A Companion to Composition by Hugh Rank http://webserve.govst.edu/pa | HOME |

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The more aware you are of the use of urgency-stressing and response-seeking in ads, the more sensitive you will be to their appropriate use in your own composition.

Creating a sense of urgency is common in some, but not all, advertising. Although basically related to time, urgency pleas are often clustered with concepts of scarcity (limited quantity) and availability (chance, opportunity).

Urgency appeals are very seldom used in expository writing because exposition does not seek the same kind of specific response that persuasion does.

Not all ads use an urgency appeal, nor would it be appropriate in many cases. Standard products often substitute a long-term "soft sell" campaign of ads with increased frequency and repetition. "Hard sell" and "soft sell" ads can be expected in different situations.

Response is the goal, the basic intent and the final purpose of persuasion. Some persuasion seeks to make an immediate, specific response easy, to limit our options, and to use triggering words, or simple directives telling us what to do.

Other persuasion is indirect and preparatory, conditioning for a later response. Some "corporate ads" or "image ads" seek to make audiences "feel good" about the company, to get favorable public opinion on its side (against government regulation, taxes).

Exposition is often not directed to an immediate specific response, but to an acceptance or assent by the audience, aiding in their understanding.

Issues relating to various kinds of "command propaganda" and "conditioning propaganda" point up that the borderlines between information and persuasion are often unclear.