Advertising Pitch: Presentation Reflection

Yesterday I presented my pitch for the ‘Affordable and Easy to Assemble Conflict Zone Shelter’. I am relieved that the presentation went well seeing as I was incredibly timorous of the exceedingly abstract task that was at hand. Rather than seeking further clarification on the precise meaning of a ‘pitch’ my group and I decided we would avoid resolving our nebulous state of mind and simply follow the format of the ‘Mad Men Pitch’. Had there been enough time allocated to planning the task, had the presentation been more trenchant.

The persuasion techniques I incorporated into the pitch (more of an advertisement) were:

·      Basic persuasion technique- warm and fuzzy: A presentation rife of images displaying the sad lives refugees live and images of children left without a home will cause the audience to think of their own families and thus they will be struck by a wave of empathy that will benefit the seller (me) and make it easier to sell our product.

·      Intermediate persuasion technique- Charisma: The presenters had to maintain confidence and a winsome attitude. The audience will be inexorable if the presenters did not display their confidence.   With confidence comes trust from the audience. The moment your audience trusts your credibility, consider your product SOLD! This is incredibly important when you are striving to convince an audience of a charity case/ product.

·      Intermediate persuasion technique - rhetorical question: Rhetorical questions were used in order to emphasize the exceedingly egregious global refugee crisis: this helped me subtly (yet effectively) convince the audience that there is an exigent need for donations (that can be done through our company) in order to make an impact on the world as we strive to make the world a better place.

·      Intermediate persuasion technique - simple solution: Our product is the simple solution to help improve the lives of the refugees and and save the world!  

o   Dominance appeal: The audience gain a sense of power and self worth through hearing that they can make a change in the world and that they have the power to help those whom have been enervated due to poverty.  

·      Advanced- persuasion technique: timing- The current global events and the international refugee crisis have caused this ad to be relevant. Due to the Syrian refugee crisis and all the morose news of anguish that has accompanied this event, the audience would naturally experience a moment of hindsight that would ultimately lead to a wave of sad emotions. Thus, this would reduce the barriers between the presenters and the audience, which would then lead to an abundance of products being sold.

Audience and context:

My audience was directed towards adults whom had a stable life and a job, thus they had the financial capacity of providing donations to help those in need.

The context I was provided with was the Global Market.

Knowing my audience and context enabled me to effectively craft my pitch in order to maximize its efficiency and its rate of success.

Points of improvement:

·      Clarity of voice: I kept vacillating between the paper in my hand and trying to maintain eye contact with the audience. As our presentation pried on empathy, it would have been best if I had memorized my lines. Having the paper in front of my face and not knowing my lines sprouted a great deal of insecurity in my mind, this was evident in the tone of my voice.

·      Script: the script was poorly written. The content of the script was inaccurate. The structure of the script was poorly assembled. 

·      Vapid tone: I could not present at my full potential as my insecurity held me back, thus my presenting voice was undeniably vapid.

·      Inaccurate presentation: My presentation was inaccurate as my group approached the task in a different manner to what was asked. A pitch is not an advertisement; it is merely the mechanics of creating an advertisement.

Through approaching my past presentation’s faults, I have learnt a valuable lesion that will benefit my FOA: I must be meticulously read the task in in order to be able to create a diligent and coherent presentation.

  

Watching the other groups present had truly kindled many presentation ideas for my FOA’s and it gave me insight into what I could do to maximize the success of my FOA presentation. 

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Hey there,

It’s been quite a while since we last spoke, the good news is I am back and I have so much to share with you!

This blog post will be a special treat; we shall discuss a new topic that will surely fill your heart with ebullience. This topic is what eats at every second of our wasted time. No matter where we go, it is ubiquitous and quite frankly it would be impossible to eschew from it. Tiered of guessing? Well, our topic revolves around media and advertisements.

As I am a novice at analyzing media, we shall embark this journey together and we will come out of it with a mind rife of media analysis skills.  To start off out journey with slow and steady waves, I will analyze an advertisement; break it down to its core to find its pathos, egos, and logos.

When I think of advertisements, I think of Cristiano Ronaldo. Upon retrospection, I remembered that my favorite adds of his were the ironic KFC advertisements. I always though to myself  “How on earth could and athlete, whom should be advocating a health lifestyle, do a fast food advertisement?”

Click on the video below to watch the advertisement, which I have selected for analysis.

As a spotlight shines on Ronaldo’s perfectly built face, a game suddenly takes place on the pitch. The camera attempts be just and equally display Ronaldo’s toned legs as well as his perfect jaw. Ronaldo runs across the pitch, it appears as though he is in the lead. As he gets closer to the goal he falls, what a tragedy. Worry no more ladies and gentlemen, Ronaldo, our modern day Hercules, gets back up and the crowds go wild. The multiethnic crowds anxiously watch the game as they enjoy delicious meals from KFC. Towards the end, Ronaldo scores and the crowds go wild! Forget a trophy, Ronaldo grabs a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, bites out of the chicken and says ‘So Good!’.

