For my Persuasion course (COMM 33), I was tasked with analyzing five different advertisements from a brand of my choosing and explaining the various motivational appeals each advertisement employed. I chose the brand Billie, which is a body care brand, and analyzed two video advertisements, two social media advertisements, and one print advertisement released by the Billie brand. I specifically related my explanations back to the course textbook, Persuasion, Social Influence, and Compliance Gaining by Gass and Seiter (2014), by discussing various terms and theories related to Persuasion. These terms/theories include:
Attachment Theory
Utilitarian & Hedonic Decision Making
Social Comparison Theory
Motivational Appeals (Warmth, Youth, Sex, Beauty, Humor, Ingratiation)
I also added in a fun extra layer of analysis near the end by bringing up a unique question of credibility (that's why my video is a little long!), which we discussed at length in Module 3, Credibility, of this course. I really enjoyed making this presentation and was really surprised by all the ways a brand can use motivational appeals to persuade their audience into buying their products or emotionally aligning with the brand.
Here is a clickable link if the video player is not available: https://youtu.be/A_6ZG01JQow
Here is the PowerPoint presentation:
References
Billie. (2023, March 2). Billie | "The Internet's Favorite Razor". YouTube. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/WDK7NOHyMWA
Billie [@billie]. (2022, 22 October). [Photo of Internet Meme]. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/CkB4x0qPJet/
Billie [@billie]. (2022, 6 September). [Photo of BeReal]. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/CiLTYYRrMb8/
Billie. (2018, June 25). Project Body Hair by Billie. Vimeo. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/276869478
Gass, R.H, Sieter, J.S. (2014). Persuasion, social influence, and compliance gaining. Pearson.
Le Coz, N. (n.d.) “Billie - The New Body Brand.” Working Not Working, https://workingnotworking.com/projects/37977-billie-the-new-body-brand