Thanks to the Rise in Digital Media, It Takes More Than a Pleasant Photo Ad to Persuade the Masses

Since the turn of the century, media has been considered to be one of the most powerful tools in the world of communication.  Specifically, media has been a key factor to the advancement and increase in effectiveness of persuasion in advertising.

As media forms develop over time, so do the various forms of advertising. 
Mass product advertising has been around since the late 19th century, and never has it seen such exponential growth as it has with the rapid development in media forms.  During its heyday, newspapers and magazines owned the advertising world, yet advertising saw a major growth spurt with the creation and development of the television.  With the simple creation of this one new form of media, a various number of new forms of advertising was created.  Picture ads turned into video ads, and that is not where TV advertising ends; with TV came product placement in TV shows, advertising in annual, primetime events like the Super Bowl (as seen right), and corporate sponsorship of the production of general TV programs to name a few.  The same notion goes for the creation and development of the Internet and the World Wide Web.  These have allowed for hundreds upon hundreds of forms of advertising to be created, such as Facebook ads, email ads, pre-video ads, and so on and so forth.

Simple exposure to a product or issue is not enough to convince consumers.  
While advertisers can pour millions upon millions of dollars into TV commercials, they won't all necessarily have a positive overall return on their investment.  It takes true creative ingenuity to persuade the masses to buy your product or support your cause.  There are various tactics that can be used in order to convince the most potential consumers that Product X or Issue Y deserves their attention and money.  One possible tactic is taking a comedic approach.  Companies like Geico and Doritos have a rich history in airing funny commercials to convince people to purchase their services and products.  In addition, another tactic is to have a celebrity endorse the product or service that the company is offering.  Rivals Nike and Adidas each have what can be considered a "team" of superstar athletes that endorse their brand, allowing the consumers to connect to their favorite athletes through the products they are endorsing.

Emotional connections in advertisements are the most powerful devices in persuading a mass audience.
While comedy and the use of celebrities are possible ways for advertisers to persuade viewers to buy their product or support their cause,  I feel that the most powerful of all tactics is the emotionally connecting commercial.  Commercials can cause an emotional effect in various different ways.  Proctor and Gamble's Tide brand uses commercials that are most emotionally appealing to women, more specifically mothers, because this is the target audience that the company feels is buying most of their product stock.  Therefore, the company runs commercials that often includes a mother having an emotionally touching moment with her son or daughter.  Moreover, mothers that view this commercial will have an emotional connection, thinking about loving memories of their children and will connect those loving memories to the Tide brand.  Another instance of emotional connection is an NBA commercial that features various fans from around the world playing basketball while sporting the uniforms of different NBA players.  The advertiser blatantly chose to use international talents in the commercial in order to inspire an emotional connection from other foreigners living in the United States.

One particular example that I'd like to touch on for a bit is brought to us by the emotional geniuses at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or the ASPCA.  The ASPCA is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to helping the fight against animal cruelty all over the country.  One of the ways the organization is able to fund such operations is through donations from external parties.  Donations are especially harder for advertisers considering that there is no fair exchange of goods as there is with the general purchase of a product or service; in this instance, the consumer is actually just giving away money for the cause, an act that is much tougher for an advertiser to persuade a mass audience to do.  Therefore, a commercial ad must elicit a life-changing emotional connection to the viewer if the advertiser has any hopes of receiving a donation.  Above is an example of one of the ASPCA's television commercials.  As any sane reader can see, the objective is to show the view pictures and videos of the most injured, deprived and depressed animals on the planet, and hope that his or her sympathy for these 10 or 12 animals is enough to persuade him or her to make a donation to the organization.

I feel that it takes a real marketing and sociological acumen to be able to determine the best possible way to reach an audience for a specific product, service or cause.  A complex scenario like persuading viewers to donate is something that requires a very complex strategy and thus a complex advertisement; this is not something can be just thrown into a newspaper or onto a billboard and have the same rate of persuasion.  Moreover, it should be incredibly clear that without the use of newly developed digital media, the complexities of today's advertising world could not be fulfilled.