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Different types
of advertising may have different proportions of informative and persuasive
content. Hermerén (1999, 37) observes that even informative content
may be persuasive, for example if it indicates superior performance of some
product. In order for a communication to be persuasive, the reader must accept
some or all of its emotional content, and to do that, the reader must have
a reason for doing so. Hermerén
(1999, 34-39) distinguishes among the following kinds of power through which
an advertisement may have a persuasive influence:
•reward
power: the product promises some positive benefit. •coercive
power: the product is presented upon pain of threat or punishment. •referent
power: the message associated with the product fits into the reader's value
system. •expert
power: the product is presented by an expert. To these, we
can add: •star power:
the product is associated with a celebrity figure. For a brief overview
of human factors that lead to compliance under persuasion, see Cialdini (2001).
| References | |
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Cialdini,
R. B. (2001; February) The science of persuasion. Scientific American
284, 76-81. |
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