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I’m still reeling from the fact that so few students finished their persuasive essays on time — a good number of students still didn’t turn in the assignment today, and I guess that will just have to reflect in their grades. So be it.

Initially, my next step was to have students write another essay — a movie or CD or book review — and I still intend to do just that, but I decided to take a step to the side, rather than forward, to better practice this idea of “Thesis Statement,” and “Persuasion.” (That, and I just wasn’t prepared for today, and needed something quick, fun, exciting, and appealing to both me and the students.)

That’s why, instead of plodding on forward, directly to another essay, we’re doing something fun. We’re gonna make commercials! Seriously.

The kids were really surprised by this, and they jumped very quickly at this notion when I said: I want us to study commercials — I want us to see how they’re made and how they work. The people who make commercials are tricksters and they use some pretty sneaky ways to get your attention and interest. So, we’re going to find out how they do their job, and then we’re going to mimic that with our own commercials.

“What?!?”

Yeah, you’re all going to create products, write scripts, make props, and direct and star in a commerical.

“SWEET!”

And when it’s all done, we’re going to watch the commercials you made.

“THAT’S SO AWESOME!”

And, here’s what I’d really like to do, just to make this a little more interesting: I’m going to tape all these commercials, and then I’d like to share our work with each other on somehting like YouTube.

“…..”

Is that all right?

“Seriously?”

Yeah seriously. I wouldn’t have said it, otherwise.

“THAT’S SO AWESOME! WE CAN, LIKE, WATCH THE COMMERCIALS ONLINE AND THEN WE CAN, LIKE, PUT ‘EM ON OUR MYSPACE PAGESANDSTUFFTHAT’SSOOOOAWESOME!”

But, hold on a second. We have to figure out how commercials work in the first place. So, today, we’re going to study the 8 most prominent ways commercials get us to buy things.

Get out your notebooks.

Commercials are the most prominent form of persuasive writing. They’re everywhere! You can’t get away from them. And every commercial has one thing in mind: You. The people who make commercials, the people who write commercials, and the companies that have commercials are only interested in getting your money, and they do it in very simple ways.

#1: Bandwagon
This technique tries to persuade everyone to join in and do the same thing.

The important thing with bandwagon persuasion is that it lets you know that all of the “cool” or “important” people are using this product. if you want to be in that group, you’ll buy the product.

(Here the students brought up the commercials they’ve seen that show this type of persuasion: A certain Starbucks commercial shows a man opening a drink and singing about how wonderful it makes him feel. Slowly, people around him begin singing and dancing alongside him. By the end of the commercial the man is surrounded by hundreds of followers, all singing and dancing.

Many cmmercials for kids’ toys and video games even go so far as to tell the kids: “Everyone needs to get [this product]!”)

#2: Testimonial
An important person or famous figure endorses a product.

All you need for a testimonial is a famous person. Get one of those people in the commercial and you’ve got a testimonial.

I don’t really know why this is #2 in the list, because this is one of the most common types of advertising I see. Can anybody describe an example of a testimonial?

“OOH! there’s those Proactiv™ commercials with Jessica Simpson!”
“OH! And P. Diddy is in those Pepsi™ commercials.

Sweeet! You just outlined two different types of testimonials. One where a celebrity is necessary, and one where the celebrity is completely unnecessary. Which commercial is which?

“Jessica Simpson is necessary!”

Why?

“‘Cause she has acne.”

Yeah, man! She makes thos commercials because she used to be a total pizza-face! But then she used the product and now she’s got perfect skin. Of course it makes sense to have her in the commercial — SHE’S USED THE PRODUCT! But what about P. Diddy? Why is he in the Pepsi™ commercial?

“‘Cause he’s cool.”

Does Pepsi make him cool?

“No.”

So not only is that a type of Testimonial, but it’s also a bandwagon commercial, too, isn’t it? In a way, Pepsi is telling you: ‘If you want ot be cool like P. Diddy, you need to drink Pepsi. Do YOU have to drink Pepsi to be cool?

