Advertising is greatly involved in our modern lives. It is shoved upon us from every aspect of media: internet, television, radio, movies, and even on the streets. Companies pay thousands of dollars to advertising companies, who are trying to get attention of the public on their supposedly great products using advertising techniques and propaganda. Propaganda is a persuasive tool used in advertising to get a person interested in a particular item.
There are many different types of propaganda that have different effects on the buyer, but all those types have the same goal, which is to make the buyer to choose their product from so many similar goods in the market. First thing advertisers have to know is the target audience and the way to get attention of that particular group of people. Advertisers put hard work on the quotes, colors, design, audio and video quality, and eventually what is that makes the ad different and special from other similar products. Propaganda results mental forces in consumers brain that lead them to get a positive opinion about the product. Using the power of propaganda the product is presented so that functions, attributes, packaging, picture and brand stay in viewers mind. Advertising and propaganda play a very powerful role in society because people are influenced by it every day.
Bandwagon is one of most widely type of propaganda what advertisers put in the ad. Cross describes bandwagon with following sentence: “The bandwagon urges us to support an action or an opinion because it is popular- because ‘everyone else is doing it!” The faulty logic that if a large group of people is acting certain way then it is a positive action has misled many people in their decisions.
The other technique of propaganda used in this ad is card stacking. It is easy usable and very effective. Advertisers put out the positive uses of the product, ignoring all the negative effects what can result from use of it. Talking about card stacking Cross writes: “Card stacking is a device of propaganda which selects only the facts that support the propagandist’s point of view, and ignores all the others.” Using card stacking advertisers mention about the effectiveness of the product and highlight the low price, without talking about other effects.
Source: Printing Los Angeles