By:Connor Lo
Radio Advertising
The first radio ad appeared in 1922. The ad was paid for by AT&T. It was broadcasted by the New York radio station WEAF. The ad covered basic phone plans, prices, and coverage. For this section, we will compare two radio ads by the same company. One past and one present
1957 Chevrolet ad
In this ad, the biggest persuasive technique that stuck out to me was snob appeal. They spent most of the ad praising the car and pointing out all the amazing components. They used words such as bold, beautiful, handsome, and fresh to help the listener create stunning mental image. The words can also be referred to as glittering generalities. Words like "bold" are mainly used to describe a person. However, they used this word here to make it seem like the car has a lot of bravado, or that the car is flashy. Towards the end, they started using the word "everyone". This is using the bandwagon technique. By saying "everyone is enthused", they were trying to make the listener feel the same emotion because everyone else is.
2017 Chevrolet ad
In this ad, I saw two major persuasive techniques. The first one was cardstacking. This ad compared the features of a Toyota to a Chevrolet. They only pointed out the things that the Chevrolet had that the Toyota did not. They also did not view all the components of both cars. This is an example of card stacking where they only show the positives of the Chevrolet and the negatives of the Toyota. In addition, they were comparing a 2017 Toyota model to a 2018 Chevrolet model. In the end, they say "when it comes to comparing the next generation Chevy Equinox, there is no comparison." This is an example of a hasty generalization and weasel words. They are saying there is no comparison based on one example. In other words, they do not have sufficient evidence to back up their claim that the Chevy Equinox has "no comparison".
Conclusion
The biggest change from these two ads was how they presented the car. In the first ad, the car was presented in a way that made it seem like it was a piece of gold. The speaker spent his time appraising the looks of the car without ever getting into the actual function of the car. In the second ad, a Toyota's functionalities are being compared to the functionalities of a Chevrolet. This shows a change of how cars are being advertised to consumers. Nowadays, the functionality of a car is being valued over the aesthetics.