0704 – Advertisements / Commercials

2022.12.05 – 0704 – Advertisements / Commercials

Advertisements / Commercials

Perhaps one of the main attributes of a radio, tv or movie commercial read is a voice with charismatic qualities. That is one that is trustworthy, interesting and ‘listenable’.

Even though the person behind the voice is rarely if ever seen, with a radio advert you have a lot of heavy lifting to do, whereas with the other, more visual mediums, your voice is in addition and often takes more of a back seat to what is being seen on the screen. And that also often affects the style of the script too: whereas radio has to use the voice to communicate almost all of the information (there may be music and sound effects too) and is therefore quite natural, a script for a TV or movie theatre spot fits around the other elements and so the vocal presentation is more staccato – words and phrases rather than full sentences.

Understand the old rhetorical devices to help you work out how to read advertising copy. After all, a commercial is trying to persuade you to do something – buy a product, click on a website, visit a location – in a way that politicians going back to the ancient Romans were also trying to persuade you to act or think a certain way. Devices such as:

·        The rule of three – when three items are listed as attributes of the product or service.

·        Opposites – Such as “So, what would you rather? Keep paying for your car month after month, or buy it outright?” Also, up and down, left and right, this or that

·        Repetition – “We’re number one!” sung three times in the Lays potato chip commercial[1] or “So does Kraft” [2]

·        Climax – “He was a boy, then a man, then a father….”

·        The basic story arc – The introduction, action, climax, conclusion, and call to action.

So, understand the structure of the copy. It’s all on the page, so be a self-direction detective. And think about this, a lot of these devices are used in children’s books and fairy tales so they are almost hard-wired into our brains.

[1] The first commercial in this montage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1qDZ6aGQOg

[2] In the same montage from 6m 29s

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