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Show Advertising Has Its Effects on Purchases Whether we recognized it or not the very extistence of advertising affects the world we live in and in many ways establishes our lifestyle. One point of view says without advertising, nothing will happen. Another view says it is manipulative techniques appealing to the emotions. Advertising is fast approaching the one billion dollar per year level and tends to create myths, images and personalities for the products and services promoted. The Utah State Consumer Affairs Office believes that if you can recognize the persuasive techniques in advertising you begin to evaluate them in terms of your needs. You can then make a buying decision based on logic and reason rather than emotion: Advertising: Makes you aware of new products. Suggests new uses for existing products. Underwrites the production costs of radio, television, newspapers and magazines. Contributes to competition between businesses and manufacturers. Can create an increased demand for products necessitating increased production. It is also argued that: It adds to the cost of product distribution. It can misinform. It can cause people to overbuy. Various techniques are used to attract your attention and gain your confidence so you will purchase the product: emotional appeals, claims and evasive words are used to create the desired images. Emotionalism that appeals to motherhood, sympathy, belonging, identity and scare tactics are used to attract your eyes, sensitize your ears and hold your interest. Statements that fall into the following categories generally only create an illustion of a benefit rather than really providing the claim. Claims such as the question, pseudo-scientific, unrelated, noninfor-mative and assertive type need to be viewed in their proper perspective. Evasive words such as "helps," "like," "virtually," "up to," "the look of," "the feel of," are used to evade for-, thright statements. Evasive words qualify the statement but tend to leave a positive impression. |
