Pity, Guilt, & Shame Appeals

Persuaders try to evoke negative emotions in people. Pity, guilt, and shame are three emotions that a persuaders can use to their advantage. Becheur and Valette Florence (2014) found that a combination of guilt and shame was more effective that guilt alone.

This advertisement made me feel guilty, especially with the use of logos by saying “pint of beer costs 4.50 euros and 50 liters of fresh water is 1.50 euros.” The man in the advertisement looks frustrated, maybe he is being deprived of food and water. Therefore, I think this advertisement is targeted at people, such as Americans that have all these natural resources at their fingertips.

Sometimes, as Americans I think we take these resources for granted, such as food, water, and shelter when other people in the world do not have these things. I think the goal of this advertisement is to raise awareness for what is going on in other parts of the world, as well as trying to make the reader feel guilty.

source: https://www.tes.com/lessons/Zz68_MP1XSFRcw/emotional-appeals-in-advertising  

Sex Appeals

I saw this advertisement of SKYY Vodka and noticed the branding technique of sexualizing advertisements, which can be seen in this SKYY Infusions Cherry advertisement.

SKYY Vodka targets its brand at an audience of young, successful people. In this advertisement, SKYY wants to show the elegance of drinking their vodka, along with a sex appeal of it. This ad shows risky behavior in a sexual way and portrays the pleasure of what comes when drinking their product. The two women are wearing bright red lipstick and have a full face of makeup on and only a portion of their face is being shown. The focus is on their lips around the cherry’s rather than their actual face.

According to the textbook, one analysis found that half of all print ads depict women as sex objects ( Stankiewicz & Rosselli, 2008). The use of more overt sexual appeals has increased (Malik, 2016) and increasingly younger audiences are being targeted. For example, I think this advertisement targets young men and women, age 21 and over, who can be easily influenced.

source: https://wp.wwu.edu/hled151/2017/11/09/the-sex-appeal-of-skyy-vodka/ 

The Extended Parallel Process Model (EPM)

The Extended Parallel Processing Model (EPPM) predicts how people will respond to a threat. According to the model, when a person encounters a fear-arousing message, the person can respond in one of three ways ( Maloney, Lapinksi, & Witte, 2011). First, the person might ignore the message altogether. Second, if the person believes they are at risk, they may use danger control, by focusing on constructive ways of preventing or reducing the threat. Third, the person may have a non-constructive response which is known as fear control. Fear control involves panic and message rejection.

In this message about COVID-19 the perceived threat and efficacy are high because it says “slow the spread, stay home if you can.” Because this message is advising people to stay home and not go outside, the audience may use danger control which is effective response to the message because it focuses on the solution and the audience will take the appropriate action.

Perceived efficacy has two parts. The first is response efficacy, which has to do with whether there are effective steps in avoiding harm. For example, an audience of people who want to avoid getting COVID-19 will take the precautions of staying home. Self-efficacy has do with whether the audience is able to take those steps. If both of these are present, danger control is more likely to occur.

source: https://www.thedrum.com/news/2020/04/08/the-ad-council-and-google-push-stayhome-save-lives-industry-wide-movement