Truth In Advertising

2 Pages 560 Words

When actually putting forth attention to watch a commercial, a viewer wants to be told the truth. No one wants to be lied to or dragged around in circles of what product makes someone “look prettier” than the next consumer. Commercials, or advertisements in general, are supposed to inform a consumer of what positive things the product can bring to a person’s life. The purpose of a commercial is for companies to get their products out on the market for consumers to take notice of, not to persuade someone into thinking that product will make you better looking, more popular, or a superior person altogether. However, that is what commercials have turned into.
Slim Fast, for example, is a widely known product. The purpose of it is to lose weight. Slim Fast targets “overweight” people, or more importantly, people who think they are overweight. Their gimmick is, “If you drink a shake for breakfast, a shake for lunch, then eat a sensible dinner,” consumers will lose weight fast and with virtually no problems. The people in their commercials proclaim, “Before I used Slim Fast I was fat.” The word fat has negative connotations, especially in our country where everyone should look like a beautiful model. When seeing this commercial, people think, “I would do anything not to be fat.” This is one example of Name Calling as a propaganda technique.
Another technique used to trick people into buying products is Card Stacking, which is also used in Slim Fast commercials. The people in their ads are glad to tell say, “After trying everything else, Slim Fast is the only thing that worked.” They exclaim that Slim Fast is full of vitamins and minerals. This leads someone to believe they can lose weight fast and still be healthy in the process, when Slim Fast hardly has the proper amount of vitamins and minerals needed for everyday life.
One last example of a propaganda techniques used in Slim Fast commercials is Plain Folk...