The intention of most media messages is to persuade the audience to believe or to behave a certain way. Hollywood films use upscale special effects to make the spectators that what they’re seeing is real. News use several techniques – such as direct quotation of identified sources – to make their audience accept the story as accurate. The media messages that use persuasive language can be found in quite a few different spheres. Commercial advertising has a main goal which is to make society purchase a product or service. Public relations has a main goal that is to impose a positive image. Politicians and advocacy groups try to persuade voters to support them using different speeches, newsletters, websites, and other means. These 'persuaders' use a variety of means to achieve required attention, to establish credibility and trust, to stimulate desire , and to motivate to behave a certain way.This is what one can refer to as 'language of persuasion.”Some of the components of persuasion have more salient linguistic indications than others. In the verbal message of the advertisement, the presence of persuasion can be detected through stylistic manifestations.
K. Reardon comments that persuasion does not necessarily occur in the best interests of the persuadee, but none the less, in any case, the final choice is left to him or her. To that extent the author distinguishes persuasion from manipulation and coercion. Advertising makes it possible to sell more merchandise due to its persuasive nature. The language of persuasion is employed for successful advertising campaign thereby, boosting patronage of idea, product or service. Advertising serves society in positive and negative ways. Certain advertisements are widely accepted in a given society while others are treated with utmost dislike and scepticism; for instance, advertising products such as tobacco or alcohol has now been banned in most Western and developing countries or its advertisement censored and regulated by relevant agencies. Critics debate whether advertising raises or lowers the price of goods. In some instances, economies of scale allow producers in response to demand created by advertising, to manufacture larger quantities at a lower price. However, many critics argue that advertising, particularly on television, is expensive and that the cost of such advertising is often added to the product price. Notwithstanding these controversies surrounding the economic impacts of advertising, it is obvious that advertising can also introduce efficiency into the economy by allowing comparison shopping without in-person inspections of all the alternatives. So what techniques are used on advertisements using “persuasive language“?
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Many advertisements use humor because it grabs attention and it’s a powerful persuasion technique. Advertisers make the audience laugh and then show their product or logo because they’re trying to connect that good feeling to their product. Their hope is that when their product in a store is seen, the same emotion will be re-experienced and their product is selected. Advocacy and news rarely use this technique because it can undermine their credibility. The language in the advertisements is also full of intensifiers, including superlatives (greatest, best, most, fastest, lowest prices), comparatives (more, better than, improved, increased, fewer calories), hyperbole (amazing, incredible, forever), exaggeration, and many other ways to hype the product. Another thing that advertisers use is repetition. It is used in two ways: Within an ad or advocacy message, words, sounds or images may be repeated to reinforce the main point. And the message itself (a TV commercial, a billboard, a website banner ad) may be displayed many times. Even unpleasant advertisements and political slogans work if they are repeated enough to pound their message into our minds.Another technique is flattery. Politicians and advertisers sometimes speak directly to us: 'You know a good deal when you see one.' 'You expect quality.' 'You work hard for a living.' 'You deserve it.' Flattery works because every individual likes to be praised. 'Do you want to get out of debt?' 'Do you want quick relief from headache pain?' and 'Should we leave our nation vulnerable to terrorist attacks?' are all rhetorical questions.Rhetorical questions are used to build trust and alignment before the sales pitch. These are just a few examples of techniques used to persuade society to behave a certain way. Nowdays, even more techniques are practiced and used.
All in all, language as a tool of persuasion is powerful in this age of consumerism. The study of persuasion is a central topic of consumer research. Using different linguistic devices the persuasive impact of words and sentences can be magnified. The way that a word is pronounced, metaphors and rethoric can affect an audience significantly. Exploited most frequently in advertising and marketing, linguistic devices can be used to strengthen any argument. When it comes to persuasion, it is not just what is said that is important, but how it is said. The goal is the use of the right language, in the right way, with the right audience. The researchers designed the framework particularly for marketers and advertisers to use for their campaigns. The framework shows which language devices require more cognitive effort from the audience. Some devices require no effort to process, acting on the audience automatically, whereas others need the audience to be engaged in order for them to process the information.The framework acts as a guide for knowing how much audiences must be engaged before a linguistic device will be effective in persuading. It also brings together all the current knowledge about persuasive linguistic devices and has uncovered present knowledge gaps, such as the extent to which linguistic effects generalize across cultures and the role of individual differences in the effects of linguistic devices.
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