Assignment: Spam and Advertising



Assignment: Spam and Advertising Name:

Read the excerpted article below and respond to the following:

1. Which two of the identified techniques to you think are the most effective in today’s world? Briefly explain your answer.

2. In your own words, explain the importance of grabbing media attention. Give at least one specific example from recent media coverage.

3. Considering what you read, describe one technique that you think will become more popular in the future. Explain your answer.

4. Explain the importance of understanding an attention-grabbing message, as opposed to an informational or ‘real’ message. (Consider news items.)

5. Create an attention-grabbing message that is relevant for today. Then dissect two elements of your message. Why did you use these techniques? What was your purpose?

Assume that the company wants to market this product on Facebook or Instagram. They’re a legitimate company and don’t want to be mistaken for a fake ad.

6. What elements would you include to make it seem real?

7. How would you reassure the viewer that this was a legitimate product?

AD TECHNIQUES / CLOSE READING THE MEDIA

By Frank Baker, 10/31/2017

The marketing, public relations and advertising industries employ millions of people across the globe to produce messages.

Every day, untold billions of media messages vie for the world’s attention.

Today’s students have been described as our first generation of “digital natives,” but that does not mean they understand everything about media and technology. Understanding how messages are crafted and targeted to a specific demographic is an important 21st century skill.

With their mobile phones and tablets, many students are already media creators themselves. Whether it’s taking and manipulating photographs or making short videos, they often incorporate techniques they’ve learned by paying attention to other productions.

Attention for Sale

All media messages are constructions. Someone is responsible for putting the message together. It could be a newspaper, a magazine, a movie, an advertisement, a social media message, even a billboard or something intriguing that comes in the mail.

These media-makers are the experts in the creation of their specific medium. One of the media literacy critical thinking questions associated with media construction is what techniques are they using to get my attention? (We can guess why they want our attention: so they can sell it.)

Because of the increasing competition for attention, everyone in the media is using specific and field-tested techniques designed to lure us in. From social media, to TV and radio, to movies and magazines: something in the message must grab and hold our interest, if only for a few precious seconds. They want us to switch on our brains and remember.

People’s attention spans are shorter than ever so consequently the messenger’s work is harder than ever. Many of us now try to skip commercials using our TV recorders and remote controls, so advertisers have to keep devising new ways to get us to pay attention. One technique used to trick fast-forwarders is placing images within the commercial stream that fool viewers into thinking the commercials have ended – and so they push “Play” too soon.

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Another increasingly popular marketing tactic is “product placement”—the practice of displaying the product inside the TV show itself, where we’re sure to see it. (Notice that sleek laptop on James Bond’s speedboat?) On our digital devices, marketers seem to be reading our minds – using tracking programs tucked away in cookie software to watch our online behavior and deliver personalized, attention-getting messages inside our virtual environments.

Attention Grabbing: Then & Now

Technologies change but human nature is pretty much a constant. Advertisers have historically utilized a proven list of “techniques of persuasion” (pathos, logos, ethos) that have been in place as far back as World War I.

In 1957, author Vance Packard first published The Hidden Persuaders, a then-startling exposé detailing “how advertisers use psychological methods to tap into our unconscious desires in order to ‘persuade’ us to buy the(ir) products.” (Source)

Sixty years after The Hidden Persuaders, advances in neuromarketing are being used by many media companies, applying specific scientific methods to get our attention. (See these examples of neuromarketing.) One of those techniques considers where our eyes are directed when viewing an ad, for example, in a magazine. Eye-tracking research has revealed some important information to those who design the ads we see.

Consider this hair-color-enhancing shampoo ad and its corresponding heat map, which creates a color overlay of where the eyes spend the most time (reddish hot spots). The model looks straight at the camera and the viewers’ eyes spend the most time on the slogan, and then on her face. (Source)

[pic]But when the model is directed to look at the product, the viewers’ eyes now spend more time gazing at the product too and that’s exactly what an advertiser wants.

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This same eye-tracking technique is used in magazine cover design as well as in newspapers, web pages and movie posters.

In the 2002 film “Minority Report,” actor Tom Cruise, playing a futuristic detective, walked past some interactive billboards – one of which called him by name. “The road you’re on, John Anderton, is the one less traveled,” a Lexus billboard whispers at him. “How ridiculous,” some said.

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The watching billboard is not fiction today: some billboards now employ cameras that follow you as you notice the message. Using your mobile phone, the ads may actually know who you are, where you live and much more. Stores and many other businesses regularly use music and aroma (aka scent marketing) to influence how we feel while we shop. (See this five-minute MSNBC news feature about scent manipulation.)

Techniques: Shortened Soundbites

In a 1990’s study of the evolution of political campaign news, a university professor reported that soundbites – those edited remarks by politicians and candidates interviewed for TV news – had shrunk to exactly 9 seconds. (In 1968, it was 43 seconds.)

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By 2011, media had shaved off another second. Political consultants and their ad makers advised their clients: if you can’t say it in 8 seconds, forget it – it won’t be heard or remembered.

Techniques: Visual Design

Why are certain colors more eye-catching than others? Why would certain words be in larger fonts than other words on the cover of a magazine? Why is a certain celebrity on the cover this month? In the competitive world of magazine and tabloid publishing, it’s important to make your periodical stand out, especially if it’s positioned with hundreds of others.

Techniques: Repetition

One of the proven techniques of persuasion is repetition. Say something enough times and people will tend to believe it. Adolf Hitler repeatedly said “the Jews are the problem” and many Germans believed him, leading up to the Holocaust. Writing in his autobiography Mein Kampf, he said “If you go on repeating a lie, it becomes real.”

Modern leaders use repetition as well. How often do we hear “talking heads” on television news shows saying the same phrase – “the message of the day.” USA Today (2/16/17) reported on President Trump’s use of repetition, identifying his rhetoric as similar to one of the persuasive ad techniques. It cited examples: “Bad deals” are “terrible,” the media is “dishonest” or “fake,” and the system is “broken.”

Product advertising campaigns have relied on repeated slogans, many of which are replayed year after year: Nike (Just Do It); Frosted Flakes (They’re GREAT!); American Express (Don’t Leave Home Without It). More recently, we’ve all become accustomed to the Farmer’s Insurance slogan: “We know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two,” followed by another form of repetition, music or audio. Bum ba-dum bum bum bum bum.

Techniques: Click Bait

A snappy headline – an unbelievable story – most likely you and your students have encountered click bait while reading the news sites or surfing online.

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Often times these “stories” are posted at the bottom of the page or on the right hand side of the page. Many of the stories could be categorized as “fake news” or at least “misleading news.” The goal, if you don’t already know, is to get us to click and read AND be exposed to the advertising on those intriguing pages. The more clicks, the more money an advertiser can rake in. 

Recommended Resources

► This Is Your Brain On Ads: How Media Companies Hijack Your Attention (NPR) “An ad we watched when we were five years old can influence our buying behavior when we’re fifty.”

► Propaganda Techniques in Literature & Online Political Ads(ReadWriteThink lesson plan)

► Exploring Consumerism Where Ads & Art Intersect(ReadWriteThink lesson plan)

► The Manipulative Tricks Tech Companies Used To Capture Your Attention (TED Talk – designer Tristan Harris)

► How The Rise of Influencers Has Disrupted Advertising (Inc. Magazine)

► Confessions of a Neuromarketer: What is Neuromarketing and why does it matter?

► How brands are tapping into consumers’ faces – and brains (The Drum)

► How Marketers & Advertisers Get Our Attention (Newhouse)

► As Amazon’s Influence Grows, Marketers Scramble to Tailor Strategies (New York Times)

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