Humanistic Techniques Used In Metlife's Dream For My Child

The main purpose of a company’s advertisements is always, directly or indirectly, to make more money. However, advertisers use different tactics in order to do this. This usually includes selling an idea to potential consumers about the company or product. One method that advertisers use to persuade viewers in an ad is by promoting ideas of humanism. Humanism is the body of moral values that humans possess. This includes family values, which is what is used in MetLife’s “Dream for My Child” advertisement. MetLife tries to sell a humanistic idea about their product in their advertisement. The advertisement specifically targets parents and in this ad, a father and his young daughter are walking to school when the daughter hands her father …show more content…
At the beginning of the advertisement, short videos are shown of the father playing with his daughter, buying her things, teaching her, and just being a happy and smily good father. The video transitions to show clips of the father working hard and sacrificing to make money and care for his daughter. Although he is clearly struggling financially and physically, he is always cheerful around the little girl. The clips that are used by the ad creator show the sacrifices that a father might have to make for his child. It essentially shows what a perfect parent should be willing to do to provide for their family, all while maintaining a cheerful attitude for their children. The advertisement is created to cause parents to juxtapose the sacrifices that they make for their children and the attitude that they have around them such as the father in the advertisement. Most likely, the toil that the father endures and the cheerfulness that he possesses in the advertisement is much greater. Seeing this lack of sacrifice that a parent thinks they have made for their children causes them to desire to do more to benefit their children and show their love for them. MetLife wants these parents to believe that getting life insurance from them is a sacrifice or investment that they can make for their children in order to become a better …show more content…
The ad creators attempt to create an emotional appeal that makes the audience want to do things for their children. Seeing the good parenting that the father in the advertisement is doing encourages the viewer of the ad. MetLife wants to get the target audience to believe that buying life insurance from MetLife makes them better parents. The creators of the advertisement do this by using visual factors such as brief clips of the father happy with his daughter, contrasting with the hard work that he must do. Facial expressions and body language show the emotion of the characters. The choice of characters also adds to the purpose of the advertisement. The ad creators also use music to influence the mood and diction to add emotional appeal. Just as the methods used in the MetLife commercial have been exposed, it is important to be able to recognize the ways that other advertisement creators attempt to persuade the audience so that the viewers can make sound judgements on the company and the product. Advertisement creators are very influential in the way that they market companies and products. Just as buying life insurance from MetLife does not make one a better parent, advertisers sell ideas that are not actually true. Being influenced by an advertisement can cause one to buy products that they should not buy, vote for people that they should not vote for, or