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Think about TV ads. Analyze. Ask questions. |
Consider these ideas for your own compositions. |
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OTHER IDEAS SUGGESTED?
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DO
YOU SUGGEST OTHERS IDEAS?
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| Ads
make very few direct, explicit claims. Most of the messages, verbal
and nonverbal, sent by an ad will be indirect,
suggested, implicit.
Modern advertising (after the 1950s) is dominated not by explicit claims, which say something specific about the product, but by implications suggesting audiences could receive "added benefits" relating to their desires. Ads may explicitly say one thing ("save money"), but implicitly suggest others, by the background scenery of luxury homes, beautiful people, and good times. Advertisers often work backwards, starting not
with the product, but with the audience's needs. The association technique basically links together three elements: (1) the product, service, person or idea to be sold; (2) with something already liked or desired by; (3) the intended audience. (In "scare-and-sell" ads and negative political campaigns, the middle element is reversed to something already disliked or feared.) Thus, "target audience" analysis and "consumer behavior" research - surveys, polls, questionnaires - to find out what people already liked or desired, has become increasingly important. Such association can be done by explicit claims, or implicitly suggested by using words rich in connotations, figures of speech, and nonverbals. Senders imply. Receivers infer. Assume that advertisers are good at making implications. As receivers, we need to become better inference-makers. |
For most informational writing (with a goal of clarity), writers do not use implications or suggestions which might be unclear, misinterpreted, or misunderstood. If writers inappropriately use words rich with emotional connotations, such exposition is often accused of being biased or slanted. Exposition generally uses explicit statements: clear, direct, unambiguous words and phrasings. If you do want to use the association technique in informational writing to emphasize the links that do exist, then be explicit: use direct statements of being ("She is"), membership or affiliation ("He belongs to"), or desire or preference ("She likes"). When writing persuasion, or expressive writing (poetry, fiction), you might want to imply or suggest more, by using words rich in connotations and multiple meanings. But, the general rule for expository writing remains: do not suggest, imply, or hint. Be explicit, direct, clear. Implicit messages trigger the audience to co-create, to fill in the gaps, to infer the rest, to get more involved. Inference-making is based on a recognition of standard repetitive patterns and relationships, and of regularity in sequences and contexts. Shared knowledge is necessary between the sender making the implications and the receiver making the inferences. If some shared knowledge doesn't exist, the implications "go over the head," for example, of foreigners, strangers to the situation, young children, and the dimwitted. They don't "catch on."
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| | Welcome | Purpose | Audience | Limits | Structure | Attention | Confidence | Explicit | Implicit | Response| Omission | |
