Persuasive Advertising

I find it interesting how persuasive advertising is, even when we know that the point of a piece of advertisement is to get us to buy something, to feel like we need that item.

I was driving with a friend the other day and we saw a billboard for AT&T. He commented that he really liked the “raising the bar campaign” that Cingular (now AT&T) has had for the past however many months. I asked him if that made him want to switch his phone service to AT&T and he actually replied he might want to switch.

I also have a friend who will buy items because they have unique packaging or seem out of the ordinary.

Now, I may have taken classes on advertisement, but I know that I’m not the only one that realizes that advertisement has one goal - to get you to buy the product. The advertisers want you to think that you have to have the product to feel whole (maybe that’s a little extreme, but at least on some level, that’s the point).

So, we know better, but it still works. What gives?

I guess it has something to do with the psychology of advertising. It’s fascinating and actually a bit scary too.

Posted by
Laurie Perini