Drawing attention in advertising: a comparative study of the techniques used in radio and video commercials

Details

Supervisors

De Cock, Sylvie

Faculty

Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres

Degree label

Master [120] en communication multilingue

Abstract

The present study explores radio and video commercials, advertising either a product, a service or a cause, by focusing on three advertising techniques known by advertisers as drawing the audience’s attention: humour, endorsement and music and lyrics. The first purpose of the study is to investigate the frequency in the use of these techniques. Some happened to be very frequent depending on the channel that broadcasted them while others were less common. The second purpose is about the different uses that can be made in order to introduce one of the techniques in the commercial. Humour can appear in many forms. An endorser can be either an expert or a celebrity. Music can also be played in different ways. The research highlights by means of many tables and examples that some of the uses are preferred by advertisers while some are exceptions and are therefore rarer. Lastly, the study seeks to see if some techniques are only limited to one channel or to a specific type of commercials. It is the case for endorsement in radio commercials. Among the 21 radio commercials selected for the study, none featured any form of endorsement. Humour in the commercials advertising a cause was also very rare because only one example was found among the 42 commercials under study.