ABSTRACT

This chapter and subsequent chapters discuss approaches to developing effective advertising appeals. The focus is on broad strategies rather than tactics. This means that previous chapters cannot be ignored since there is a need to know about the social attachments (culture, reference groups, social class, experiences) and perspectives (current beliefs and values) of the target audience (Chapter 1), while taking account of devices in persuasive advertising content (Chapter 2). This chapter and Chapter 4 explain the effective use of ‘association’ in persuasive appeals. The role played by associations in influencing thinking has a long history, with Aristotle (384-322 BCE) proposing that three relations led to associations: (a) when things are similar; (b) when things are contiguous; (c) when things are sharply contrasting. This is still part of thinking today, with the strongest emphasis on contiguity.