10 Goals of Advertisers
Common Goals of Advertisers
In The Structure of Argument , rhetoricians Annette T. Rottenberg and Donna Haisty Winchell list the five common goals of the advertiser. According to one industry analyst, a successful ad should do the following:
- attract attention
- arouse interest
- stimulate desire
- create conviction
- get action (70)
Commercial rhetoric attempts to compel audiences through these five activities in a variety of ways, with the celebrity appeal being one of the most common visual genres.
As an example, consider a popular recent advertisement for the Lincoln MKC sports utility vehicle. In this much-discussed commercial, acclaimed actor Matthew McConaughey tools down the road in a stylish vehicle, discussing his appreciation for the product:
I’ve been driving a Lincoln since long before anybody paid me to drive one.
I didn’t do it to be cool.
I didn’t do it to make a statement.
I just liked it.
It was the first piece of visual rhetoric in what has been a critically successful series of appeals by Lincoln. As Barbara Herman notes in her article “Why Matthew McConaughey’s Lincoln Car Ad Is A Big Deal, Signals a Cultural Shift In Ideas About Celebrity, TV’s Status, And Commercialism,” the ad is significant:
For years, A-list Hollywood treated TV commercials with extreme caution. While many felt free to shill products abroad—a phenomenon illustrated by Bill Murray’s character in the 2003 [film] “Lost In Translation”—TV ads were thought to be beneath serious movie stars. But McConaughey’s presence is the most brazen indication that there’s not much of a taboo left, signaling a change in the notion of celebrity and the growing cachet of TV. What’s more, “selling out” means little to many young people who’ve grown up with the idea of the celebrity endorsement and the understanding of celebrities as brands.
There just isn’t a stigma to doing TV, or commercials on TV, anymore. Today the public understands celebrities as brands, and an appearance in a commercial is just another way of extending it.
As Herman notes, the piece aims to capitalize on a contextual shift in how contemporary audiences view celebrity, television as a credible medium, and commercialism. The advertisement attempts to humanize a Hollywood actor; in its attempt to accomplish this, the appeal assumes that we, too, would appreciate the “no-nonsense” approach to driving a Lincoln that McConaughey has adopted—never mind the associated price tag of purchasing such a vehicle. (1)
Analyzing the Speech Act
Verbal appeals are also common throughout our daily lives. Classroom lectures, workplace addresses, religious sermons, and commercial dialogues are just a few of the common speech acts that attempt to influence human behavior.
I have a vivid recollection of listening to a Presidential debate between Governor Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama on the radio while driving from Orlando to Jacksonville back in the fall of 2012. It was a memorable experien