Advertising Appeals

Sahil Avi Kapoor | 2014 01 21 136

EMOTIONAL APPEAL
A higher degree of emotion creates the most differentiation and makes it easier for a brand to
project uniqueness. Emotional appeal is a method of persuasion that involves an emotional
response. This appeal is often considered to be a logical fallacy, as it manipulates the receivers
emotions rather than true logic to endorse a brand. Such affect laden ads, appeal to this
emotional fallacy as the very basis of an arguments position without any evidence or
explanation whatsoever.
RATIONAL APPEAL
Rational appeals are honest, informative and persuasive brand communications that clearly
define the benefits that the product can provide for its customers. Such appeals encourages
customers to buy or to act on a cognitive rather than an emotional basis. It focuses on elements
such as statistics, quality, price, performance and specifications, creating fact based
justifications.
HUMOUR APPEAL
Humour is known to generate positive feelings and pleasure and for this very reason it has a
potential for the feeling to become associated with a brand and affect consumer attitude towards
it. Humour appeal can also be used to attract attention, improving brand name recall, creating a
pleasant mood and reducing the chances of counter arguing.
MORAL APPEAL
These appeals reach out to the audience and stirs up their sense of right and wrong. The ads
with such an appeal generally leave a long lasting impression in the minds of the viewer. Such
ads are generally used in social awareness advertising.
FEAR APPEAL
A fear appeal is a persuasive message that attempts to arouse fear in order to divert behavior
through the threat of impending danger or harm. The state of fear is believed to be an
unpleasant
emotional
state
that
involves
physiological arousal
that
motivates cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses directed towards alleviating the threat
or reducing fear.
SEX APPEAL
The purpose of putting sex into advertisements is to provide a sense of shock-value to the viewer
and to get them to connect the brand of the product being advertised to the sexy and desirable
image. When the consumer makes the connection of the sex appeal and the product or service,
they will be motivated into making a purchase. In order for sex appeal in ads to be successful,
there needs to be heavy focus on the product or service that is being sold and the brand image
must be clearly and easily visible for the viewer.

SAHIL KAPOOR

SLICE OF LIFE APPEAL

Such an ad shows people in normal, everyday setting in order to make the product seem to
naturally fit into costumers lives. Companies use this approach to demonstrate how their
products and services can be used to solve business problems but sometimes these commercials
do not work, primarily because the intended consumers attention is pulled away from the
product and focuses on another element in the story.

Appe
al
Emoti
onal
Appeal

Advertisem
ent
Chrysler:
Detroit, the
Motor City

Ration
al
Appeal

Garnier Men
Acno Fight

Humo
ur
Appeal

Center Fresh:
Yeh Wala

Moral
Appeal

Pulse
Polio:
Do
Boond
Zindagi Ki

Fear
Appeal

CEAT
Bike
Tyres:
The
Road is Full
of Idiots

SAHIL KAPOOR

Description
The Super bowl ad by Chrysler attaches an emotional appeal towards
its brand by talking about the city of Detroit. The ad follows the story
of the citys decline over the past few decades. But like its favourite
son Eminem whose own career had once stalled, the commercial
tracks Detroits eventual return and promises the best days being still
ahead. The ad ends with Eminems famous single, Lose Yourself and
Eminem saying with a stern face, This is the Motor City; this is what
we do.
The ad shows Sushant Singh Rajput boxing against the six signs of
pimples. The ad then goes onto elaborate the composition as well as
benefits of Acno Fight in detail. Thus, this campaign sends out a logical
appeal to the consumer, coupled with detailed information about the
what and the how of the product.
Yeh Wala, makes fun of the various marketing tactics adopted by
different brands. Conceptualised by Ogilvy & Mather, the film attacks
the false claims made by brands through misleading ads. The ad
opens with a boy brushing his teeth, when he screams in pain. Enter a
TV reporter into his bathroom, who says, Daato me sadan, aapko
chahiye yeh wala toothpaste. The ad then goes on to show several
instances of people falling for false claims. The ad ends with the TV
reporter again entering the room and saying, Daato me sadan
followed by the voiceover, In sabko dijea yeh wala chewing gum Center Fresh, Zubaan pe rakhe lagaam.
The governments massive campaign, designed by O&M was called
Do Boond Zindagi Ki pulse polio campaign and celebrities played
a major part in it including Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar
and even Jackie Shroff. Amitabh participated in numerous
campaigns shouting at people Sharm aani chaahiye humein! (We
should be ashamed). These campaigns went a long way in
educating people about polio, particularly those from lower socioeconomic groups.
As part of the advertisement campaign to promote CEAT bike tyres,
the two television commercials created by Ogilvy India drive home the
point that the roads would always be full of those who throw caution to
the winds; but with CEAT bike tyres, at least the rider is assured of
safety. The first film shows a man talking nineteen to the dozen on his
mobile phone, as he strolls on the street pushing a pram. Absorbed in
conversation, he abruptly turns to cross the street, and a biker driving
on the road stops in the nick of time before the man. The other film
2

features a couple returning from a movie on a bike. As they discuss

the film, they are in for a rude shock, when a car filled with youngsters
speeds right across their path.

Sex
Appeal

Slice:
Aamsutra

Slice
of Life
Appeal

Dhara
Jalebi

SAHIL KAPOOR

Oil:

The campaign was a real clutter breaker. The brand wanted to position
itself on the basis of experience or pleasure of having a mango drink.
JWT, thus took the attribute of Pleasure, Sensuality and Indulgence as
the core brand attribute that delivers that Experience. Slice also roped
in the Bollywood Diva Katrina Kaif as the brand ambassador. The
brand launched its first Aamsutra campaign during the summer of
2008
In this ad, a small kid is shown to leave home, fed up of everyone
scolding him at home. His grandfather then joins him at the railway
platform and is then seen telling the boy of the delicious jalebis that
his Mother had prepared back at home. The innocent way in which the
kid reacts to the word jalebi sets a beautiful, sweet and happy tone
to this advertisement.