Advertising: Persuasive techniques

Advertising: Persuasive techniques blog task

Create a new blog post called 'Advertising: Persuasive techniques'. Read ‘Marketing Marmite in the Postmodern age’ in MM54  (p62). You'll find our Media Magazine archive here.

Answer the following questions on your blog:

1) What does John Berger suggest about advertising in ‘Ways of Seeing’?
John Berger suggests that 'all publicity works on anxiety' referring to the idea that advertising attempts to make us dissatisfied making audiences more inclined to purchase their product.

2) What is it psychologists refer to as referencing? Which persuasive techniques could you link this idea to?
Psychologists state that we either refer knowingly or subconsciously to the lifestyles represented to us as we find them interesting to which we then begin to imagine ourselves living this idealistic life, forcing us to behave in a different manner than we usually would.

3) How was Marmite discovered?
The product that was to become Marmite was invented in the late 19th Century when German scientist Justus von Liebig discovered that brewer's yeast could be concentrated, bottled and eaten.


4) Who owns the Marmite brand now?
By 1990, Marmite Limited had become a subsidiary of Bovril Limited which became Best Foods Inc in 1990 and then went onto merging with Unilever in 2000 and now Marmite is a trademark owned by Unilever.

5) How has Marmite marketing used intertextuality? Which of the persuasive techniques we’ve learned can this be linked to?
Marmite used intertextuality by referencing other texts that the audience use every day, e.g. newspapers. The persuasive technique they use is a slogan which is, 'You either hate it or love it'. This is an effective slogan as they are allowing their audience to have their own opinion on their product. They are also just flat out saying you will either like it or not and is just as simple as that.

6) What is the difference between popular culture and high culture? How does Marmite play on this?

High culture is for the cultural value for products and popular culture is for a select audience. Marmite play on high and popular culture by mixing the two together as they make the audiences they audiences more interested in their product and want to promote it more.

7) Why does Marmite position the audience as ‘enlightened, superior, knowing insiders’?
Majority of postmodern audiences understand that they are being manipulated by marketing as they come to understand the techniques and the conventions being used. Even though they very well do understand what they are being led into they will often accept it as it might benefit them in terms of social class and power.

8) What examples does the writer provide of why Marmite advertising is a good example of post modernism

Postmodern consumers get the joke and often become promotional agents of the product as they begin to spread news about the product by using techniques like 'word of mouth'

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