Print and television ads offer a nonstop parade of testimonials: here’s Cher for Holiday Spas; here’s basketball star Michael Jordan eating Wheaties; Michael Jackson sings about Pepsi.
American Express features a slew of well-known people who assure us that they never go anywhere without their American Express card. Testimonials can sell movies, too; newspaper ads for films often feature favorable comments by well-known reviewers. And, in recent years, testimonials have played an important role in pitching books; the backs of paperbacks frequently list complimentary blurbs by celebrities.
Political candidates, as well as their ad agencies, know the value of testimonials. Barbra Streisand lent her star appeal to the presidential campaign of Michael Dukakis, while Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed George Bush. Even controversial social issues are debated by celebrities. The nuclear freeze, for instance, starred Paul Newman for the pro side and Charlton Heston for the con.
As illogical as testimonials sometimes are (Pepsi’s Michael Jackson, for instance, is a health-food adherent who does not drink soft drinks), they are effective propaganda. We like the person so much that we like the product too.
5. Plain Folks The plain folks approach says, in effect, “Buy me or vote for me. I’m just like you.” Regular folks will surely like Bob Evans’s Down on the Farm Country Sausage or good old-fashioned Country time Lemonade. Some ads emphasize the idea that “we’re all in the same boat.” We see people making long-distance calls for just the reasons we do—to put the baby on the phone to Grandma or to tell Mom we love her. And how do these folksy, warmhearted (usually saccharine) scenes affect us? They’re supposed to make us feel that AT&T—the multinational corporate giant—has the same values we do. Similarly, we are introduced to the little people at Ford, the ordinary folks who work on the assembly line, not to bigwigs in their executive officers. What’s the purpose of such an approach? To encourage us to buy a car built by these honest, hardworking “everyday Joes” who care about quality as much as we do.
Political advertisements make almost as much use of the “plain folks” appeal as they do of transfer devices. Candidates wear hard hats, farmers’ caps, and assembly-line coveralls. They jog around the block and carry their own luggage through the airport. The idea is to convince voters that the candidates are average people, not the elite—not wealthy lawyers or executives but the common citizen.
6. Bandwagon In the bandwagon technique, advertisers’ pressure, “Everyone’s doing it. Why don’t you?” This kind of propaganda often succeeds because many people have a deep desire not to be different. Political ads tell us to vote for the “winning candidate.” The advertisers know we tend to feel comfortable doing what others do; we want to be on the winning team. Or ads show a series of people proclaiming, “I’m voting for the Senator. I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t.” Again, the audience feels under pressure to conform.
In the marketplace, the bandwagon approach lures buyers. Ads tell us that “nobody, but all like Sara Lee” (the message is that you must be weird if you don’t). They tell us that “most people prefer Brand X two to one over other leading brands” (to be like the majority, we should buy Brand X). If we don’t drink Pepsi, we’re left out of “the Pepsi generation.” To take part in “America’s favorite health kick,” the National Dairy Council urges us to drink milk. And Honda motorcycle ads, praising the virtues of being a follower, tell us, “Follow the leader. He’s on a Honda.”
Why do these propaganda techniques work? Why do so many of us buy the products, viewpoints, and candidates urged on us by propaganda message? They work because they appeal to our emotions, not to our minds. Often, in fact, they capitalize on our prejudices and biases. For example, if we are convinced that environmentalists are radicals who want to destroy America’s record of industrial growth and progress, then we will applaud the candidate who refers to them as “tree huggers.” Clear thinking requires hard work: analyzing a claim, researching the facts, examining both sides of an issue, using logic to see the flaws in an argument. Many of us would rather let the propagandists do our thinking for us. 感谢您阅读《MassMedia 》一文，留学群(liuxuequn.com)编辑部希望本文能帮助到您。