In the previous discussion, we talked about the Peripheral Route in the ELM and dissected the peripheral cues used in one commercial to persuade audiences. Now, we move on to the second route in attitude change: the central route.
The Central Route
As opposed to the Peripheral route where messages are processed passively, the central route is the path audiences take when they have the time and cognitive effort to weigh the pros and cons of a persuasive message. Unlike purchasing something because a certain famous someone was the model for the product, audiences who go through this route require motivation, time, and cognitive effort to elaborate the points of the message.
An example of this would be purchasing a certain pair of boots because of the rainy whether, and because it's durable, comfortable, and within your affordable price range.
One central cue would be the strength of the argument of the persuasive message.
The commercial mentions the content of the toothpaste (liquid calcium and fluoride). For people who care about their toothpaste, knowing what's actually in it matters. This presents itself as a good argument for you to buy Colgate.
It also mentions purpose - what it can actually do. The commercial claims an "all-around cavity protection, kahit in between teeth". Based on its earlier argument, this is another informed point that consumers may want to mull over.
"1 brand recommended by dentists". We can say that this claim is a central cue because it's based on a study, as shown in the commercial. It's not an empty claim.
It's important to note too that persuasive messages don't necessarily always have only one kind of cue, but a clever mixture of both. One peripheral cue you may have noticed is the presence of the white lab coat which carries several meanings; it may be a symbol of expertise, authority. For people who have no time or motivation to carefully analyze the messages in this commercial, simply seeing the dentist (we don't even know if the guy's a real dentist in the first place) in the white lab coat may be enough to persuade them to buy Colgate in their next grocery trip.
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References:
Cacioppo, J. T., & Petty, R. E. (1984). THE ELABORATION LIKELIHOOD MODEL OF PERSUASION. Advances In Consumer Research, 11(1), 673-675. Retrieved October 10, 2014 from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=82bb87a3-b727-49dc-a6f7-94e8ac5a2cae%40sessionmgr4002&vid=4&hid=4108
How Media Persuades Us: ELM and the Peripheral Route
Attitude is an important factor media takes into account when crafting persuasive media messages. This is primarily because your attitude has the capacity to influence your behavior and decisions, and consequently, whether you'll actually end up spending your money and buy the thing. This is the underlying idea used in the ELM, or the Elaboration Likelihood Model.
The Peripheral Route
This is the route people take when they don't have a) time and b) cognitive effort to consider the actual positive and negative aspects of a persuasive message. Instead, they are led by what we call peripheral cues that allow them to make simple decisions. Some of these peripheral cues are:
Authority ("Piolo Pascual uses Clear shampoo, so you should too")
Popularity ("You'll finally get noticed by your crush if you use this product")
Happiness ("You'll be satisfied after eating this")
To show how peripheral cues are used, let's use McDo's Twister Fries commercial:
Let's first look at the peripheral cues used:
"Look at those curls. Beautiful. Epic."
Add that to the glorious shots of delicate, golden potato curls, and the statement is quite obvious - buy our fries because they're Damn Good. It doesn't make any substantial claim about the ingredients, like where the potatoes are grown, what kind of oil is used. It's a simple appeal to our hunger, and it persuades us by promising satisfaction.
"It's finally back; so get it, before it's gone." #minsanlangto
Once I asked a friend what was it with Twister fries that she was just itching for them the whole day. "Um, duh, they're Twister fries," she told me, slightly offended, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. I still don't fully get it, but this commercial does try to explain the hype - and in my case, it does manage to successfully persuade me, or at the very least, pique my interest. The image is a choir of sweating, aggressively reverent men clad in red and gold singing a with a purposeful sense of greatness and awe - and so should you.
Although the Peripheral route is more effortless and less time-consuming, its effects are rather short-lived as compared to attitude change that occurs in the Central route. People who were persuaded by these kinds of messages are also more likely to be swayed by other influences counter to it.
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References:
Cacioppo, J. T., & Petty, R. E. (1984). THE ELABORATION LIKELIHOOD MODEL OF PERSUASION. Advances In Consumer Research, 11(1), 673-675. Retrieved October 10, 2014 from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=82bb87a3-b727-49dc-a6f7-94e8ac5a2cae%40sessionmgr4002&vid=4&hid=4108
Spice It Up: A Semiotic Analysis of Jessy Mendiola's Mcdonald's McSpicy Launch Commerical
Analyzing ads is fun. Ever since I've been indoctrinated in the basics of communication theory in university, I've found myself unconsciously participating in this as a pastime regularly - finding signs, interpreting symbols, uncovering myths. Very Fun Stuff. Really. This is what we call semiotics; simply, it's about the meaning of texts and how we interpret it. In advertising, semiotics plays a very important role. Myself and communication scholars aside, I believe everyone should be aware of how ads make use of certain signs to impart meaning to their audiences, and especially, how we ourselves interpret meaning.
