Advertisements are powerful tools of communication used to persuade consumers into buying products and/or change their view on how they perceive a particular issue or subject. What makes advertising appealing to the consumer is not just a fancy product or a pretty face, but the underlying messages used to convince, shock, and inform the consumer into taking some form of action. We will explore examples of hidden messages and advertising techniques used in a print advertisement by the Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand. ALAC (the Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand) released a series of emotional and powerful advertisements in a print campaign reaching out to alcoholics living in New Zealand. The main technique ALAC is using to persuade
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Advertising usually paints alcohol as fun and socially acceptable, avoiding issues that arise by including a small, barely legible “Please Drink Responsibly” disclaimer. Companies like Skyy® and Bacardi® are notorious for fabricating lavish lifestyles, using sexually explicit imagery, and overall, stroking the narcissists ego. I hate to be the burden of bad news, but alcohol is the most used and commonly abused drug by adults in many industrialized countries. What many of these high-life alcohol advertisements fail to mention is an even darker truth behind excessive drinking. Family life becomes strained, spouses and children become victims to the abuse, fearing and dreading the alternate personality that emerges after the addict has slammed down yet another glass. Like any addict, the alcoholic will justify why they need their fix, even when they know they are slowly killing themselves and driving their family …show more content…
For instance, an alcoholic would be able to relate to the man trapped under the pint glass because he is a reflection of the shame and isolation he feels from his inability to control his drinking. Whereas families of alcoholics are likely to identify with the problematic situation in the advertisement, that being the tension and strain felt by going about fixing meals and household chores when the elephant in the room continues to be ignored. Appropriately the website title hadenough.org.nz provides information for alcoholics questioning their own drinking behavior, this gives them a window of opportunity to escape from under the glass from which they’ve been trapped
Advertising usually paints alcohol as fun and socially acceptable, avoiding issues that arise by including a small, barely legible “Please Drink Responsibly” disclaimer. Companies like Skyy® and Bacardi® are notorious for fabricating lavish lifestyles, using sexually explicit imagery, and overall, stroking the narcissists ego. I hate to be the burden of bad news, but alcohol is the most used and commonly abused drug by adults in many industrialized countries. What many of these high-life alcohol advertisements fail to mention is an even darker truth behind excessive drinking. Family life becomes strained, spouses and children become victims to the abuse, fearing and dreading the alternate personality that emerges after the addict has slammed down yet another glass. Like any addict, the alcoholic will justify why they need their fix, even when they know they are slowly killing themselves and driving their family …show more content…
For instance, an alcoholic would be able to relate to the man trapped under the pint glass because he is a reflection of the shame and isolation he feels from his inability to control his drinking. Whereas families of alcoholics are likely to identify with the problematic situation in the advertisement, that being the tension and strain felt by going about fixing meals and household chores when the elephant in the room continues to be ignored. Appropriately the website title hadenough.org.nz provides information for alcoholics questioning their own drinking behavior, this gives them a window of opportunity to escape from under the glass from which they’ve been trapped