The Ethical Persuasion Of World Mastercard Magic Shop Ad

As we learned and discussed this week through the readings, lectures, discussion board posts, and WebEx session, persuasion is prevalent throughout the media and nearly inescapable in mass media. Particularly, persuasion permeates television commercials, of which we are exposed to thousands of on a weekly basis (Simons et. al., 2001). However, as the persuasive messages of advertising create more noise in our lives, we become less responsive to the persuasion, which results in a positive feedback loop where marketers bombard us with even more messages (Goodman et. al, 2003). Because of this, advertisers are become more desperate to capture the attention of their audiences, and they are employing unethical persuasive tactics to trick the consumer into wanting the product being sold. The World MasterCard magical shop commercial that we watched is no exception to this phenomenon. In the magical shop

First of all, MasterCard implements misleading language to hedge what they say in their advertisement. According to Paul and Elder (2012, p. 27), “Manipulators often hide behind words, refusing to commit themselves or give direct answers.” Often it advertisements hide behind flashy language that disguises the underlying negatives that their product will bring about. In the MasterCard commercial, the company asserts that 28 laughs, nine hugs, 52 smiles, and two contented sighs will result from using their World MasterCard. In addition, they implement words like “free”, “priceless”, and “offers” to grab the viewer’s attention and capture interest in the product. However, purchases made with MasterCard are obviously not free and priceless, they just use the repetition of words with positive connotations, such as free and priceless, to manipulate the customer into believing that it