But why learn about semiotics? Well:
It's empowering.
How? By understanding the underlying meaning of signs, of codes, we unearth the schemas we've built around ourselves to make sense of things. And then we realize that not everything is what society sets it up to be. We become aware that everything is a construction, existing only because of the meaning we give to it. The moment we become aware of these constructions is the moment we become free of them. Things like gender, beauty - we realize that these things are not an inherent one-size-fits-all kinda thing, but merely something imposed by different people.
1. To analyze the commercial, let's use Roland Barthes' order of signification as a lens to view the video. This is simply the order of how we understand meaning from texts. The first order is denotation, which is the explicit meaning derived from things, and is most concerned with the sign (something which stands for something else). Let's first identify the signs and their literal meanings:
From the video, there seems to be a before and after sequence used:
Before
A chicken burger = a kind of burger fast food restaurants serve
Jessy Mendiola in a white, loose-fitting dress, her hair in a ponytail = well, Jessy Mendiola in a white, loose-fitting dress, her hair in a ponytail. (Although, it's quite odd to see a famous actress in such plain clothing, isn't it? But here's where we need to be careful; the denotative order is limited to explicit meanings, and interpreting Ms. Mendiola's mode of dress any further would fall into the next order. Then again, some semiotics and argue that it is sometimes impossible to distinguish the denotative from the connotative)
Aside from the obvious physical signs, let's consider sound: it's quiet
Jessy yawning, seemingly at the burger
After
A McSpicy chicken burger = a spicy chicken burger
Jessy Mendiola in a red, tight-fitting dress, her hair loose = the same thing, basically
Sound: Jazz track
Jessy breaking out of her white dress, finally taking a bite of the burger
2. Now we move on to the next order: connotation. Connotation involves the implicit meanings we can derive from the signs in the text. Now, back to the signs we've determined in the before/after diagram, we can interpret further meanings (note: the following interpretations were done with the help of other Communication majors) :
Before
A chicken burger = it looks kind of plain, doesn't it? Unappetizing even. Just a chicken burger between two plain buns of bread. It doesn't even try to look delicious at all.
Jessy's dress is just as plain, as well as her overall look. Minimal make-up, no flair. "Her white dress makes her look like a yaya". Like a typical plain jane.
And then she yawns at the burger - she looks unimpressed, disinterested. Bored. Wow, this burger is the most boring thing she's ever seen.
After
The burger transforms! Cue jazz music and golden hues and epic shots of crisp breading exploding all over the place.
Jessy's transformation: she breaks out of her plain jane yaya look and suddenly dons a red dress that reveals more curves (and more cleavage), her hair falling loose across her shoulders. Her stare is smoldering as she stares into the camera, and we can say that she's meant to look sexually appealing.
Finally, she takes a bite of the burger, and she looks like she's enjoying it.
"Spice up your day!" the ending caption says. But why would your day need a little "spicing up" in the first place? Well, according to all the signs and their meanings placed together, it's probably boring.
3. When connotation and denotation are combined, what we have is myth. This is sometimes said to be the third order of signification. Myths are naturalized assumptions people make about how things work, often dictated by the dominant group in a cultural society. Because of this, myths may contain several implications about socio-political power.
Myth: Women are boring as they are - it takes a little transformation, a little "spicing up" to make them more appealing. This myth is based on the sexist ideology about women still present in the Philippine society today. It's this myth that states that women should be ashamed to go out bare-faced, the myth that urges women to mold their bodies to fit the skinny, white ideal.
This is just one myth I've unearthed, but there are possible others. What other myths can you spot?
4. As previously mentioned, myths are naturalized assumptions - surely, they may also be de-naturalized. This starts with understanding the deep-seated beliefs underlying our culture as well as the knowledge that not all of these beliefs should be kept. Meanings are structured, not innate. We should continually keep this desire to analyze and interpret our culture's way of thinking to avoid falling into a narrow way of thinking.
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References:
Atkin, A. (2006, October 13). Peirce's Theory of Signs. Stanford University. Retrieved October 16, 2014, from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/peirce-semiotics/
Stone, R. (n.d.). A Semiotic Analysis of Four Designer Clothing Advertisements. Aberystwyth University. Retrieved October 15, 2014, from http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/rbs9701.html
Zakia, R. D., & Nadin, M. (1987). Semiotics, advertising, and marketing. The Journal of Consumer Marketing, 4(2), 5-12. Retrieved October 10, 2014, from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/eb008192a
