Advertisers use a variety of techniques to get us to buy goods or services. Some of them are listed below. Can you fill in the gaps and find an example of an advert which fits the persuasive technique used?

The anecdote: Personal experience or story which is sold to us as proof.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up_ztoeP4h4

This is a Macmillan advert and its tells a story from a cancer patient's POV in first person. She is saying thank you to all the services that Macmillan provides to families and people suffering from cancer.

"Mark. Thank you for talking to my husband, I hate how hard this is for him"

This is one of the many services that she says in the ad, this is indicating that they provide support for patients by helping them tell people they love about it. It is informing the viewers that they can get help from Macmillan in this aspect as well as other services.

Adjectives & Repetition: Crisp, fresh, healthy, nutritious, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iiZZVDCsxg

Adjectives can be easily found in ads whose product is food. In this case, 'crispy' and 'fluffy' are the key adjectives for McCain chips. By using song and dance, they are able to demonstrate  how they make their chips 'fluffy' and 'crispy', these indict to the viewer that they are indeed delicious. Repetition is used a lot in this ad as well, there are visual aids for the words 'crispy' and 'fluffy'. An example to this is within 10 seconds in a man pops into the screen with a chalkboard with the words 'crispy' and 'fluffy' with a drawing a streaming hot chip that is broken in half. Another one is when it is the factory scene and the ladies are biting into a chip and then they pull a string beside them and in the middle of the screen, the word 'fluffy' pops up and they say this in unison. This action is then repeated but the word on screen is changed to 'crispy'. You may also notice that the words stand out even more because they are the only red thing on screen present.

Statistics: Often presented as factually accurate but sometimes they are a bit dubious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_wl8uK4QCg

An advert for IAMS cat foods. There are no visual numbers but why would you need them when you have a talking cat telling you that "gram for gram, IAMS has more high quality nutrition" while compared to normal wet cat food. This is telling cat owners that by buying this cat food than any other cat food that it is more beneficial for your cat.

Fact: A statement that is true and can be proven.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIyqcST29wQ

Much like statistics, facts are more about information rather than numbers and figures. In this anti-smoking ad, it says:

"When you smoke, the chemicals you inhale cause mutations in your body. A mutation is how cancer starts"

This is a fact because you can go into a science textbook and you would probably see it there, or if you actually listened to your science teacher. You can google it.

With this fact and the visual aid of the cigarette growing a tumour on it, it is considered a hard hitting anti-smoking advert.