100 things..(Manipulation and Illusion)

Advertising is all about the way information about products and services is presented. Advertisements are created to generate interest of the consumer, to facilitate increased consumption of products and services. Most companies hire advertising agencies to create an awareness about their brands, or rely on their in-house advertising team to do so. Mediums used to propagate information are television, radio, cinema, video games, the Internet, telephonic, banners, billboards, and print media like newspapers and magazines.

Although not everyone 'buys' the message transmitted through the advertisements, at certain times we do get intrigued by some of them. For the companies who advertise their products and services, this intrigue and curiosity translates into sales in the longer run. Advertising is a billion dollar industry in American alone. Not only do the advertisers create advertisements, but spend huge sums to run, test, and measure advertising effectiveness.

Effective Advertising Techniques Used in Advertisements

Advertising techniques can be of many kinds. All creative advertisers use some of the following effective advertising techniques and tricks to grab the potential consumer's attention and turn it to sales.

Arouse Curiosity
Nothing works better than this technique. Humans, by nature are always drawn towards the unknown, or in this case something new and advanced. Arousing curiosity with words, prints, images or visuals will definitely make an impact. On an average, an individual spends less than 5 seconds to go through an entire ad. If your subject does not arouse curiosity immediately, it is a lost opportunity. A well-crafted ad should be eye-catching, and difficult to ignore.

Promise a Benefit
Most brands are associated with some pre-defined character, and they need to be re-emphasized with every new service advertised. The headline must promise a benefit for the consumer, because in most instances it is the headline that sells the product more than the copy, images or the celebrity. Advertisements should also carry general information about the service center address, phone numbers, credit cards that the business accepts, and the name of a person to ask for when calling for more information.

Emotional Appeal
Many advertisers attract attention by pulling at the heart stings and triggering emotions. An emotional response is by far the most powerful reason for making decisions. Emotional and rational thoughts are interdependent, as the ability to decide rationally is determined by issues that drive the emotions. We get more attracted to products and services that make us feel good and safe. The concept of emotional appeal are best seen in insurance ads made world over, and also companies that associate their sales with social upliftment causes.

Children
In most houses, children have a say in every big or small purchase made. Most parents just give in to the tantrums, a fact well-known to the advertisers. Out of ten commercials one sees through any medium, 8 have children featured in them who are generally a little more perfect than the target audience. These perfect children then go on to become role-models that have to emulated by other children.

Celebrities
A celebrity's larger-than-life image, whether downright weird or righteous, strikes a chord with people of all ages. Advertisers understand this appeal and use celebrity status and image to convince consumers that their products are worth purchasing. Besides celebrities that have international and national fame and recognition, many local advertisements use local, but popular celebrities in their ads. While choosing a celebrity to endorse your products and services, it is imperative to ensure that their image and character matches the brand advertised.

Consumer Intelligence
As a rule, never underestimate or insult the consumer's intelligence. Most ads exaggerate, however, the benefits and basic information of the product and service should be well presented. A consumer who is interested will always check the market before making a decision. Irrelevant and over-the-top exaggerated information will definitely turn off the potential consumer. No one really believes in words like the greatest, unbelievable or once-in-a lifetime-fantastic offer. Another thing to bear in mind is that, while certain products cater to general masses, some are only meant for limited market. Therefore, it's important to appeal to basic sense and culture of different markets while creating ads.

An advertisement is more like a gamble. There is no fixed advertisement techniques for it to succeed. Some ads have all the right components, yet fail to create an impact, while some score over in their simplicity. The most, and perhaps the only important reason an ad is made, is to generate revenue for the company by selling products and services.

By Loveleena Rajeev

source: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/effective-advertising-techniques-used-in-advertisements.html

An Analysis of Language Manipulation in Advertising

Advertisers use the manipulation of language to create claims that suggest something about their products without directly claiming it to be true. Through this method, consumers are attracted to a product because they infer certain things about the product from its claim even though those things are often not true of the product itself. Companies rely heavily on their slogans, jingles, and advertisements to make a profit, and the language used in these various forms of media have a huge impact on their effects on the consumer. In his article “The Language of Advertising Claims,” Jeffrey Schrank says that although the use of color, symbols, and imagery in advertisements can be studied to determine their psychological techniques, the “simplest and most direct way to study ads is through an analysis of the language of the advertising claim,” because all the other aspects of the ad center around this claim. This paper is going to analyze what it is about these types of claims that appeals to consumers and how the use of specific grammatical structures renders the claims meaningless.

