HWACHONG INSTITUTION

SECONDARY 2 GPLUS ENGLISH

PERSUASIVE WRITING

Persuasive Writing in Advertising

Along with TV shows, news articles, radio programmes and other forms of mass information dissemination, advertising is a component of the mass media.

In the table below, list a few examples of the types of advertising found in the following categories of media.

Category / Subclass / Examples of Advertising
Print / Location-Specific / Posters
Brochures
Notice Boards
Mass Distribution / Flyers
Non-Print / Audio / Radio
Audio-Visual / Films
TV Advertisements
Internet / Email / Links to websites
Email Advertisements
Email Newsletters
Webpage / Pop-ups
Banners
Sponsorship Advertisements

Now, complete the following diagram showing the relationship between the 3 aims of advertising and the 3 Ways to affect the target audience.

General components of an advertisement:

Artwork / Photographs, graphics, decorations etc
Titles / Headlines and subheaders
Copy / Main text body/Narration
Signature/Contact / Logos, advertiser’s name, contact info, addresses, instructions etc.

Now, watch the advertisement on the following site and break down the persuasive techniques used in the advertisement.

Chevron Untapped Energy TV Spot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJZgGb_8pQw

Timeline / Devices Used / Copy / Techniques Used
List down all audio-visual happenings in the clip in chronological order / Identify literary and argumentative devices used / Narrated text / Identify persuasive techniques used (may be used in combination)
“Tapped energy” becomes “Untapped energy”
Glacier & city
Oil drop, derricks, polluted skyline, burning oilfields

News clips

Dense cities, traffic on highway, gridlock
Oil Companies. Followed by scenes of Families
Scenes of Crowds

Plane taking off, People running in desert
Baby
People wondering

Challenging
Acts
City, motorcycle and waves
Oil tanker (Ship)
Research Tools, Oil machinery and city
Waves
Discussions

Birds
Cars, Gas tanks, Sun rising, Hydrogen station and Geyser
People
Different Citizens of the world
Different Jobs illustrating the ones mentioned
Discussion, air and kid
Space shuttle, prosthetic running limbs
Disabled man running,
People who reach the peak of a mountain, a baby with parents / Prefigures the argument: we need to change our perspective on oil & company
Contrasting images à Debate
Imagery: doom, destruction, conflict
Imagery: overcrowding
Traffic: interconnectedness
To Illustrate the “this isn’t just about oil companies. this is about you, and me” mindset and to show the extent of the impact it can have on families
Imagery: Showing The “six and a half billion people” and “another 73 million” giving the impression of having a lot of people (big impact)
Energy consuming activities
Life
To show thought
To show ‘challenge’
Progression of time
Represents Oil
Imagery: “more intelligently, more efficiently”
Signify Respectfully
Shows that Chevron wants to save the environment

Signify “looking for alternatives”
Signify Conservation
Represent Different types of energy
Show that Chevron can be anyone
Imagery to illustrate the 180 countries and 58000 citizens of the world
Illustrate the diversity of the chevron workers
To show the finding of newer ways, the cleaner ways and powering the world respectively
To illustrate the “reaching for what seemed impossible” and the “find a way”.
Imagery: show the power of human energy. Shows the “human spirit” and wants totell us that Chevron will strive to do its best to obtain clean energy for all. / And outside the debate rages.
Oil. Energy. The environment.
It is the story of our time, and it is definitive and all-encompassing. And it leaves no one untouched.
Because – make no mistake – this isn’t just about oil companies. This is about you, and me, and the undeniable truth that at this moment there are six and a half billion people on this planet. And by year’s end there will be another 73 million. And every one of us will need energy to live.
Where will it come from?
This is Chevron’s challenge each day.
Because for today, and tomorrow, and the foreseeable future, our lives demand oil.
But what’s also true is that we can provide it more intelligently, more efficiently, more respectfully.
That we’ll never stop looking for alternatives. That an oil company can practice and espouse conservation.
Yes, we are an oil company. But right now we’re also providing natural gas, solar, hydrogen, geothermal.
Because we live on this planet too.
This is who we are. In 180 countries. Not corporate titans, but men and women of vision, 58,000 citizens of the world, liberals and conservatives, engineers and scientists, pipeline welders and geologists, husbands and wives, part-time poets and coaches.
People who daily try to find newer ways – cleaner ways – to power the world.
Humans have always reached for what seemed impossible, because it is then that we find a way.
Tell us it can’t be done, then watch as we tap the greatest source of energy in the world: ourselves.
This is the power of human energy. / Pathos: Powerful & evocative images
Logos: Argument that we are all responsible for oil companies’ activities, because of interconnectedness & demand for oil
Pathos: Powerful & evocative images
Logos: Asks question on where oil that we have to use will come from, and tells us that oil can be used more wisely. Projects Chevron as the creator of their future.

Pathos: Images follow the narration and are emotive and strong
Logos: Shows the human resources that Chevron has and tells the viewer that they are not corporate titans , but 5800 citizens of the world. It also shows that Chevron is not only about themselves, but it is for the people across the Globe, and also showing that Chevron cares for the environment and strives to do the very best in all that it does.

Pathos: Powerful and
Evocative pictures , like
The disabled man.
Logos: Shows that we
Can go up to space,
can run even though
We are disabled. Why
can’t we harness this
energy. Tells us that this tomorrow with clean energy sufficient for everyone is indeed very possible and doable.