previously aware of, new design, or just a label that states that the product is new and improved. The product is reinvented and soon the consumer gets accustomed to it and the product loses its mystique. Often words that sound scientific, professional, or foreign, impress us, and since we only understand half of the message, it creates a certain appeal. The fourth and last is the appeal of the contrived. We like being courted and flattered, we enjoy the little games that are played with our minds. Most consumers believe they cannot be lured to purchase this product, they think they can resist the message and see through it. Consumers praise their own wit and intelligence when they notice that the people in an ad would never talk about toothpaste in such a

way in reality, but they do not notice that the discourse is carefully planned and calculated. If we even think and talk about an ad, the advertiser has achieved an important goal.⁸⁰

Informative vs. Persuasive Appeal

O’Shaughnessy and O’Shaughnessy argue that a system of internal and external shields is raised when audiences are being persuaded.⁸¹ Anything that does not conform with existing beliefs or values, whether personal or social, is less likely to pass those shields. External shields include culture, reference groups, social class, and emotionally grounded experiences, whereas internal shields encompass current beliefs and values. Manipulation, which “also seems to have psychological entailments,” differs from persuasion because these entailments “are of a negative kind, namely that the victim of manipulation is unaware of the influences exerted upon him.”⁸² The key difference here, then, is that people do not want to be manipulated but do not mind or even like to be persuaded.

As advertisements are usually both informative and persuasive in varying degrees, advertisers balance both types to persuade their audience.⁸³ Information and persuasion are intertwined and cannot be separated from one another.⁸⁴ O’Shaughnessy and O’Shaughnessy argue that persuasion is part of our society, not only of marketing attempts: “If we define persuasion as the process of trying to alter, modify or change the saliency of the values, wants, beliefs and actions of others, social life is dominated by conscious or unconscious, forceful or tangential, attempts of persuasion.”⁸⁵

Emotional Appeal

But advertisements need to motivate action, not only inform and persuade. Smokers, for example, often know about the negative effects cigarettes have on their health, and yet they are

80 Boorstin, The Image 211-228.

81 O’Shaughnessy and O’Shaughnessy 8-20.

82 Rom Harré, “Persuasion and Manipulation,” Discourse and Communication: New Approaches to the Analysis of Mass Media Discourse and Communication, ed. Teun A.van Dijk (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1985) 126.

83 For example the use of facts and figures may in fact be more persuasive than informative. See: Lars Hermerén, English for Sale: A Study of the Language of Advertising (Lund: Lund University Press, 1999) 34-39.

84 Persuasion can be rational or emotional, or a mixture of both. Rational strategies and means include descriptions, visual evidence, statistical evidence, comparisons, analogies, definitions, and classifications. Emotional strategies often utilize narrative and (audio-)visual means.

85 O’Shaughnessy and O’Shaughnessy 5.

not persuaded to quit smoking by anti-smoking campaigns.⁸⁶ Likewise, many people may agree that a certain brand of car offers supreme qualities and a rational choice, yet they do favor another brand over this one despite its obvious advantages.⁸⁷

A common advertising technique is to arouse emotion so that an object loses its neutrality and becomes special and memorable.⁸⁸ Emotion is employed in almost all advertisements to a certain degree today, making them both persuasive and enjoyable. Leslie Savan argues that now advertising encompasses all human emotions and aspects of life, which she calls the “sponsored life”:

Virtually all of modern experience now has a sponsor, or at least a sponsored accessory, and there is no human emotion or concern – love, lust, war, childhood innocence, social rebellion, spiritual enlightenment, even disgust with advertising – that cannot be reworked into a sales pitch. […] In short, we’re living the sponsored life. […] The sponsored life is born when commercial culture sells our own experiences back to us. It grows as those experiences are then reconstituted inside us, mixing the most intimate processes of individual thought with commercial values, rhythms, and expectations. […]

The viewer – and that is most of us to one degree or the other – is slowly re-created in the ad’s image.⁸⁹

Advertisers tend to use stronger human emotions, which explains why sexual innuendo and exaggerated happiness are so ubiquitous in commercial messages. Humor is used extensively, making ads a form of entertainment. Robitaille distinguishes the following categories of humor used in advertising: grammatical violations, overstatement and

86 On the other hand, cigarette advertisers create positive images and associations that create emotions and that often override factual data. For an analysis of cigarette advertising see: Simon Chapman and Garry Egger, “Myth in Cigarette Advertising and Health Promotion,” Language, Image, Media, eds. Howard Davis and Paul Walton (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983) 166-186.

87 “Since the strength of any motive to act,” O’Shaughnessy and O’Shaughnessy explain, “is intimately tied to the level of emotion evoked, the more emotional an issue is made, the more interest (sustained attention) it receives.

