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Think about TV ads. Analyze. Ask questions. |
Consider these ideas for your own compositions. |
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| DOES
THE CONTEXT HELP?
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DOES
YOUR CONTEXT HELP?
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Advertisers are very aware of the wider context in which their ads appear, as part of thousands of other ads all competing for attention. Ultimately, an ad has to get response. But first, an ad has to be heard or seen. Getting noticed, or getting through the clutter, is a very important first step. You can't persuade if no one's listening or watching. Within advertising agencies, the media buyers try to select the right mix of media (magazines, radio, TV) to get the right audience, in the right time and place, in the right mood, most conducive to the message. Ideally, the audience should be "ready, willing, and able," a rare situation when you consider the complexities of mass audiences and many competing products. People don't watch TV to see the ads, but to see the programs. Although the public may see the role of television as providing entertainment to the public, television executives see their business as delivering audiences to the advertisers. The function of television programs (dramas, news, sports, cartoons, sitcoms, music, whatever) is to attract an audience so that they can receive "the pitch." This is the most important, fundamental concept to understand commercial television. Yet, many people do not grasp it: witness the constant complaining about "too many commercials" or "too many interruptions" as if the program's primary function were to entertain them, rather than to deliver them, in large batches, to the persuaders who buy the time. Consider the parallels between modern TV advertising and the 19th century "medicine show" which was a free entertainment show of magic, music, and comedians - all to attract an audience and set them up in a good mood for the "pitchman" to sell his wares. Magazines in the past used to be created by people who were passionately interested in the subject matter. Recently, magazines have been created by a new breed of publishers who act as go-betweens, first finding affluent audiences to deliver to advertisers, then looking for a content, any content, to lure them.
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Do all that you can do to attract readers, to make your work accessible, and to make it easy for people to see your work. Don't expect readers to seek you out. In your role as a writer, you often have to seek out readers. In your role as a reader, conversely, you often have to filter out the writers. No one can read everything. If you read a book a day, you'd hardly make a dent on the list of the 60,000 new books published every year, or the millions already in print. And all of this in addition to the internet, computers and the electronic "information explosion." Whether you marvel at -- or complain about -- such an information overload, as a writer, somehow you have to deal with it. So target your audience as well you can and do what you can to attract them. Make it easy. Be conducive. Some contexts and situations help make the audience to be more favorably disposed to the message. In many school and job situations, when you're writing for a "captive audience," you may not have to attract their attention. But, treat these captives well: don't be late, tardy, or miss deadlines. This isn't conducive to putting anyone in a good mood. Sometimes people are so ego-centered ("I'll do what I want, when I want to.") that they don't realize that other people (teachers or bosses) are busy too, and would appreciate prompt or early work. Avoid inappropriate times and places to inform or persuade. If your audience isn't in the right mood and the right context, your message may fall on deaf ears. Seek out the right places to publish your writing. Magazine and journal editors frequently complain that many writers submit manuscripts to them which are totally inappropriate, as if the writers had never even looked at the magazine to get a "feel" for the kind of subject matter, approach, and audience. After all the effort you put into your writing, place it in the best possible context where it is likely to be read and appreciated.
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| | Welcome | Purpose | Audience | Limits | Structure | Attention | Confidence | Explicit | Implicit | Response| Omission | |
