Emotions, Persuasion, and Stereotypes

Primary Task Response: write 500–700 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas:

You will be attending an upcoming psychological conference on psychology and mass media. While packing for the conference, you are struck by a particular advertisement you see on television. You have seen this same product advertised in magazines, on the radio, on billboards, and on the Internet. This commercial has you thinking more about the interplay between psychology and mass media. You decide to analyze the advertising campaign and use it as an example during the conference.

Using a psychosocial perspective and media research, you will analyze a product campaign to fully demonstrate your understanding of the effects and impacts of propaganda, social influence, persuasion, and attitude changes on society. You will also examine how your own behaviors are influenced by popular media and mass communication.

Select a company that is currently promoting one of its products and has an extensive advertising campaign running at this time.

Discuss the emotions that the company is using in its ads.
How does the company use emotions to get the consumer to want to buy the product?
How does the company try to persuade the consumer to buy the product? Is there a specific audience (e.g., parents, men, women, age groups, race) that the company is looking to persuade?
Do you think that the company is using a specific stereotype when advertising its product(s)?