you switch on the tv and relax while you watch a movie…

Advertising TricksRecognizing Ways People try to Make You Buy a Product or Use a

Service…

You switch on the TV and relax while you watch a movie…

…All of a sudden, an advertisement shows

up…

The product that the ad is trying to make you buy seems cool, but you wonder which parts about it are accurate and which are not…

There are many tricks that advertisers use to make you

buy something…

Glittering Generalities

One kind is called ‘glittering generalities’. Have you ever seen an advertisement that said something like…

‘The World’s Fastest Car’‘The Tastiest Pizza in Town’

‘The Cutest Dress Ever’

You answer is probably yes because this technique is used a lot.

But did you ever think about it like this…

‘The World’s Fastest Car’ – Who says? Did anyone measure the speed of each kind of car in the whole world?

‘The Tastiest Pizza in Town’ Everyone has different taste buds – who did you ask when you came to this conclusion?

‘The Cutest Dress Ever’ By whose judgment is this the cutest dress ever? The owner of the store? The person who designed this dress?

But there are also many other techniques and tricks that advertisers use that you probably aren’t aware of.

Loaded Words

In advertisements, the advertisers use lots of fancy words that will make you want to buy a product. This technique is called the ‘loaded words’ technique.

Escape the terrible cold and enjoy a relaxing vacation at Rehoboth

Beach!

Escape the terrible cold and enjoy a relaxing vacation at

Rehoboth Beach!‘Escape’, ‘terrible’, ‘enjoy’, and ‘relaxing’ are all words that were purposely used to make you want to visit Rehoboth Beach. This technique isn’t ‘bad’. It is just a kind of technique that will try to make your opinion go more in favor of the product.

TransferOne technique is called the ‘transfer’

technique. In this technique, the advertisers put in something that has nothing to do with the thing they are

trying to advertise.

For example, have you ever seen the kind of advertisement on TV in which some super heroes are trying to save

cereal from pirates? Pirates and super heroes have nothing to do with cereal, but the advertisers make it seem that

way to make kids want to buy the cereal.

Cereal and Pirates???

Plain Folks

Yet another technique is called the ‘plain folks’ technique. In this

technique, advertisers show regular people in ordinary situations enjoying

and benefiting from a product or service.

Sometimes advertisers show ordinary people enjoying a ride in a really fast car.

Other times, they show ordinary kids becoming really smart because of cool education programs.

Permissible Lies

One kind of technique is called ‘permissible lies’. In this technique, the advertisers make customers assume something without them actually saying it.

An example of this technique is if you see someone on TV who was very satisfied with what she got…

‘BJ’s new spaghetti packets are so cheap and delicious, that I’ll never

buy the spaghetti from Walmart anymore!’

She didn’t say anything bad about the spaghetti in Walmart, but she did say she’d stop buying from there, so the

viewer assumes that BJ’s ones are better.

Another example of this technique is when Thomas Lipton had his mother sell the eggs since she had smaller hands than him. The eggs appeared bigger in his mother’s hands. He didn’t lie – he just let the customer assume!

Background Music

Another technique is when there is soft, soothing background music while a product is being shown on TV. Many times you may not notice the music, but your subconscious does, and it will cause you to remember this product later when you may need it!

Now that you know about many different tricks and techniques advertisers use to try to make

you buy a product,

…the next time you watch an ad on TV, try figuring out what kind of trick is being used, if any at all.

Think times before buyingsomething!

And tell your friends to do the same as well!