Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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Critical Reading
The ads imply that if you don’t jump on the bandwagon, the
parade will pass you by.
2. Testimonial
The testimonial approach tells us to buy a product or
support a certain issue because a celebrity is endorsing it.
The idea behind this technique is that we will transfer the positive
feelings we have for a beautiful, sexy-looking person or our country
to the product or candidate.
Over the years, advertisers have found that beauty and sex “sell” and
that appeals to patriotism often succeed.
4. Plain Folks
In the plain folks technique, people present
themselves as ordinary, average citizens, hoping
we will identify with them and like them.
• Political candidates try to show they are just “plain folks” by
talking about hard times in their lives. They also pose for
photographs while wearing a hard hat or mingling with
everyday people.
• The presidents of some companies appear in their own ads,
trying to show that their giant corporations are just family
businesses run by ordinary folks.
5. Name Calling
Name calling is the use of emotionally loaded
language or negative comments to turn people
against a rival product, candidate, or movement.
• A political candidate labels an opponent “soft,” “radical,”
or “wimpy.”
• In a taste test, consumers describe the other leading
brand of spaghetti sauce as “too salty” and “thin and
tasteless.”
6. Glittering Generalities
A glittering generality is an important-
sounding but unspecific claim about some
product, candidate, or cause.
• An ad calls a certain television set “simply the best.”
• A campaign slogan claims that the person running
for office is “the right candidate for our city.”