Some of the most powerful advertisements were designed for war. Companies today are still using these same tactics to persuade people to buy their products. Understanding how companies persuade us to buy their products can help us make smarter decisions as to what to buy. This will allow people to buy what they actually need rather than what companies try to make us think we need. By analyzing advertisements from WWII we can highlight similar tactics being used in modern advertisements every day. They use our admiration and insecurities to make us believe that their product is what their audience needs. In today’s advertisements celebrities are constantly popping up. This is something that can be taken back to WWII advertisements. A prime example …show more content…
This ad highlights the use guilt and abusing the morals of the people to advertise themselves. It is essentially saying that if someone drives on their own rather than carpooling and saving gas then they might as well be a Nazi. As said by Ted Vessenes this “propaganda works because most people don’t think rationally.” Today, this is notably found in advertisements for dog shelters and the Feed the Children commercials showing children in Africa with extreme malnutrition. These ads play with our guilt by telling us that by doing nothing we are effectively letting animals and children die. In the same way, the WWII advertisement said that if people the didn’t ride with others then they might as well be giving a seat to Hitler. No American wants to be seen as a Nazi, nor does anyone want to be seen as someone who would simply let animals or children die. These advertisers take this obvious fact and abuse peoples morals to get what they want. These particular companies are using this in order to do something good. They likely saved many lives. Though, we must be aware that any group, good or bad, could use our guilt to persuade us to do things that we wouldn’t have done otherwise. This could be a beer company advertisement seen by an alcoholic or it could be a modern day political