Introduction to advertising

In today's session we were introduced to persuasion in advertising. We had to watch a documentary showcasing adverts aimed at persuading women to buy a product. After watching the whole documentary, I began to notice patterns in techniques used in these adverts to convince women to buy these products.

The main tool that they used was to play on women's emotions in some way or another. For example cleaning products would show imagery of germs, viruses and dirt that could harm your family. This creates a fear and therefore makes the viewer want to buy the product to protect her children.

Another emotion was guilt, fear of being compared to other parents/housewives. Women back in those days were worried about how they were viewed in society. Advertisers recognised this and incorporated it into their adverts. Also romance/love was used to persuade viewers as well as humour.

Link to first video of documentary