Schrank explains that the claim is the “verbal or print part of an ad that makes some claim of superiority for the product being advertised.” While some claims are honest statements about products, others are outright lies. However, most claims fall into the middle ground, “neither bold lies nor helpful consumer information.” These claims are the ones that rely most heavily on the manipulation of language to attract consumers to their products. Some rely on one word whose presence negates the claim in the rest of the sentence, and others make a claim about the product but fail to qualify the claim. For example, the claim, “Peterson’s gives you more,” does not clarify what it gives you more of.

Many people believe they are immune to advertising, claiming that while they view and even enjoy commercials and advertisements, they know that the point of the ad is to attract consumers, so they are prepared to not be fooled into buying the product in the ad. However, Schrank writes, “Advertising works below the level of conscious awareness” and those who claim immunity to its message are the most susceptible. Advertisers are aware of the public’s perceived immunity to advertisements, and they use this belief to their advantage. If people don’t believe they are being persuaded by it, they have no defenses against it.

So many companies rely on advertising gimmicks to attract consumers because many of today’s products are parity products. Parity products are “products in which all or most of the brands available are nearly identical” (Schrank). Gasoline, cigarettes, beer, soaps, soft drinks, and headache and cold remedies are all examples of parity products. Since no one brand in these products transcends the rest, ads are needed to create an illusion of superiority. There are several techniques commonly used to make products seem superior to other products.

The first of these techniques involves the words “better” and “best.” Schrank says, “The word ‘better’ has been legally interpreted to be a comparative and therefore becomes a clear claim of superiority.” Legal minds have decided that parity products, of which all brands are equal in quality, can use the word “best” to describe their product because if all products are equally good, they can all be considered the best. Schrank continues, “The only time ‘better’ can be used is when a product does indeed have superiority over other products in its category or when the better is used to compare the product with something other than competing brands.” So a company selling laundry detergent can claim that their product is better than toothpaste, but one gasoline company cannot claim that their gasoline is better than any other company’s gasoline.

This is an interesting usage of the terms “better” and “best,” which are the comparative and superlative forms of the word “good.” While all products can be deemed “good” products because the adjective “good” does not counter the claim of any other products, the word that is typically used to mean the highest form of good now cannot be used in this sense. The word “better” denotes superiority, so it has become the legal word of choice for products that actually are better than other competing products-an interesting twist in grammatical structure. When companies cannot legally say that their product is “better” than the competing products, they often resort to using other linguistic advertising techniques instead of vying for the false position of “best.”

Schrank outlines ten basic advertising claims that are used to make consumers believe something about the product that is not true. The claims are legal because when studied grammatically, we can determine that the claims do not actually provide any false information-people just make unconscious assumptions about the products based on how the ads are worded. The first two claims are the Weasel Claim and the Unfinished Claim. These two claims focus the most on the linguistic aspects of their claims, as opposed to claims that try to make products sound different and unique in a more straightforward way.

The Weasel Claim involves a modifier, the “weasel word,” that negates the claim that follows it. Some of the most common weasel words include “helps,” “virtually,” “acts,” “can be,” “up to,” “refreshes,” “comforts,” “fights,” “the feel of,” “the look of,” “fortified,” “enriched,” and “strengthened.” These words modify the claims that follow them by being subtle enough for consumers to not notice them and only take in the information that follows them. The weasel words give the idea that they are reinforcing the claims that follow them, but they actually detract from the claim by rendering them less significant or even completely worthless. They reduce the significance of the claims by using powerful, assertive words such as “help,” “act,” and “fight” to give the impression of effectiveness. However, when the word’s literal meaning is taken into account, we realize that the weasel word is the most important word in the whole claim. It takes the meaning away from the rest of the claim, so that if the claim is, “Helps control dandruff,” the word “helps” acts as a weasel word so the actual claim no longer that it controls dandruff but that it helps you control dandruff-like a good friend might. We could expand on this example with the claim, “Helps control dandruff with regular use.” In this case, the word “regular” is another weasel word, because by modifying the word “use,” the actual claim strays even further from the perceived claim. Without a clarification of what “regular use” is-daily? twice a week?-the claim is no longer reliable. These claims could easily be clarified by telling us what the product is being compared to, but advertisers purposely leave that information out so they can’t be construed as giving false information.

The Unfinished Claim states that the product has more, or is better than something, but does not say what that “something” is. “Peterson’s gives you more” is an Unfinished Claim because it claims that by using the product the consumer gets more of something-but what? In this claim, the word “more” classifies as the indirect object, not an adjective, as the advertisers want consumers to think. Because we usually hear the word “more” used as an adjective, the advertisers can use it at the end of this claim to give the feeling of there being “more” to come-more of something-even though it really is the indirect object that Peterson’s claims to be giving to you. These claims, similar to the “better than” claims,” need qualifiers that answer the question “than what?” so we know what to compare the product to when evaluating the claim.

