Effectiveness of Persuasion Tactics in Advertising

Persuasion is using communication to change the attitudes or behavior of people. The effective substance in communication contains the right message being delivered through the right source and to the right audience. This paper analyzes the “MTN DEW Introduces MTN DEW SWEET LIGHTNING” advertisement. This is a Mountain Dew commercial that targets a psychographic audience by trying to consider people’s interests and lifestyles. 

The paper delves into the effectiveness of the persuasion tactics used in this advertisement. It highlights and analyzes three key persuasive features; use of evidence, credibility and appeal to positive emotions, and to show with evidence from the ad, how they aid in the effectiveness of the ad to the target audience. The paper argues that the features used in this advertisement are effective in persuading the target audience and uses two published empirical study findings to anchor this argument.