Hence, advertisers should typically seek messages that resonate with the values of their target audience which go beyond mere hedonism.” (O’Shaughnessy and O’Shaughnessy 36.)

88 Cf.: Margalit.

89 Savan 3.

understatement, parody, lexical overloads, poetic patterns, puns, and situational combinations.⁹⁰ Humor can also include ridicule and stereotyping of certain groups, including minorities and nationalities, which is dealt with in chapter 5.5. Nostalgia is a strong emotion particularly important in the use of Germans and Germany in advertising in the U.S. and is discussed in detail in chapter 3 and 4.

Also negative emotions such as anger and fear are frequently used in both political and commercial advertising, suggesting how to cope with and be relieved of those negative feelings.

Products are expected to solve our problems, from bad breath to unfashionable clothing: “It’s less important that we purchase any particular product than that we come to expect resolution in the form of something buyable.”⁹¹ This is especially visible in World War II advertisements, which displayed the Germans negatively in order not only to build up support for the war effort but also increase sales of war bonds.

Aesthetic Appeal

Advertisements are often aesthetic and visually pleasing. They are carefully designed and tested to meet the majority’s taste. Scores of highly trained professionals leave nothing random in the ads that are meant to please the eye and the ear. The perfected dream or fantasy world presented functions as a form of escapism: “Advertisements cast life in a happy glow. They are not part of the world of violence, anger, depression, and offbeat sex that fills the columns of the press and television's prime-time hours.”⁹² Leo Bogart continues that commercials “never intrude distracting and unpleasant touches of reality - nor is there any objective reason why they should, either in the advertiser's interest or in the social interest. In their idealized representation of what the material world looks like, television commercials reinforce the idea that it is the best of all possible worlds.”⁹³ The aesthetic imperative in advertising even extends to the minutest details such as the fonts that are used.⁹⁴

90 Marilyn M. Robitaille, “Humor in Advertising: It’s Funny Business,” Advertising and Popular Culture: Studies in Variety and Versatility, ed. Sammy R. Danna (Bowling Green: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1992) 115-123. On humor in advertising, see also: Dana L. Alden, Wayne D. Hoyer and Chol Lee, “Identifying Global and Culture-Specific Dimensions of Humor in Advertising: A Multinational Analysis.” Journal of Marketing 57/2 (April 1993): 64-75.

91 Savan 5.

92 Bogart 82.

93 Bogart 83.

94 Nowadays generally Helvetica. See: Savan 17-22. For typefaces used to depict Germans and Germany see below.

Advertisements also suggest an abundance of goods, as Lears has pointed out, showing us that everything we see is there and only has to be picked up or ordered. Stores, for example, place products in shelves in a way that gives the consumer the illusion that these products are never depleted. Bogart argues that “[c]ommercial culture is inconceivable without an abundance of goods.”⁹⁵

The Appeal of Prestige, Achievement and Group Membership

Advertisements suggest that the purchase of products by certain brands leads to higher prestige on the side of the consumer. Advertisers try to convey that prestige and a favorable image, in contrast to respect, can be acquired by possessions of products. ⁹⁶

Images of success and achievement are conveyed by advertisements, making the advertised products embodiments or manifestations of these notions. Role models and certain lifestyles that are presented reflect cultural images of success and achievement. “By presenting us with models whose sexual or financial or other type of success we may wish to emulate,”

Messaris asserts, “advertising images draw upon our tendencies for identification in order to strengthen our emotional involvement with ads.”⁹⁷ Advertising suggests that certain consumer behavior will lead to a positive group identification and thus relies heavily on stereotypes.

The Appeal of Repetition

It is a natural mechanism that humans like order, structure, and predictability, as can be seen in the many rituals all cultures have developed. Repetition gives comfort, safety, as well as reassurance, and it is also an energy-saving device, as it does not demand further inquiry or challenge. Advertisers clearly tell consumers over and over again what they already know. For example, even though Coca Cola is a well-known brand and product, it needs to be constantly reinforced, maintaining a constantly positive and slightly updated image of the brand.⁹⁸

95 Bogart 66.

96 “While respect is something demanded by everyone, prestige is something bestowed and, being associated with those on whom it has been bestowed, gives rise to a vicarious satisfaction. This is why all organizations concerned with persuasion look for prestigious spokespersons to endorse their position and thus endow it with something of their own prestige.” (O’Shaughnessy and O’Shaughnessy 83.)

97 Paul Messaris, Visual Persuasion: The Role of Images in Advertising (Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1997) 44.

98 It is, however, not uniformly agreed upon that repetition of short advertising messages is the most successful way of promoting products. Singer, for example, argues that this standard form of today’s advertising may not be