Thinking vs. Feeling: The Psychology of Advertising
Central Argument: The central argument is that an advertisement is successful, when you use either facts or when you appeal to emotions, because these two are key elements to psychologically affect consumers.
When a company advertises its product, they hope that consumers will fall for their promotion style, and end up buying the product. Advertisement industry is an ever growing industry as figures in USA show that companies spend up to $70 billion to advertise. Advertisements are deemed successful when you either appeal to emotion or give you facts. These two psychologically play key roles because they make people want to buy the product. Suppose an advertisement is appealing to emotion, it is trying to manipulate and persuade the consumer to buy the product by portraying an image in the consumer’s head, claiming that the product would help them in a positive way. If the advertisement is based on facts, it shows that the company is trying to be honest, but at the same time bragging about what the product can achieve, therefore making the consumer think the product has some sort of value or effect to it. Both ways of advertising would psychologically affect the consumers, but the advertisement has to be made with creativity, uniqueness, and has to be effective.
When an advertisement is appealing to emotion, it tries to play with the consumers mind. If an advertisement does its homework before, then it will successfully appeal to emotions of people. If a company targets a certain group (age, gender, profession,), then it should make sure there is some sort of element to it, where the advertisement would make those type of people buy the product. Suppose Nike makes an advertisement that shows a famous basketball player wearing a Nike shoe and going crazy in the court, then it is trying to appeal to appeal to young, aspiring basketball players that wearing that Nike shoe would make them go crazy in the court, just like the famous basketball player. If they add a creative and unique element to their advertising and marketing strategy, then it would appeal to people’s emotion, and then the emotions would get the best out of them to buy the product.
If an advertisement is based upon facts, then it is trying to brag about the product rather than being honest. It would mean that the advertisement is emphasizing a lot about its good attributes in the product, and psychologically make the viewer think all about the good attributes in the product. Suppose you see a McDonald’s advertisement on television, it talks about how delicious the burger is, how cheap it is, how the meat is so authentic, and how you get a toy with each happy meal. They are bragging about things that you will definitely get when you choose that product. What they don’t tell you is that eating that burger is unhealthy, fattening, and the toy is a cheap, discarded piece of plastic made in China. These types of advertisements shows you facts that make the product look good, so that you will think that there is good value to it.
Advertisements clearly rely on either of these elements to persuade you to buy the product. They either tell you facts to make you impressed with their product or they will try to play with your emotions to make you thing that the product will help you in some sort of way. Either way, these two styles of advertising seems to be working, considering that companies are spending large sums of money to advertise.
TV Is Good for You
Central Argument: The central argument is that television is good for women in rural India because it inspires and arouses them to stand up for what they believe in.
In many parts of the world, more notably in western countries, watching television is considered to be a bad habit. Critics say they either have negative influence on you, or it makes one stuck in front of the set all the time. The article TV is good for you, shows that is not the case in India, especially in the rural parts of the country, as it has inspired many women to make bold statements, as well as make them courageous. With many sitcoms entering the Indian television industry, women are getting influenced and learning with how these women use courage, particularly towards men. Women in rural India are forced to do what men tell them to do and disobeying or dissatisfying them could get them beaten up. They are given responsibilities clean up, cook and look after household by their husbands. Though they are mistreated, they do not fight back, but these television sitcoms have inspired to have a go at their husbands.
The article has given a lot of credit to the television sitcoms for inspiring women to stand up for their rights, but there is no concrete evidence showing that. Considering this article has been written by foreigners, the article doesn’t really emphasize on what women have gone through in their marriages. Men in rural areas often love to gamble and get drunk, making financial stability in the families very insecure. Gambling and drinking often makes them angry and stressed, and they put their stress and anger on their wives, by beating them up. They also don’t have much interest in their children, and the wife will have to make sure they are healthy and productive. The wives are put in so much pressure that they cannot take the way they are treated anymore. They cannot take such beatings and mistreatment forever. Women are looked upon as a tool rather than people by men in rural India. They feel superior to women, and they feel that they can show this superiority by dominating them. When women cannot handle such dominance and mistreatment, they start to get fed up, and they look for inspiration to make them bold enough to fight back to the men. For some, it just rages out, others look for advice from elders and wise people. This article though, focuses on the most unusual of the lot, as they claim that television sitcoms are the ones that influence the women to stand up. It is hard for me to believe that considering those women are financially superior and live in an urban environment. They do not get beaten up, and they certainly don’t have a whole lot of burden, considering they have servants, and other services that are offered in cities. Women may get inspired by these urban, fiction characters but they are living in an illusion if they believe that the men will react the same way as they do in the sitcoms.
Women have to live in a difficult way in rural India. They are looked down upon in society, and they aren’t taken seriously. They get frustrated and to me they will either unleash it when their frustration comes to a boiling point, or they will get advice from elderly and wise people. To me, it would be absurd to handle situations by getting inspired from a television sitcom because the show is fiction, the environment is different, and the aftermath will not always end the same way it does in a sitcom.
A very good job of understanding and summarizing the two articles. Here's something to keep in mind: This type of essay has to be more about your response to the central argument. Very simply, include in your essay something like this:
ReplyDeleteAuthor A believes B. I agree/disagree for reasons X, Y, and Z.
Your three reasons could be just about anything -- personal experience, something you learned in science class, a book you read, a movie you saw -- as long as it provides evidence for why you agree or disagree with the argument.