Thesis on "Persuasion the Art of Persuasion an Exploration"

Thesis 5 pages (1853 words) Sources: 6 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Persuasion

The Art of Persuasion

An Exploration of Persuasion Through the Media

John McCain, Barack Obama, and countless other politicians running for various offices want American votes. McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, and Applebees all want diners to stop for dinner. From what we wear to what we eat to what kind of car we buy, corporate America is trying to get our attention through persuasion. Of course, this has always been the case. With the emergence of the very earliest civilizations came one person's desire to sell things to another. Thus, scenes like the one from Disney's Aladdin, where merchants called out on shoppers to buy their wares in an ancient open market, were realities. In Biblical times, Jesus drove the money changes from the temple; they were trying to persuade the devout that they needed to purchase animals to sacrifice. In fact, persuasion has always played a great part in religion. From Jesus and the moneychangers to indulgences before Martin Luther, the church has almost always used persuasion as a tactic to increase the faithful or to fund its excursions. Even today, an era when the door-to-door missionary is still common, though becoming more rare, the evangelical attempts to persuade a person to share his or her beliefs. The art of persuasion even transcends professional boundaries. For example, the police negotiator uses persuasion as part of his daily tool kit. The recent movie, a Traitor, did an excellent job of capturing this through the main Federal Bureau of Investigation character, who often had to deal with terrorists, convincing them to give up the location of a colleague or a weapon. Using persuasion, the investigator considered his audience and offered incentives that would likely persuade a terrorist. Thus, from politics to religion to police work and even our personal lives, persuasion has always been an integral part of many societies. The art of persuasion changed, however with the introduction of mass media. With the ability to reach thousands using colors, sounds, and words, corporations, politicians, and even religious leaders have been able to use persuasion not only on a larger scale, but also with a clearer audience. Because certain types of people are more likely to subscribe to certain types of media, methods of persuasion can now be tailored to a certain type of audience. For example, MTV has decided to allow political ads on the channel for the first time in history during this presidential race. Because MTV's audience is younger, most expect Barack Obama, who often targets campaigning to younger people, to earn more voters from these ads (Kaplan and Campanile, 2008). Extraordinary amounts of research has gone into the development of persuasion via the media -- what colors to use, what fonts, what type of actors, and even when to run the advertisements. In fact, one of the most often used tactics in media persuasion is the use of purr words rather than snarl words. Linguist S.J. Hayakawa invented the term purr words to refer to those words that have good connotations, or make people feel good, as opposed to snarl words, which have unseemly connotations and make people feel bad. Those who wish to persuade make a habit of using purr words as opposed to snarl words ("Exploring Language" 2002). Because Americans are so accustomed to hearing persuasion attempts, we may not pick up on their stylistic intricacies immediately, but a detailed exploration of such attempts reveals that these tactics are generally specifically tailored to an audience. An analysis of four types of advertisements will identify in detail persuasion tactics and the audience that they may be attempting to persuade.

With November only two months away, the most frequent and recent attempts at persuasion have been political. Through interviews, campaign tours, and television advertisements, both John McCain and Barack Obama have been trying to convince the American people that they are the best choice for the presidency. In one television advertisement, paid for by Obama for America, Barack Obama's campaign staff try to persuade the American people that McCain is not who he represented himself to be, that he is no maverick. In order to do this, Obama lists what he considers factual evidence: John McCain's campaign advisers are lobbyists; McCain votes with Bush ninety percent of the time; and Sarah Palin was "before the bridge to nowhere before she was against it" ("No Maverick Ad," 2008). All of these policies ad up to Obama's advertisement calling McCain "hardly a maverick" ("No Maverick Ad," 2008). The control of the context in this advertisement allows Obama's campaign to present his information as facts without an immediate rebuttal from his opposition. This video's primary persuasion tactic is a tight control of pictures and images. The audience is greeted first by a smiling photograph of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, who appear to be working together. Next, the audience is hit with an image of McCain and Palin from a campaign advertisement followed by the words "Woah" and "Truth," imposed on the entire screen. As the narrator begins to list the factual evidence photograph after photograph of McCain and Palin with a less than flattering statement about them and that statement's source appear on the screen. One of the most impressive uses of images is the segment of vide that claims McCain's campaign advisers are Washington lobbyists. As this is spoken, McCain's face is blocked out by small photographs of his advisers. The use of words is also quite powerful in this advertisement. Not only are words chosen that reflect the general syntax of the population, like "whoa," but important words are flashed across the screen as they are read, and the video ends with the statement, "just more of the same" ("No Maverick Ad," 2008). This advertisement was obviously intended for those who see John McCain as a maverick, and through control of context and images, in addition to clever language, the advertisement does an excellent job of attempting to persuade.

While political advertisement's attempts to persuade are rather upfront, it is not always easy to determine what certain types of advertisements are trying to persuade an audience to do. For example, a certain billboard features the white words "see read" with a red background. At first, the meaning of this billboard is not quite clear. In fact, some may think it is an advertisement of anger, or maybe anger management. Because the words are written on a red background, one immediately sees the words on the billboard as "see red." This invites a second look, at which point the viewer generally sees the spelling of the word "read." The billboard is an advertisement for billboards, implying that billboards are seen and read, with the silent implication that other types of advertising media are not. Thus, the billboard is attempting to persuade audience members to lease billboard space. Because the billboard is located on a busy highway that connects Indianapolis to Chicago, it can be assumed that the target audience for this attempt at persuasion is the business commuter. Persuasion tactics used in this attempt to persuade are obviously cleaver wording and control of images. The intellectual joke and brainteaser created by these words on the red background also show the designer's understanding of audience. A commuting businessperson would probably be intelligent enough to understand the meaning of the billboard, and an inherent understanding of the advertisement world allow the business person to see the humor in the advertisement.

Of course, political and business advertisements are those that would probably excite the members of a college campus. Although they are encountered in day-to-day life, other attempts at persuasion are much more prevalent. As members of society perform day-to-day tasks such as reading a magazine or purchasing an item, they often receive attempts at persuasion, usually in the form of advertisements. One of these attempts at persuasion is an advertisement found in the magazine Parenting. This advertisement is an attempt to persuade child caregivers to purchase Baby Orajel for their infants' teeth. The advertisement features several persuasion tactics, including control of the context, clever use of words, including purr words, and control of pictures and images. When the person reading Parenting turns to the page with the advertisement, in fact, they are greeted with a photo featuring a mother and child. The mother is in profile, but has blonde hair, and the child is an infant with bright eyes who is raising his or her hand. The child's teeth are prominently displayed in a small smile. Under the photo, the words, "How do the best teeth get started? With baby Orajel Tooth & Gum Cleaner" are printed (Orajel 2008). The photograph featuring the child's teeth first draws the reader into the advertisement with an emotional appeal, and the purr words that follow seal the reader's commitment to the product. Everyone wants to make sure innocent children, like the one pictured, are well taken care of, and the advertisement uses photos and words to take advantage of this desire.… READ MORE

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