Unfinished Claims that rely on “more” and its adjectival power include: “Chai-mate gives chai more flavor,” “30% more cleaning power,” and “More people sleep on Sleepwell Posturepedic.” The last of these three claims is meant to be interpreted, “More people sleep on Sleepwell Posturepedic than on other mattresses,” but can actually mean many different things: More people sleep on Sleepwell Posturepedic than on concrete floors, more people than alligators sleep on Sleepwell Posturepedic, or more people sleep than fornicate on Sleepwell Posturepedic. The second claim above, “30% more cleaning power,” is more straightforward. We are meant to interpret it as either “30% more cleaning power than competing brands” or “30% more cleaning power than an earlier version of this product.” However, the fact that it does not specify what the product has 30% more cleaning power than renders the claim meaningless. The company has no responsibility to prove that what they say in their ad is true, because the ad is not based on facts. The first claim above, “Chai-mate gives chai more flavor,” is not only an Unfinished Claim, but also uses weasel words to further entice consumers. We aren’t told what product Chai-mate is being compared to, and we also aren’t told what the term “flavor” are supposed to imply. Is the “more flavor” Chai-mate promises us a pleasurable flavor or a bitter one?

From Schrank’s list of common weasel words, seven out of fifteen are verbs, and another three are adjectives derived from verbs. This suggests that a sense of action or of doing is important to the consumer. They respond to words like “helps” and “acts” because the words make it sound as if the product is being proactive toward the desired result. Three out of the fifteen are prepositional phrases: “up to,” “the feel of,” and “the look of.” These phrases imply either an upward trend or a similarity between two products. If the claim is “Save up to 40%,” the phrase “up to” is often overlooked and we assume we will save 40%. Additionally, the “up to” has that sense of rising motion in it, which translates in us as an overall good feeling. Most people nowadays like bigger, better, and more things, so that feeling is welcomed and even sought after. Anything between zero and the number following “up to” is included in these claims, making the phrase “save up to 40%” literally mean “save between 0% and 40%”. Similarly, the phrases “can be” and “virtually” connote the possibility of the product being what the claim says it is. Consumers tend to take claims such as, “Leaves dishes virtually spotless,” to mean, “Leaves dishes spotless.” The positive quality of the word “virtually,” as if there is a real possibility of the product leaving the dishes truly spotless, counteracts the fact that the word “virtually” literally means “almost,” leaving people with the image of spotless dishes.

The fourth category of function that weasel words perform is to give the product an illusion of strength. “Fortified,” “enriched,” and “strengthened” are examples from Schrank’s list that fulfill this role. The fact that these words were formed from verbs makes them seem stronger and more action-oriented, as we mentioned above, but they also all relate to strength and power. These words are often used to describe products that we wouldn’t normally think of as “strong” or “powerful,” thus making them appeal to us even more.

Consumers also respond to comparisons that suggest the product is of high quality or is similar to another product. This accounts for the other two prepositional phrases in Schrank’s list. “The feel of” and “the look of,” as well as others not mentioned by Schrank, imply a comparison between two things. A headline that reads, “Ford Bushwhacker has look and feel of pricier cars,” gives the impression that the Bushwhacker looks and feels like pricier cars because it has the same quality as pricier cars, but in reality, all it claims is that it looks like those cars, but the look could made with cheap materials that won’t last long. Similarly, the claim “Epoch fencing captures the look and feel of natural wood” sounds like it means Epoch fencing looks and feels like natural wood, but in reality it doesn’t look or feel anything like natural wood, because it is made of plastic. Additionally, the word “captures” acts as a weasel word because it negates the rest of the claim-that Epoch fencing has the look and feel of natural wood. What does the word “captures” mean in the context of this sentence? It has no significance, because the ad is personifying wood, which cannot literally catch anything. The literally meaning of the words in the ad is that Epoch fencing is not natural wood.

This manipulation of language succeeds because people believe they are immune to the advertisements that surround them. This illusion of immunity makes them even more vulnerable to the various techniques advertisers use to target exactly those people. They infuse advertisements for parity products with Weasel Claims, Unfinished Claims, and illusions of superiority to attract consumers to their products, and consumers think they are buying a superior product when, in fact, they are not. The grammatical structure of the English language makes this kind of advertising especially lucrative, because of people’s tendency to only register that parts of the ad that they want to be true. The relationship between words in a sentence is intricate, and we must be aware of the way a subtle shift in the structure of a sentence can change the entire sentence’s meaning before we can claim to be immune to the linguistic gimmicks of advertising.

source: http://malleryk.wordpress.com/writing-portfolio/academic-writing-sample/

INTELLIGENT MANIPULATION –  EDWARD BERNAYS

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society… In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons … who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”

– Edward Bernays, founder of the public relations industry.

