ABSTRACT
The link between persuasion and advertising is clear. Advertising is designed to persuade us to believe in a brand, to buy a product, to change our beliefs or attitudes, or to feel a certain way about ourselves and our lifestyle. This chapter defines advertising, recognizing that it is rhetorical, involves interpersonal elements, and requires adaptation to audiences and different mediums. We explore the five phases of consumer culture focusing on the current phase of hypercommunication. Different types of advertisements, including anti, pseudo, code-transgressing, self-referential, self-parody, and knowing wink, are explained. The chapter covers issues of product endorsement and misdirection in language use and photography as a means of persuasive advertising. We end the chapter with Jonah Berger’s (2013) six principles of contagion and how products and ideas catch on in our society.
