| The Picture Examples are coming soon Martha Hix November 14, 2001 Propaganda has many uses in today�s society. It can be used for debating, politics, advertising, and more. There are three types of propaganda that I focused on: snob appeal, glittering generalities, and post hoc reasoning. I looked for ads out of �Girls Life� and �Good Housekeeping� magazines. The first technique I searched for was snob appeal, which I found many examples of. Snob appeal is when you say that someone should believe or do something because an elite group does. In ad #1, which is advertising Skechers shoes, you see popular looking people wearing Skechers. In ad #2, we see �beautiful and happy� people who used wrinkle cream to make their faces wrinkle free. In ad #3, a TV star from Malcolm in the Middle, is drinking milk. In all three of these ads viewers get the message, �these great people are doing it, and so you should too.� The snob appeal technique is used almost like peer pressure, to make people think that they will be great like the person who is doing it, if they do it too. The next technique I looked for was glittering generalities. In glittering generalities, the speaker tries to make you accept and approve a person or idea without examining evidence. Ad #4 is about a whirlpool washing machine. We see a beautiful woman with water all around her. The ad wants us to accept that the washing machine has the ability to do a high performance, and be in some way, like the beautiful lady, without proof. Ad #5 is about a Milano Cookie. The cookie is supposed to appear �heavenly�. In reality, the cookie may taste terrible, but it looks �pretty�. Thanks to glittering generalities, buyers may just buy the cookie because it looks appealing, but they can�t prove that it actually tastes good, until they buy it. In ad #6, we see another �beautiful woman�. The catch is that in this one, JcPenny is advertising clothes for �plus-size� women, but still making them look beautiful. This ad uses glittering generalities by making buyers automatically assume that they will look like beautiful models by wearing these plus-size products. To conclude, glittering generalities make consumers buy or accept an idea, just because it looks pretty or is appealing, when they haven�t proven it. My final technique was post hoc reasoning. Post hoc reasoning (or cause and effect fallacy) is falsely concluding that one event cause another event to happen. I found that many ads used this, making consumers think that buying the product will make their life better. In ad #7, a Kleenex ad, it shows simple, happy kids, just having a laugh and enjoying themselves, on a step. The ad is using post hoc by using the cause and effect; �buy Kleenex, and you will experience no allergies, no sneezing�. It makes it seem like Kleenexes can make your life carefree and simple, which Kleenex cannot magically do. In ad #8, there is a picture of a couple having an enjoyable car ride. The advertiser used the cause and effect; �if you buy a Chevy Impala, you will have a great time�. Just because you bought an expensive car, it doesn�t mean your life will be great. The Kleenex and the car ad are my first two examples of post hoc reasoning. Since post hoc is such a common technique, I have two more examples. Ad #9 shows a girl who ate some Sweet Tarts, and now she has green hair. The cause and effect here is; �eat a Sweet Tart, and it will be so sour it will turn your hair green.� Even though the green hair isn�t literal, consumers take it as symbol of being shocked by Sweet Tarts, almost like the Transfer technique. The green hair is almost like proof that Sweet Tarts are sour. In my last ad, #10, we see a huge white toothed and beautiful smile. The cause and effect here is; �use Johnson & Johnson�s Whitening Floss, and your teeth will be beautiful and white.� This may be false, because the person�s teeth could be yellow beyond repair, or something. Therefore, post hoc reasoning is useful to make buyers want to buy products, which they think could �change their life�, but that might not be the reality of the situation. In conclusion, propaganda helps the advertisers sell their products. They could use snob appeal, for instance, by making it look like only popular people use a product. Or they could use glittering generalities, and an example would be making the product look good, which makes the consumers assume its high quality. Or lastly, they could use post hoc reasoning, making the consumer think the product could change their life, as the effect of buying the product. Whatever propaganda technique is used, advertisers are often successful in persuading people to buy it. |