Why is Ivory soap preferred by more doctors? Why is bacon and eggs an iconic American breakfast? Why did a 100 year taboo against women smoking end overnight? These and hundreds of other questions all have the same answer: because Edward Bernays said so.

When Edward Bernays was starting out in the business world after the turn of the twentieth century, he was working for a theater company. One of his first responsibilities was to promote a play controversial for its sexuality. Instead of avoiding the issue, he tackled it head on, portraying the play as a pivotal opportunity to discuss the topic in polite society. Anyone that did not attend would be seen as non-progressive and adverse to improving the world. The play was a huge success.

This was a completely new approach to marketing. Since the Renaissance, the majority of advertising had been geared towards promoting the good qualities of a product or service. Bernays decided to change the game up entirely. Instead of trying to sell the product to consumers, he sold a new world to consumers in which the product he was selling became immensely valuable.

A great example of Bernays technique was his campaign for Ivory soap. Ivory’s producer, Procter & Gamble, was nowhere near the industrial giant it is today before Bernays was given the reigns of the Ivory campaign. The problem with traditional marketing tactics is obvious with a product like soap: how much different can one soap be from another? Most soap companies worked hard to come up with new scents and colors to out do the competition. Bernays had a different idea.

First, he commissioned a large poll of hospitals, clinics, doctors and nurses asking if they preferred chemically scented and colored soaps, or unscented soap like Ivory? The results came back in Ivory’s favor and Bernays made sure every magazine, newspaper, and medical journal mentioned it. Without buying a single ad in a single publication, he garnered years of positive publicity for Ivory.

Millions of bars of Ivory soap are bought by elementary schools the world over every year for the annual Ivory carving contest, another Bernays invention. He also created the Ivory soap boat races which are responsible for millions more in sales every year. No logos, no commercials, no ads… How did Bernays know this would work? We can turn to his uncle for the answer.

Sigmund Freud’s ideas about psychology impacted virtually every field, but very few changed as dramatically as advertising. Freud and Bernays had several discussions about the human psyche and it was these conversations that led to Bernays belief he could change the way people think about the world almost at whim. The implications of this are grand and Bernays grasped it immediately when most people even today do not see the incredible power of this notion.

To change the way a population thinks requires a grand orchestration on many fronts, and this was a hallmark of Bernays’ approach. After his early successes, he was hired by many companies at the same time. Before, ad-men tended to shy away from competing industries, but not Bernays. While transnational execs today are praising the virtues of the new “synergy” amongst corporations, Bernays was exploiting it 50 years ago.

After World War II, Americans were eating lighter meals at breakfast. Meat, butter and the like were more expensive during the war, so many families switched to fruits and pastries. After the war, the new diet stuck. At the time, Bernays was working for both the poultry industry and the pork industry. Bernays commissioned a flurry of polls. He wrote countless newspaper and magazine articles and called them “press releases” to get them published almost unedited as legitimate articles. Before long, a “hearty” breakfast of bacon and eggs was standard for the American consumer (a meal that “sticks-to-your-ribs” is a phrase supposedly invented by Bernays). Today, dairy producers compete amongst each other the same way beef producers do, but everyone agrees that “milk, it does a body good” and “beef, its what’s for dinner”. This is a Bernays construct.

Marlboro wants to sell more than Camel vice-versa, but all the cigarette companies want more people to smoke. So a generation ago, the tobacco companies asked Bernays how to break the taboo against women smoking. Through psycho-analytical methods, Bernays determined smoking gave women a symbol of the penis and it challenged male sexual identity so much that men were sub-consciously keeping women from smoking. That gave Bernays the idea to hire beautiful young girls to burst out of several different churches along the route of a giant parade on Easter Sunday and light up.

He carefully instructed them to walk arm in arm at the front of the parade puffing away. He made sure half the city’s reporters and photographers were there when they rounded the corner on main street. The next day, articles written by Bernays were published all over the country accompanied by giant pictures, exclaiming the brave virtues of these young girls and their “torches of freedom”. Almost overnight, women smoking went from taboo to an expression of women’s liberation.

Bernays quit selling to the intellect and began selling to our emotion. He helped to shift America from a needs-based economy to a culture of desire. No, you do not logically need a new car – but just think of how much better you are going to feel when you have the car! Our society has stopped manufacturing “goods” over that past few generations while we have been cranking out “desires” ever since.