“No way!”
“Pepsi sucks!”

So why have him there in the first place?

“‘Cause he’s famous.”

Exactly. And the people who write and make commercials think you’re just that stupid.

“Hey!”

No, really. They think you’re going to buy more Pepsi just because of P. Diddy. They think you’re shallow and that you can’t think for yourselves. They just want you to buy their product, and if they have to pay P. Diddy to do that, then, they’ll do it. And you’ll go out and buy that stuff because you want to be on the ‘cool people’ bandwagon.

#3: Transfer
Good feelings, looks, or ideas transferred to the person for whom the product is intended.

Transfer happens when a commercial shows a person become cool by using a product.

(Student examples: Any commercial for TAG™ deodorant. Any advertisement for Makeup.
“There’s this AVON commercial where a lady says, ‘I wasn’t beautiful until I put on my makeup.’ and that’s totally stupid, ’cause she was hot in the first place.”)

#4: Repetition
The product name or keyword or phrase is repeated several times.

Every person who makes a commercial thinks you’re an idiot. Sometimes they prove you’re an idiot by getting you to buy products based solely on the fact that they got a phrase stuck in your head.

The students chanted:
Head on! Apply Directly to the forehead!
Head on! Apply Directly to the forehead!
Head on! Apply Directly to the forehead!

Before they sang in unison: “BA DA BA BA BAAAHH! I’M LOVIN’ IT!”

#5: Emotional Words
Words such as “luxury,” ‘beautiful,” “paradise,” and “economical” are used to evoke positive feelings in the viewer.

A few questions for the class:
• What color is a ‘luxury’ car?
• How is ‘paradise’ shown in commercials?
• Name one ‘beautiful’ person.
• Give me the brand of an ‘economical’ car.

#6: Name-calling
Negative words are used to create an unfavorable opinion of the competition in the viewer’s mind.

It’s completely illegal for one company to call another company names in a commercial — but they still do it in sneaky ways. Coke™ can’t just come out and say: “Pepsi™ tastes like rat vomit!” SO waht do they do to show that no one likes Pepsi™?

“They show a commercial where people constantly choose Coke over Pepsi.”
“They have the taste-test commercial!”

And what about other companies, ’cause it isn’t just Coke or Pepsi doing this type of commercial.

“Quiznos!”
“Total cereal!

#7: Faulty Cause and EffectUse of a product is credited for creating a positive result.

Any diet commercial. Know why? because evry diet commercial shows a fat lady/man get thin. And at the same time, what’s written on the bottom of the TV screen?

“Results not typical!”

(Man, these kids watch a lot of TV. And they already know about all these little secrets and tricks)

#8: Compare and Contrast
The viewer is led to believe one product is better than another, although no real proof is offered.

“Same as the Coke and Pepsi stuff from earlier! You can’t prove that one is better than the other; they just tell you it is!”

Man, you guys aren’t as dumb as the people making commercials think you are! You’re smarter than them! YOu’ve probably never fallen for any of this stuff before, have you?

“Oh yeah we have!”
“All the time!”

Why?

“I don’t know. You see a commercial and it sticks in your head. When you want something, you already know what to get.”

Ahhh….there’s the trickery. The people who make the commercials have burned their images and words and songs right into your mind. They tricked you. How did they do it?

“With this stuff.”

Right. And now that you know how these 8 types of persuasion work, I’m going to give you an assignment…

And then I showed them the handout on the left, which they’ll use to map out the commercials they’ll direct. Each class will have 8 teams of students working on creating products, props, scripts, and planning out their shoots for their commercials. Each team will focus on one of the above persuasive strategies.

This should give them some more first-hand experience with persuasive writing, Thesis Statement, and plotting arguments for their persuasion. Most of the writing about persuasion will happen behind the scenes. The persuasion itself will happen in front of the camera.

Should be fun.
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Your homework for the weekend? Watch as much television as humanly possible.