Advertising Texts: Communication, Persuasion & Tactics

Understanding Advertising Texts

The Commercial Purpose

The commercial nature of advertising focuses on dissemination to attract potential buyers, viewers, and users. Advertising messages are often spread widely.

The Advertising Communication Circuit

Advertising typically involves unilateral communication, where there is no direct exchange of views between the sender and receiver. While the user cannot reply directly, the message is presented appealingly, sometimes posing questions or giving commands to engage the audience.

Issuer (Sender)

The issuer of an advertisement is usually an advertising agency that creates the message on behalf of a client (often a commercial entity) to promote a product or service. The issuer's primary known intention is to sell.

Receiver

The receiver is the target listener, viewer, or reader. Advertising aims to capture their attention and overcome potential resistance through novelty, humor, and impact. The approach is often phatic (focused on establishing contact) and impersonal.

Message

The core advertising message consistently aims to convince the recipient that the advertised product or service is the best choice, thereby encouraging its purchase or acquisition.

Code

Advertising employs a combination of codes, including verbal (spoken or written language), visual (images, video), and auditory (music, sound effects).

Channel

The channels are the media used to deliver the ads. These include print media like paper (newspapers, magazines) and posters, as well as electronic media transmitting images and sound via radio waves or digital signals.

Persuasion and Seduction Techniques

Persuasion, the fundamental goal of advertising, is often amplified by mechanisms of seduction, particularly through visual imagery. Advertisements frequently:

• Focus on presenting desirable bodies and objects, sometimes with minimal narrative context.
• Use actors whose gestures aim to express the absolute joy supposedly derived from the product.
• Feature the product prominently, often in close-ups, with high color density and sometimes abstracted from its background to enhance desirability.
• Employ less realistic settings, constructed primarily for the viewer's visual pleasure, incorporating vibrant and exciting colors.

Manipulation Tactics in Advertising

Advertising can sometimes employ manipulative tactics, including:

• Suppression: Omitting information that is important or of interest to the consumer.
• Addition: Making false claims about product features or benefits, or using fabricated testimonials.
• Distortion: Describing a real aspect of the product or service in a misleading way through techniques such as:
  • Exaggeration: Overstating benefits or features.
  • Minimization: Downplaying drawbacks or limitations.
  • Concealment (Dissimulation): Hiding negative aspects.