It is a truism now that from .mp3 players to presidents, what is bought and sold is not a manufactured product, but a manufactured image. The people with the most power and the most money have understood this for some time. Many of the images we individually hold of the world are entirely incorrect and intentionally so. This is important for the businessman, the consumer, and the citizen to understand: there is a war being waged every day for the control of your mind. From what you eat for breakfast to the soap you wash your hands with, millions of dollars and the world’s brightest minds are being used up in a diligent and concerted effort to make you make decisions and choices that are against your better interest. Understanding this is the first step to overcoming it, and there is no better teacher than the grandfather of the public relations industry himself, Edward Bernays.

source: http://www.doc4design.com/articles/intelligent-manipulation/

logo illusions

Amazingly Clever Logo Illusion

Corporate identity is one of the most important things a company should have. It is the soul of a corporation and provides it with visibility and recognizability. The most important part of corporate identity is a logo, designed for immediate recognition of the brand. Good logos are simple with a strong and, usually, well hidden message. Easily recognizable and effective if printed in black and white. Probably one of the best examples is a Fedex logo:

Easily recognizable, simple logo with a well hidden message

But what make FedEx logo so unique you might ask. If you take a closer look at it, you'll see a hidden arrow between letters "E" and "x".

Another, maybe even greater example is Amazon. This logo was born once Amazon has decided to start selling everything, not only books. Just an arrow that connects letters A and Z and the message is clear: “We are now selling everything from A to Z”

Clever Amazon Logo

Beside FedEx and Amazon, there are thousands of other amazingly clever logos such as:

The Guild of Food Writers

More Th>n (More Than)

Upside Down Productions

Piggy Back

Ogden Plumbing

Peace Air Logo

And one of my favorites - the hidden bear in Toblerone logo

source: http://www.tricks-and-illusions.com/2009/06/amazingly-clever-logo-illusion.html

SoundDog Logo

Creative logo design perfectly illustrates the name of the company. [link]

Go Music Logo

Elegant logo forms the shape of a guitar using “G” and “O” letters. [link]

Eco Cafe Logo

Simplistic logo designed by Bojan Stefanovic for Eco Café. [link]

Full Time Logo

Creative logo designed for the “Full Time” employment agency. [link]

CRD Bicycle Group Logo

Futuristic logo design based on the initials of the company name. [link]

Saporo Sushi Logo

Cool logo designed by Martin Gallardo for Saporo sushi restaurant. [link]

Seven Logo

Brilliant logo design includes the number 7 in an actual logo. [link]

Typeface Logo

Creative typography based logo designed by Muamer Adilovic. [link]

Play Logo

Amazing logo designed from hearts by Radomir Tinkov. [link]

Z Films Logo

Memorable logo designed by Dalius Stuoka for Z films. [link]

Infinity Crime Logo

Clever logo designed by Alek Chmura for Infinity Crime studio. [link]

Burnett Electrical Logo

Modern logo designed by Alexander Lloyd for Burnett Electrical. [link]

Cats Logo

Stylish logo by Alescar Ortiz designed for a woman’s shoes store. [link]

Wine Searcher Logo

Clean logo designed by Gareth Hardy uses the contour of wine bottles to reveal a pair of glasses. [link]

Shift Logo

Creative logo designed by Shift Creative web design company. [link]

Sleep Records Logo

Clever logo designed by Nima Jazireh for Sleep records. [link]

Wine Kingdom Logo

Brilliant logo designed by Alen Pavlovi for Wine Kingdom. [link]

Fish Logo

Creative fish shaped logo designed by Peter Vasvari. [link]

Love Clip Logo

Beautiful logo designed to be used within office stationary industries. [link]

Illusion Logo

Cool logo designed by Anthony Lane plays tricks on your eyes. [link]

Yoga Australia Logo

Creative logo by Roy Smith features a hidden map of Australia. [link]

White Pony Logo

Excellent example of literal logo design by Mike Erickson. [link]

Verify Logo

Perfectly reflects the nature of security related business. [link]

Antarctica Logo

Cute penguin inspired logo designed by Alberto William. [link]

source: http://www.toxel.com/design/2010/04/08/24-examples-of-creative-logo-design/

Optical illusions are images that trick the brain into seeing things that don’t exist. The eye processes the information it sees and sends that to the brain, which tries to figure out the answer. The brain depends on what the eye sees, but in most of these illusions the brain and eye differ in their processing. Many people are able to see an optical illusion once they learn the answer, but not always!

source: http://www.qualitylogoproducts.com/lib/optical-illusions.htm