"The Power Trek is the latest in fitness technology! It makes exercising so much more fun and easy!" At least, this is what this advertisement that I saw this morning said. In this advertisement, there were many people that said the same thing as above, along with multiple statistics. Why is this marketing at it's finest? It's because of the fact that the Power Trek is nothing but two walking sticks which 'could be yours for only for two payments of 49.99!' I am serious. The commercial was filled with footage of people walking with one stick in each hand and saying how wonderful the product was. Now maybe it's because of English class that I found the whole thing ridiculous, but I can't help but think. Would someone really buy such a product? Are the words and backings and grounds that the advertisement used so convincing that people would actually buy these two sticks for 100 dollars?
(Mary Quien)
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4 comments:
I copy and pasted this from a previous post: Why is the girl not 60 inches tall or 152.4 cm? Each number has a different affective connotation. (I don't know if this is really far off, but the practice of pricing at $4.99 instead of $5.00 comes to mind).
In the same way that 5ft has a different affective connotation than 152.4cm, the price of $49.99 makes it more appealing to the audience. I just Googled this concept and came up with a study entitled Relative Price Level of 99-Ending Prices: Image Versus Reality by Robert Schindler. Many people have researched this and there has been considerable consent on its efficacy.
While the pogo stick thing might seem far-fetched, that is a design problem, not an advertising/linguistic one.
I know what you're saying Grace, but the point that's bugging me is that there really is nothing to the product but two regular sticks and yet the advertisers/ makers of the product are expecting people to buy it, pretty much just from the types of backings and grounds they are using. Does anyone understand me?
"[what's] bugging me is that there really is nothing to the product but two regular sticks..." -Mary
Extensionally, perhaps the "Power Trek" is composed of just two regular sticks. But when advertisers try to sell you something, they aim to influence your perceptions of their product, so that your intensional mind creates its own version of the "Power Trek." Perhaps the "Power Trek" you have imagined will give you a muscular body, or maybe the Trek would bestow "coolness" upon you. After all, the Trek seemed to work for all of those other people (the testimonials), so why not for you?
Advertising is very powerful. Because of it, many of us have the intensional perception that public tap water is unsanitary and inferior to bottled water, while extensionally they may be of the same quality. Advertising may not change our extensional reality, but it certainly can shape our intensional one. Maybe to you, Mary, the Power Trek is just two metal sticks. But advertising might convince another person that these metal sticks will in fact pave a new trail and revolutionize his/her life.
Do you guys remember when we were, say, five or six? I don't know about you, but I was one of those kids that loved reading cereal box ads, saving the boxes, and then sending them in for free stuff. But, when I got the stuff, I was usually disappointed. Why? The toy looked better on the cereal box.
I think what Mary is talking about sounds a lot like an info-mercial to me. I think info-mercials and cereal box ads use some of the same advertising techniques. Make the product look really good, get a few people to do testimonials for the ad, and then who cares how well the product actually works. I think they are just trying to sell (italics). The "Power Trek" ad is merely an ad aimed at info-mercial addicts, and the cereal box ad is merely aimed at little kids who like toys (which is all kids, right?).
(Emily Thompson)
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