Brad Pitt and Bono coming to JCUS!

Hah! I made you look! The power of celebrity persuasion. Heheh. Anyway, seriously now let's take a look at the “One Campaign To Make Poverty History” ad. As you can see, celebrities such as Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, Tom Hanks, and Bono amongst others were used in the ad campaign. A peripheral route to persuasion (persuasion that occurs when attitude change results from non-cognitive factors) was used. In addition, the ad uses the soft sell technique, which is an advertising strategy that relies on the use of images, emotions, symbols, or values to promote a product. Research suggests that likeable, credible, and famous people often elicit stronger agreement with the message. In this case, ad viewers would have a positive evaluation of the celebrities (as one would normally associate celebs with likeability), and therefore people would more likely agree to the ad’s message, and may therefore result in their contribution to the cause; or they may just want to contribute as their favourite celebrities are also doing so.

This ad appeals to the affective components of attitude of people. Recall that the celebs talked about how even though people were coming up to help, the situation was dire, and that every 3 seconds children were dying. They stressed that while problems were widespread; if we united together just like 8 other groups have done we will be able to make a difference. The ad elicits a sense of compassion that young and innocent people are dying in Africa, Asia and in the US. Also in the latter part of the message, it elicits a sense of optimism that something can be done to change the situation, and that the viewer can be part of it.

In addition, I think that the ad was pretty persuasive in that heuristically we link Bono and Brad Pitt with charitable causes, and we have a positive evaluation of them. Therefore, we may be tempted to aid the One Campaign perhaps thinking that by mirroring them, we may be become more like them? Recall that I mentioned that this ad uses the soft sell technique? Research suggests that the use of emotions, values , and celebrity endorsements have shown to elicit more favorable attitudes toward advertised products (even though we may deny they do not appeal to us...LIARS!!).

I think that learning about the different marketing and persuasion techniques can help us in the future if we have to come up with advertising campaigns. Being aware of what works better would help us reach the target audience (and then some!), and drive the message home harder.