Introduction
The ideas of social psychology deal with the everyday life of any member of society. In particular, behavioral patterns, attitudes, and communicative processes constitute social cognition as a way of self-identification and integration into a group. Attitudes and behavior have a tendency to change under certain influences, which might be applied by advertisers to attract consumers to their products or services. In this paper, the elements of persuasion will be explained and applied to the analysis of a TV advertisement. The conclusions concerning the effectiveness of the ad will be provided with the following application of the psychological topic to the author’s personal experience.
Five Elements of Persuasion
The five elements of a persuasive argument include source, message, medium, receiver, and context, all of which have the potential to alter an outcome of persuasion. Before applying these elements to the analysis of an ad, it is relevant to explain each of them. Thus, according to Burton, a source is a speaker who delivers the message; the more credible the source is, the better the chances are for persuasion to be effective. The message is the type of appeal that is used to render an idea. Medium, or channel, is a way the message is sent to a receiver, which might be an image, TV, verbal or non-verbal communication (Burton 1196). Accordingly, the receiver is a person or a population that is targeted by the message and is expected to change attitudes or behavior. Finally, context is the last but not least element of persuasion, which is manifested through the background information provided with the message.
TV Advertisement Analysis
In terms of the analysis of the TV advertisement for Bigpond internet service provider, it is relevant to start with the identification of the elements of persuasion as they are applied to the ad. Father and sonâs conversation becomes a source of persuasion. The message the ad sends is explicitly formulated in the text provided at the end of the video saying âgive your kids the right answers, get them broadbandâ (âBigpond Advertisementâ 00:00:26-00:00:29). The medium is TV video that enables showing a plot for the viewers to analyze. As for the receiver, it is implied that Internet users are the target population of the ad. Finally, the context is a piece of a cheerful whistling melody that implies the ease of information use upon the usage of the advertised service.
Effective Persuasion
The balanced utilization of all the elements described above guarantees the effectiveness of persuasion. According to Lewinski et al., enjoyable advertisements using humorous and laughable plots are âdesigned to induce attitude change” (par. 5). The analyzed advertisement demonstrates effective use of a smile-provoking video that is memorable and, therefore, has high chances of becoming very popular among viewers. As for the aim of the ad to change behavior in terms of using the company’s services, the authors appeal to the omnipresent situation when one does not know an answer to a simple question. Due to the fact that it is funny and commonly applicable, the ad is very effective.
Application of the Topic
The topic of social cognition and persuasion presents a broad scope of issues that entail human interactions and the ways of altering them. The ideas found in the sources by Burton and Lewinski et al. might be applicable to my future professional life. When communicating with clients and working on projects, the art of persuasion will provide both a theoretical and practical basis for the delivery of my ideas. In general, I think it is important to recognize the social, behavioral patterns and the ways of influencing them to succeed in any type of interpersonal communication.
Works Cited
âBigpond Advertisementâ. YouTube, uploaded by blergh19, 2006.
Burton, Lorelle J., et al. Psychology. 5th ed., Wiley, 2018.
Lewinski, Peter, et al. âEmbodied Resistance to Persuasion in AdvertisingâFrontiers in Psychology, 2016. Web.