RCS 362-Message Appeal

There are four types of message appeals that advertisements tend to fall into. These are humor, appeals to fear, appeals to guilt, and sex appeal. The main goal of each of these message appeals are to enhance MOA, standing for motivation, opportunity, and ability. Advertisements play on all four of these in the hope to motivate audiences to take action. Now that I have become aware of this topic, as I turn on the TV or look through books and magazines I am able to pick out which advertisements are using which type of message appeal. Even though an ad uses message appeals does not guarantee that it will be effective.
I chose two advertisements that worked for me and two that didn't, meaning they effected either the way I felt about something or motivated me to want to change or adopt a certain action or they didn't effect me at all. The ads that worked for me were the commercial that we watched in class about miscarriages caused by smoking and the commercials about the importance of alarm systems in one's home. The first commercial addresses how many miscarriages will happen this year due to smoking cigarettes and really hits home for many women, many of whom see themselves becoming mothers one day. I never really thought that the anti-smoking advertisements were ever really effective because many that already smoke understand the dangers of smoking and choose to still do it. However, when you bring the idea of harming another person, much less an unborn child, peoples views begin to change. I know that if I was a pregnant mother that was still smoking and watched that commercial it would certainly appeal to guilt in the most extreme form, causing me to really think twice about what I was doing. I know we are all familiar with the commercials depicting someone breaking into a home, a symbol of safely and comfort for most of us. The commercial is advertising a home alarm system, however, I think it is especially effective because it plays on our sense of fear. I know that one of my biggest fears is a stranger breaking into my home and every time I see that commercial I think about installing an alarm system which would better equip me with a peace of mind.
Two advertisements that didn't seem to work for me were, of course, the Axe commercials and a paper ad that is in our textbook on page 285. Axe is somewhat of a new concept for most of us, coming about in just the past couple of years. Since then it seems that the company comes out with a new scent almost monthly and a taste less commercial to accompany it. The commercial about the new chocolate scent depicts a man literally turning into a piece of chocolate and every where he goes women are taking a bite out of him, whether it be his arm, butt or even licking his face. Obviously the message here is that if you wear this cologne, women will flock to you, however, I personally believe it is in bad taste and does not have any sex appeal. I don't wear cologne so I would clearly not be apart of the target audience for this commercial but I know that I wouldn't want my boyfriend or even guy friends to wear it. (Who wants to smell like chocolate anyway?) The ad that I saw in our textbook was promoting Brita water filters. The picture illustrates old, rusty pipes that water runs through and at the bottom of it we read, "Only Brita has a 2-stage filter. So even if there's sediment in your pipes, it won't get in you." My apartment was built in the 1930's so you would think this would be something that I would be interested in, but the reality is that it's not. Maybe it just isn't something that I care enough about and maybe I would feel differently if I had a family with kids that were drinking this water. Clearly this was meant to appeal to fear but in laymen's terms, it simply didn't do the trick.