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Social Psychology 530: Power of Advertising - One-Eyed Daemon
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Last week I got dragged over to a friend’s house to keep her company while she studied. Instead we both ended up watching the wonders of Fox broadcasting, the hip, the classy, and the contemporary icons of modern pop culture. Noteworthy was the appeal of not the scheduled programming, but unsurprisingly the witty, flashy, visually stimulating advertisements glared to us by an one-eyed daemon in 5-10 second spurts. For this assignment, I sat myself in front of my own one-eyed daemon with the full intentions of watching an hour of commercials maximum. Instead I found myself at the full mercy of Fox 47, Channel 8 from the period of 8:15-10:45PM, approximately 2.75 hours. The scheduled Monday programming spread from Alley McBeal, Fox 47 news at 9, Third Rock from the Sun, and “that bad mama herself” Judge Judy. All of the commercials viewed can be classified into the communication-persuasion paradigm in structure and execution. They all contained a source, message, target audience, and a specific effect intended on the viewer, namely to buy their product. All dealt with a target spokesperson, sometimes hidden male or female voice as an announcer or narrator, sometimes a clean-cut visual guide smiling and laughing, looking straight at the viewer. Personal credibility of the speaker was expressed through the confidence in voice, attractiveness in appearance, and expertise. Sometimes the source of persuasion was the subject of a mock interview as the “ordinary person” being asked to comment on a particular product or service. Here the expertise is established as the source is “just like me”. Of the 6 persuasive appeals categorized on the handout, commercials depicting the desire to be healthy, and the desire to save money on good bargains and deals seemed to be the most apparent. Commercials that dealt with medications depicted people having fun, smiling and laughing with a serious doctor-like announcer asking questions like a counseling session in a doctor’s office. Intereesting was the commercial for “Paxil”, and antidepressant medication. The implied message from the commercial was one of subtle induced anxiety of societal deviance; the images of smiling and happy people said to the viewer “hey, look at all these happy people, don’t you feel like a freak? Take this nice pill and you can be happy too”. Advertisements for local car dealerships were bombarded by figures and percentages, big letters saying “Low rates”, “act now”, and “Only __99/month!”, playing into the bargain appeal of the consumer. By far the most memorable commercial in terms of persuasive advertisements was one for a pro-life foundation. This commercial depicting a tired, chiseled-faced woman in surgical scrubs (credibility as a health professional), wiping the hard worked sweat from her brow asking the viewer how presenting a 2-sided message as “I used to be pro-choice, but now I just don’t know. This ad was clearly deployed to combat the image of the pro-choice supporter, the speaker in this ad is a woman, she is a medical professional, she is elderly, and she is still questioning the decisions of abortion, sincerely, and regretful. The advertisements observed in this exercise subtlety pointed out target audiences, but in more than one way reflected the nature and content of the scheduled program aired at the time. Commercials shown during Ally Mcbeal appeared to be targeting primetime, contemporary, young adult to adult audiences, with ads for diapers (Huggies), beauty care products (Loreal), internet technology (intel.com), and a tired looking woman in surgical scrubs confused why anyone could even consider aborting a pregnancy (plug for the pro-life foundation). Commercials aired during the local news were dominated by locally owned, in-state businesses such as a painting service (bad commercial), a jeweler (Chandler’s?), a supermarket sponsoring a food drive (Kopps), and several small car dealerships (Several..). 3rd rock from the sun had its commercial breaks filled with commercials for furniture (these were my favorite), processors (Pentium III), and pharmaceuticals (Paxil anyone?). And finally the commercials during Judge Judy seemed to target the “practical” audiences, with coldsore medication (gross), cold medicine (Dayquil), feminine hygiene (penavir), all over the counter medications. All four programming slots contained recognizable national brands scattered between other commercials, such as fast food (McDonald’s, Arby’s, Taco Hell), Car manufacturers (Ford, Subaru, Nissan, Hyundai, Chrysler), and interestingly technology (Intel, Amazon.com). In light of the on occasion overbearing seriousness of everyday life at the end of the millenium, I think that the commercials that dealt with humor derived from irony of situation, and pure outrageousness were most effective. One of the furniture commercials best illustrates this tactic used, in which a freakish looking teenage girl and her even freakier boyfriend tell her parents that they would like to stay in for the evening and put together a domestic looking puzzle depicting kittens instead of going out. While the viewer is confused by this situation, the unseen male announcer interrupts saying “That’s unreal.” And then a cut to a nice looking set of dining room furniture, “This is real.” The power of these advertisements capitalize on the key goal of the television commercial: to make the viewer think twice about the product. Be it a disgusting grimace, a discerning frown, a whimsical smirk, any second-thought inspired by the 5-10 second commercial serves the purpose of the advertisement; the recognition of name, purpose, and value attached to the product will be recalled by the consumer on their next visit to the store. Commercials seem to be moving towards employing flashier, fast moving imagery and ideas to sell their products. It brings to mind an essay written by John Berger on the power and deception of advertisements, in which he viewed the commercial as representative of the fallacy of democracy. When we watch a commercial we believe that our choice in which deodorant to buy, which car to drive, which whiskey to drink is the pinnacle of democratic living; the spoils of capitalism has been sold to be better, newer, as a replacement for free thought and critical decision. They say that college is a place of higher learning, one where we become more global and educated critical thinkers, our fresh young minds nurtured in a promising environment of fresh ideas, inspirational people, and information constantly flowing, always broadcasting. As today’s world is brought to us in fancy colors and buzzing electric television, it is an irony in itself that we as college students don’t have the time to stare at the one-eyed daemon. Yet after close to 3 hours of partaking in one of my former childhood pastimes, analyzing not the programming, but the commercial advertisements in between, I’m convinced that distraction from TV is a good thing. |