Advertisement Appeals and Techniques- Greenpeace Canada

Advertisements are something we are consumed by.  A significant reason for this is our subconscious needs to do something that is stimulated by such advertisements.  For example, in an attempt to make people around the globe more mindful of the impact of single-use plastics on oceanic creatures, Greenpeace Canada and another agency, Rethink, produced a series of powerful advertisements.

                                  

These advertisements are profoundly impactful, in a number of different ways.  Greenpeace has tapped into the audience's need for affiliation.  They use this in not just one way; the audience feels a need to not be affiliated with these tragic images and the causes of them, as well as that the audience feels a need to be affiliated with saving these animals.  The audience does not want to acknowledge the fact that they are responsible for the deaths and suffering of marine animals such as the ones portrayed in the advertisements.

In order to maximize the effects of these advertisements, Greenpeace and Rethink utilised Gestault and subliminal persuasion techniques.  The images shown have sea creatures, whose sizes are clearly unproportional, floating in glasses of ice water and being choked by single-use plastic straws.  These images are, to say the least, startling and shocking.  The way the animals are positioned, in glasses of drinking water, and that the animals have straws being forced down their throats, is an unusual sight that provokes intense feelings, such as shock, sadness, anger, and even denial, as people are wanting to deny that they have a part in the suffering of marine wildlife.  The shock that these disturbing images induce is enough to make the target audience reflect, even for a short amount of time, and realize that what is happening in these images are very real things.  In addition, the lack of words (or that they are very small and positioned away from the focus point) decreases distraction and forces people to think in a more deeper and reflective way.

Overall, the way that Greenpeace and Rethink, as well as advertisers in general, target the needs of the audience through their advertisements is thoroughly effective.  The subsequent techniques that they use additionally adds to the productiveness of the advertisements.