Nowadays, Americans adults, and children alike, are being seduced. Because the seducers are the advertisers, we watch their alluring images in newspapers and magazines. These people use the best ways possible to allure their targeted customers to purchase their products. To get consumers’ hands-on, the advertisers lean heavily on propaganda to sell products, whether the “products” are a brand of toothpaste, a candidate for office, or a particular political viewpoint. The advertisers dwell on popular beliefs and fallacies too to help market their products. On the other hand, the potential customers fall victim to these flashy alluring advertisements as a result of the psychological effects applied by the advertisers.
Other important influential elements that are found in a product would be a layout, color, or subliminal message. In fact, the Weider advertisement chosen is effective through its use of psychological images, subliminal perception, its color content, and the arrangement of the picture.
The Weider advertisement is very well-informed in using psychological images to attract consumers. The advertisement shows the connection between cholesterol and heart disease, how to manage their balance, and to have psychological well-being; all of this is shown so that the intended consumer will have some basic knowledge on the contents of the rice and how it helps in relation to the heart diseases. This is intended to give an overview of what the customer should expect. The red print inside the white cloud heart shape gives the images that managing low or high cholesterol levels that will have a clean and good heart. It also shows that managing cholesterol naturally is the key to having that clean heart. The phrase, “Naturally” has been made more legible to amplify the fact that this is not just a way for managing cholesterol but a Natural way of doing it. These images have been educating people around the world on all aspects of bodybuilding, health, and wellness (Weider)
This advertisement also makes use of subliminal perception to convince the would-be consumer. Subliminal perception is a suggestion that whilst the mind may not be consciously aware of the messages, the subconscious and body are able to pick up on the subliminal stimuli and respond accordingly (Shevrin, 1975). A visible symbol of white cloud heart shape with red print “Manage cholesterol. Naturally.” Therefore, the weasel word “Manage” makes the difference between reality and illusion that how the product can balance the cholesterol naturally. The vigorous grains of rice grow naturally and it will manage cholesterol naturally also. It is not a strange fact but is a true fact. This subliminal perception most likely appeals to consumers who believe regarding consciousness is that product can produce effects on the healthy heart. In contrast, unconsciously consumers perceived stimuli lead to much more automatic reactions because taking “Red Yeast Rice” will keep health and wellness.
Colors have deep subliminal meanings that affect our thinking and rationale. The messages that are within the color have deep and symbolic meanings. They carry symbolic meanings that vary amongst cultures and countries according to what the color is associated with or the direction that the color takes. In addition to this, the importance of color is its functions as revealed in its intensity so that bright colors when used in advertisements are intended to capture the attention of the customer while less bright colors show less catchy phrases. Here, the advertisement shows stability, power, and trustworthiness, by taking a light gray cloudy sky and white cloud builds a heart shape to use as a sky and under that placed a vivid color of a bottle “Red Yeast Rice”. The bottle itself shows vitality in its red color. There are rice plants that boast of good growth, health, and natural growth at the right and the upper left corner. These pictures of healthy rice plants definitely convince the customer that whatever the Red Yeast Rice is, it must be just as healthy as the rice plants are shown. Also, the clues of yellow on the bottle and the rice represent prosperity, earthiness, and warmth. This, of course, is appropriate because it is a dietary supplement as implied by the red print which reads “Traditional Chinese Supplement” For this reason; it is a cheerful energetic combination of red and yellow colors in this advertisement that supports the quality product.
The last element that adds attraction to this advertisement is its arrangement on the page. If one were to look at this advertisement, the first thing one would see is the pure heart in the sky. The next thing that would catch the eye would be the product with bold, printed “Red Yeast Rice 600 mg” is a “Traditional Chinese Supplement” and contain “180 TABLETS DIETARY SUPPLEMENT” This leads the would-be consumers to believe that it has earned the trust of health-conscious people for one simple reason. The advertisement also has a circular layout (Belroy) to keep the consumer’s eye’s attention that grows vigorously rice plants with the healthy grains of rice at the upper left and bottom right corner. In addition, at the bottom of the picture, there are is a green rice field and the one thing would see a small letter written “These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease” through this statement consumers understand the product is a supplement keeping cholesterol balance and having a good heart. Under the rice field, there is a company’s name “Weider”, “Joe Weider” signature, the company’s website, and the distributor website on the red wall. This all will make consumers trust that the Weider brand is one of the most recognized brands in the industry. In addition, the website will help interested consumers get more information related to the product so that the customer is at liberty to decide whether the product is good for him or not.
In general, this ad has used psychological images, subliminal perception, color content, and arrangement of the picture to make them acknowledge that Weider’s “Red Yeast Rice” puts the quality and efficacy of the product above everything else. These features combined bring an almost perfect result for the advertiser and the customer can summarize what he needs within a very short time as provided by the advert.