The Art of Persuasion

The Art of Persuasion

Previously, we have seen how semiotics can be used as a way to analyse TV commercials. But, according to Simons (2001), when advertisers make use of the power of persuasion, the best way to decode the trick is to practice and analyse how they make use of it. It can either be a behavioural approach, that is, “treating human judgments and actions as in some sense akin to the predictable, controllable behaviour” (p.15). Otherwise, it can be a critical one which focusses more on details such as the style, concepts, the language used in the text or what is absent in the text (p.17). Besides, the author wonders if persuasion is something unmoral ethically or not.

First of all, it is important to understand that Simons (2001) refers to persuasion as “human communication designed to influence the autonomous judgments and actions of others. (…) it seeks to alter the way others think, feel, or act, but it differs from other forms of influence.’’ (p.8) He then insists that persuasion is in no case a type of coercion, pressure or threat imposed by individuals over others. To put it in his own words, ‘’persuasion predisposes others but does not impose’’ (p.8). A simple example of this art is how any brand tries to convince us to buy their product. In the following image, the famous Coca-Cola brand suggests to people who are warm to refresh themselves with a delicious coke. If it is really hot outside or you’ve just ran 10 miles, then you might get persuaded by it very easily.

Yet, does it mean that persuasion is an unmoral tool per se? If we listen to Socrates, then it is unethical, it is “an art of gulling the ignorant about the justice or injustice of a matter, without imparting any real knowledge” or also that it ‘’does great damage to the world by making the worse appear the better argument and allowing the guilty to go free’’ (p.4). Of course, in this context, it can hardly be argued that it is used for good ends. Yet, we do not know the story behind it. On the other hand, Aristotle argued that although persuasion could be used by guilty people to get exonerated, people still have the right to defend themselves when they are brought to court. Thus, persuasion can be moral or unmoral, depending on the situation but also on our own perception of it. Usually, when we are tricked by persuasion, we tend to find it outrageous. But when we don’t or worse, when we make use of it, then we find it legitimate. Learning how to decode persuasion might help us not only to identify it more easily, but also to learn how to think and act like a persuader.

Sonesson (2013) provides two examples in which persuasion was used by Swedish companies in order to boost their brand: the famous furniture designer Ikea and Absolut Vodka. The author first focuses on Absolut Vodka’s ‘European series’ campaign, which, as its name says it, was based upon European cities and used each cities’ features to design the bottles. So for instance, they would integrate the image of a Vespa for Rome, the one of Big Ben for London, or yet the Atomium for Brussels. It is interesting to discover why the Swedish company, which was not in the E.U. at that moment, identified its product with European cities. In fact, advertisers tried to demark their vodka from Russian ones by linking it to the whole history and traditions inked in the Old Continent – Europe. This inkage highly contrasts with the targeted customers’ country – USA – which is considered as the most modern part of the World (p.16). The author later suggests that it might also have created the feeling that Sweden was more European – for other cultures and especially for Americans (p.17).

Controversially, Ikea used its Swedish origins as a tool of persuasion – although mostly all their production is created outside the country. Therefore, any country associates Ikea with Sweden stereotypes, even though Swedish people do not recognize these features as part of their patrimony. Sonesson then explains how it was also crucial to use stereotypes to target their own population. In order to do so, they have used the stereotype that:

people from Småland are very thrifty, or, perhaps, rather extremely miserly. IKEA explicitly makes use of this stereotype, selling their products as being from Småland. This is made to explain that IKEA products are so inexpensive in spite of being of such high quality (p.20).

Persuasion can be used in many domains such as politics, advertisements, private lives, brotherhoodrelations, but also for security purposes. On this Belgian preventerpanel, usually located on motorways, is written in French: “who’s gonna pay the bill this week-end?”. In this case, the authors of the caption want to persuade the driver not to drive when he has been drinking, otherwise he might not even be able to pay the next bill or, in another sense, his relatives will pay “the bill”  by losing him if he does an accident.

Sources: 

Simons, H.W. (2001). The Study of Persuasion. In: H.W. Simons with J. Morreale & B.E. Gronbeck, Persuasion in Society (pp. 3-24), Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Sonesson, G. (2013). Two strands of rhetoric in advertising discourse. International Journal of Marketing Semiotics, 1(1), 6-24.

 

sarahn

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