Week 9: Propaganda in Advertising/PR

I saw the Verizon Wireless commercial “There’s a map for that” on you tube. This commercial is promoting Verizon Wireless and showing AT&T Wireless is number two, where as Verizon is number one. The ad itself is looks like it could very well be an Apple Iphone ad.

This ad appealed to “plain folks” and used the technique common man. They show a college student casually dressed is walking through a college campus playing video games or watching you tube videos on his Verizon cell phone. He looks happy on his phone, at the end of the ad he see’s crosses someone on an Apple Iphone and he looks at him in “I’m better then you” way. The commercial shows the other college student with the Apple Iphone looks upset and frustrated looking at his Iphone. The ad shows maps of coverage area for Verizon and for AT&T. Verizon’s coverage map is in red and AT&T’s map is blue. It looks almost like the Republicans and Democratic political party map. How it’s in red and blue.

Advertising agents know what they portray in commercials, and this could be an act of political subliminal messaging. Or it could simply be Verizon’s corporate color is red and AT&T’s logo is blue.

The other propaganda technique this commercial used was labeling. It directly labeled AT&T as “second best” subconsciously showing Verizon as “number one”.

Here is a link to the commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCbYTrYD5y8

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7 Responses to “Week 9: Propaganda in Advertising/PR”

  1. Kendal Says:

    I can definitely see “common man” as a technique used in this Verizon commercial. Very interesting.

  2. Robert Says:

    black and white fallacy, intentional vagueness, and oversimplifying are also some techniques that I see being used in the add.

  3. Han Ho Says:

    I love MAC products, but I refuse to switch over to at&t. The main use for a phone is texting and calling people, and when you need it most at&T phone calls would fail, or the text would arrive much later, when it is no longer relevant.

  4. Duyen Says:

    I rarely ever look for propaganda techniques in commercials. It becomes quite interesting when I do take the time to look for them. I agree with Kendal–I do see the common man technique

  5. Guino Dalit Says:

    I agree with Kendal, The common man technique is used in the verizon wireless commercials. They portray different kinds of people from families, to athletes, to coworkers. etc etc
    -Guino Dalit

  6. Salim Says:

    I have also seen this commercial but never caught the propaganda in it. Intersting how they slip it in there.

  7. De Anza Mass Com Says:

    This is a test of leaving a comment.

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