The Critique of “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals”

The Critique of “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals”

Advertisements are part of our daily lives and they are inextricably linked. Since we were young, the world was at our fingertips, bombarded with a society that has been shaped by advertising. Advertisements make a great impact in our lives that influence our decision-making and buying habits, even changing our perception of certain products or services.

“Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals” is an informative and educational article, which is written by Jib Fowles, a professor of Communication at the University of Houston Clear Lake. This article first appeared in Etc. 39:3 (1982) and was reprinted in the college textbook - Advertising and Popular Culture (1996). In the “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals”, Fowles provides readers with a set of information that discusses how advertising contains certain unconscious emotional appeals which fall into fifteen distinguishable categories. Besides that, he also explains how advertisers try to influence consumers through various physiological and psychological levels. This article educates advertisers and college students who are majoring in advertising on how to make effective advertisements. Also, Fowles analyzes tactics that advertisers use and gives readers his opinions and suggestions on how to make an advertisement more effective (539-556).

To provide a good source of information, the author himself should be credible in order to make readers believe that his article contains credible and valuable information. Not only is the credibility of the author important, but also the content of the article should be thorough and detailed so that it can help readers get good quality information. Finally, Fowles did a great job organizing his article. It was easy for readers to follow his steps throughout the whole article because of the sub-tittles he provided for each appeal. Based on these criteria’s, I believe Fowles’ article is a good source of information for...