Advertisement Analysis

Advertisement Analysis

Assignment # 3 – Advertisement Analysis

Below, find your Advertisement Category based on the first letter in your last name (My last

name is Winter, so I would be in category 3). Then, find an advertisement that falls into the

description in that category, and analyze the ad from a psychological point of view. If you

can, upload a picture of the ad with your assignment; otherwise, vividly describe the ad as

best you can. Again, copy and paste your responses into the blackboard dropbox folder. You

can keep it in the questionnaire format below (which is actually my preference) or write it out

in paragraph format. Just make sure to give a thorough response!

Categories:

Last Name A – H: Find an ad that appeals to or is based on a creation of needs—think about

this in terms of human hierarchy of needs (biological, safety and security, belonging and love,

self-esteem and status, cognitive, aesthetic, and self-actualization). You might recall these

needs from an intro psych course covering Maslow.

Last Name I – Q: Find an ad that involves social and prestige suggestions—techniques based

on the premise that you should buy or do something because many others do so (social

suggestion) or some well-known person makes a recommendation (prestige suggestion).

Last Name R – Z: Find an ad that involves loaded words and images—these tend to be more

subtle techniques, including the use of attractive people in the advertisement, images of

positive social situations associated with a product, or incorporating “buzzwords” or buzz

phrases such as “natural” for food and beauty products.

(Five Points Possible for Each Question)

1. What product does this ad attempt to market, and where is the ad from? Describe or attach

2. To which component(s) of attitudes (e.g., affective, behavioral, cognitive) does this ad

appeal? How can you tell? Was this a good strategy for this product/audience?

3. What route of persuasion do the advertisers seem to use (e.g., central/systematic route vs.

peripheral/heuristic pg. 228)? Was that a good choice? Specifically, what central or

peripheral cues are used?

4. Does the ad attempt to describe the source of its product information (e.g., “dentists agree

that _____” or “experts suggest ____?” Do these sources come off as credible and/or

attractive? If there was no expert, do you think one would have helped? Why or why not?

5. What about the communication itself? Are the arguments weak/strong, one-sided/two-

sided, overt/implied, discrepant with the audience/in-line with the audience, or not present

at all? Were these good choices?

6. What about the target of the communication? Who are the advertisers targeting, how can

you tell, and was that a good decision? How might this ad be different if directed towards

an audience from a more interdependent culture?

7. Describe how AT LEAST ONE concept that we have discussed (e.g. dissonance, emotions,

attitudes, self-monitoring, etc. – your choice) is relevant to the ad’s persuasiveness.

Grading Rubric (Applies to each of the 6 questions above)

Poor (0% of points) Fair (50% of points) Good (100% of points)

Content/Idea Development

Up to 3 points each question

– No key elements are present

– No understanding of material

– No analysis of content

– Some key elements are present

– Little understanding of material

– Little analysis of content

– All key elements are present

– Content is accurate – Clear understanding of

material – Strong analysis of

content

Style/Mechanics

Up to 1 point

– Lots of grammar or spelling mistakes

– Few or no grammar or spelling mistakes

Organization

Up to 1 point – Did not follow directions

– Followed all of the directions

A good “Example” paper from a prior student is on the next page

Advertisement Analysis (Assignment #3) – Paper from a prior student (Last Name A-H)

1) What product does this ad attempt to market, and where is the ad from? Describe or

attach – This ad is marketing the Colgate Total product family and found in People magazine.

2) To which component(s) of attitudes (e.g., affective, behavioral, cognitive) does this ad appeal? How can you tell? Was this a good strategy for this product/audience? The advertisement is working on both affective and cognitive appeals. It’s affective attitude appeal is in choosing a spokesperson and then running the headline as a quote from Kelly Ripa; this elicits a (hopefully) positive emotional response and then associates the neutral stimulus

(Colgate Total products) to the positive response; additionally, the audience should want to imitate/emulate the successful traits of a celebrity, therefore, if Kelly Ripa uses this product and has white teeth, then if I use this product I will have white teeth like Kelly Ripa. Additionally, it appeals to ones’ cognitive attitude by establishing a unique selling point,

“Eliminates 15x more bacteria to improve the health of your mouth” It also posits this in a feature/benefit way; feature = eliminates 15x more bacteria, benefit=improves the health of YOUR mouth. This was a good strategy in it assures the greatest message comprehension in its audience reach by using two attitudinal appeals.

3) What route of persuasion do the advertisers seem to use (e.g., central/systematic route vs. peripheral/heuristic)? Was that a good choice? Specifically, what central or peripheral cues are used? They seem to be using both routes. By choosing a celebrity endorsement, Kelly Ripa, the advertisers frame this as a peripheral/heuristic persuasion- those

persuaded by this spokesperson’s claim would be convinced after reading her quote. By also

including a USP backed by a fact (a numerical claim has more validity than one without) it

appeals to the centrals. By providing the “central-routers” with accurate and useful

information and providing an emotional appeals (in the form of a spokesperson) to the

“peripheral-routers” the advertiser is able to cast its net wide in its message acceptance.

4) Does the ad attempt to describe the source of its product information (e.g., “dentists agree that _____” or “experts suggest ____?” Do these sources come off as credible

and/or attractive? If there was no expert, do you think one would have helped? Why or why not? I don’t think an expert would make the message more credible. Because this ad is already utilizing two different persuasion techniques, any more messages in this ad would only take away from the already effective message (it would add too much clutter).

5) What about the communication itself? Are the arguments weak/strong, one-sided/two- sided, overt/implied, discrepant with the audience/in-line with the audience, or not present at all? Were these good choices? The tactics used in this one-sided argument is strong. This ad is successfully on-target with its audience because it is making two separate appeals: 1) an emotionally AND implied (quote/endorsement by celebrity Kelly Ripa) argument along with 2) a logical AND overt (scientific claim of effectiveness) argument.

6) What about the target of the communication? Who are the advertisers targeting, how can you tell, and was that a good decision? How might this ad be different if directed towards an audience from a more interdependent culture? This ad came from People magazine. People’s audience being comprised of 70% women, and Live with Kelly and Michael’s primary target audience comprised of women 25-54. The advertisers are clearly targeting women; this decision is on-target because of the great overlap in choosing this spokesperson for this ad/placement combination; this was a good decision. Another spokesperson would have been needed in a more interdependent culture- Ripa’s appeal is because she is a hard-working INDEPENDENT woman. Perhaps a spokesperson who adhered more strongly to conservative gender roles (for example Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman).

7) Describe how AT LEAST ONE concept that we have discussed (e.g. dissonance, emotions, attitudes, self-monitoring, etc. – your choice) is relevant to the ad’s persuasiveness. By using a celebrity endorsement, a person who identifies with Kelly Ripa will likely maintain a degree of self-monitoring that aligns with characteristics of Kelly Ripa (mimicking a celebrity). Example, “Gee, I totally ‘get’ Kelly Ripa, she’s just like me in a lot of way…oh look she uses Colgate…Cool so do I -OR- maybe I should consider buying this.” Said another way, because the audience can identify with the celebrity, they would be more prone to take the behavior that exhibits traits of said celebrity (Kelly Ripa uses it, so will I). just in case here’s a link to ad-Kelly Ripa uses it, so will I

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bulvyvy0mzhwjrg/photo.JPG

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