Advertising, Persuasion and Commercial Media
What is assessed
Advertising questions require you to decode persuasive technique, identify the target audience and the commercial logic behind a text, and know the rules that constrain advertisers.
Core concepts
- Persuasive appeals: ethos (credibility), pathos (emotion), logos (reason). AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action) describes campaign structure.
- Techniques: testimonial, bandwagon, transfer (borrowed prestige), glittering generalities, plain folks, fear, scarcity and urgency, repetition, direct address, problem–solution narrative.
- Targeting: demographics (age, gender, income, location) and psychographics (values, lifestyle). Media planning balances reach against frequency.
- Commercial media model: advertising funds most private media, so content must attract the audience advertisers want - the attention economy.
- Regulation and labelling: advertising must be identifiable as advertising; influencer posts need clear disclosure; product placement and native advertising must be flagged; rules protect children and restrict misleading claims. The EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive underpins Maltese consumer protection, and broadcast advertising is regulated by the Broadcasting Authority.
- Subliminal advertising is largely a myth; do not cite it as established fact.
Worked example
A skincare advert shows a model with flawless skin, a lab-coated 'scientist' and the line 'clinically proven'. The model supplies aspiration (pathos and transfer), the lab coat supplies ethos, and 'clinically proven' gestures at logos while remaining vague, with small print qualifying the claim. The target audience is concerned about ageing and able to pay a premium. Evaluation should note that the claim's weakness is its lack of specific evidence.
Traps
- Describing the product rather than the persuasion.
- Claiming all advertising is manipulative propaganda.
- Forgetting legal labelling requirements for paid partnerships.
- Missing the business model behind free content.