|
Think about TV ads. Analyze. Ask questions. |
Consider these ideas for your own compositions. |
||
 |
 |
||
| IS
URGENCY APPROPRIATE?
|
IS
URGENCY APPROPRIATE?
|
||
|
Not all ads use an urgency appeal, nor would it be appropriate. Many nationally-advertised products of standard consumer goods (foods, necessities) use a "soft sell" effectively, often simply emphasizing pleasant associations (cute kids, good times, nature, sex) with the product. But their ad campaigns compensate by the frequency and long-term repetition of their ads. Campbell's Soups, for example, have told us for a century to enjoy soup for lunch; a century hence, they still will. Their ads need not be strident or urgent, nor seek instant response. Such advertisers seek long-term repeated use of products and reasonably expect to get a certain share of the market. Some advertisers claim a kind of moral superiority because they use the "soft sell." But, there are many situations in which a relaxed strategy is used because it is simply more effective. For example, sellers of "big ticket" expensive items (homes, autos, major appliances) often encourage their customers to "take your time" or "shop around and compare prices" because most people do comparison shopping for these items anyway. Here, such a "soft sell" helps the seller's image without really losing sales. Common situations in which you can expect the urgency appeal and the "hard sell" include: when the product is temporary (entertainments, fads, fashions); when the seller is temporary (some cable TV ads, door-to-door selling, fly-by-night operations, con games); when the buyer is temporary (travelers, newcomers); when a genuine crisis or emergency exists (buyers in pain, illness: sellers in financial trouble); when supply exceeds demand. Common situations in which you can expect a "soft sell" include: when the product has repeated use (standard foods, clothes); when the seller is permanent (established stores); when the buyer is affluent and sophisticated (thus, expensive stores catering to the rich); when demand exceeds supply.
|
Much of advertising's bad reputation has been caused by the abuse of urgency appeals, the "hard sell" and the "fast hustle" of unscrupulous fly-by-night operators and pushy salespeople. Urgency appeals have been misused so often that many audiences are mistrustful of them. Urgency appeals, therefore, are very seldom appropriate in expository writing. If belief, assent, or acceptance is your goal, then avoid anything which weakens your credibility. Just as you want to avoid exaggeration, hyperbole, overstatement, and errors in order to keep your authority and your readers' confidence; so also it helps if you are cool and calm, rather than strident and urgent. Aesop's fable about the boy who cried wolf warned long ago that once you lose credibility, it's hard to regain it. Thus, a good rule of thumb is to avoid urgency pleas when doing straight informational writing. If you really feel you "need" such urgency, this might be a clue that you may really be writing persuasion. Recognize that in this Companion website, which links some general principles of persuasion and exposition, the pattern is least parallel here in this section on urgency and response.
|
||
| | Welcome | Purpose | Audience | Limits | Structure | Attention | Confidence | Explicit | Implicit | Response| Omission | |