It is clear that the advertisement is directed towards their audience: the football fans. This is evident due to the story line of the advertisement, and the celebrity figure they chose for this advertisement. This was a economically strategic move due to the abundance of football fans in the world. Even if the viewer was not interested in football, they may choose to continue watching due to Ronaldos attractive physical appearance. This advertisement would convince its audience in many different ways: firstly because Ronaldo is an important figure in football, secondly because of the viewers physiological needs and the food on display, thirdly because it associates fitness with fast food and thus eradicates the obstacle of winning over the healthy audiences, and four simply because of how cool Ronaldo looks, and the need and desire to be cool is common in today’s youth.

The element of ethos is found in the celebrity endorsement of the products, in this specific advertisement the celebrity is Cristiano Ronaldo. The audience would most likely interpret the ad in this way “If Cristiano Ronaldo, arguably he best football player in the world, eats KFC, surely it must be good!”

Pathos can be inferred from the frequently displayed KFC food products. This is done in attempts to persuade the audience to purchase the product through utilizing their sense of desire and making them think that they need to eat this 'delicious' food.

However, it appears as logos was not used in this advertisement.

Coming up next, Cristiano Ronaldo’s Clear Men shampoo advertisement.

Letter to the editor

To Ms. Clark, and whom it may concern.

To all those who have had a texting free childhood, this article inaccurately explains the issue regarding the lack of language abilities amongst today’s youth and language erosion. Its author has pinned the blame on technology. Technology is a great tool that can be utilized in order to educate people. Due to the Internet and other technological phenomenons, communication has never been faster. As a result: language, in attempt to keep up with technology, has been modified. However if you ask Ms. Clark she would claim that it has been impinged. Words made shorter, letters mixed with numbers, a catastrophe in the eyes of language purists. However that does not mean that children are no longer capable of learning and possessing miraculous language skills. Ms. Clark, schools such as Mrs. Jordan’s highly respected school are responsible for teaching children the English language. As for your statement that “Youngsters are also in danger of growing up with limited vocabularies because they spend so much of their free time on sites such as Twitter and Facebook instead of reading.” I can assure you the individual is only going to do what they set their mind to do. If one wants to read a novel, then Facebook nor any other social media platform can stop them! I think schools play a big role in sprouting an individual’s love for education, rather than pointing the fingers at social media platforms and other technological devices we should see what we can do to find a solution. To back up my statements with historical context, you should know language began as a form of speech, and then writing was developed to reflect language in a visual form. So now, I ask you Ms. Clark, is gr8 not a visual representation of a word you would use in daily life to explain a feeling that lies somewhere between good and fantastic? If you can speak like writing, then you might also want to write like you speak. That’s where texting comes in. Texting is an expansion of one’s linguistic ability; it does not take the place of another! One may learn a new language but by no means should this new language impact ones ability to speak the other language. I would encourage schools to shape our youth into intelligent beings whom have a love for education and an appreciation for language.

Sincerely,

Dana Alsuwaidi

Memoir: Umu Kultoom

That little boy, a neophyte to the musical world, whom ran from house to house, hand in hand with his father bellowing his lungs out, that was I. Music made the blood gush through my body. I never cared much for the money; father seemed to appreciate it more than I did, as is his right because he had a family to provide for. By day a boy, by night a girl. Did I ever feel like I lost my identity, no, I was both! That little boy will always be a part of me, that little boy taught me courage, courage that drowned amongst the heavy sexist waves of my time, which buffeted the Arab society.  If I die tomorrow, I will know in my heart that I can die in peace because I had taught the Arab world to sail across these heavy waves. I am an Arab singer, I am also a woman, and there is nothing wrong with simultaneously being both.

My nation, oh how I love my nation. I played the strings of my heart for you even after my body failed me and I could no longer see your mesmerizing beauty. I filled up my lungs with air, and when I sang I used every breath to praise you, my laudable nation.  Wars on wars, and all that was left in the peoples 'bereft of life' hearts was love: for God, for one another and for their nation. When injected into our lives, music strengthened love in people’s hearts. Music brought hope into people’s eyes. I lived for that; I detested the day I saw my nation crumble in the hands of war. These acrimonious scenes were ineffable, they filled me with angst, but I sanguinely believed that my nation was indefatigable and so I sang, I sang with alacrity until Egypt and the Egyptians were unified by love.

As a restive little girl, I loved to do what I was told I could not. I was told I could not become a Quran reciter due to my natural feminine being, determined to prove them wrong I learned and after assiduous effort I became the best in the whole town! My love for the Quran sprouted in my heart before my love for music did. I memorized all seventy-seven thousand, seven hundred and one words of God by a tender age. I was also told that I could not become a successful singer. However, I feasted my eyes and ears on the beautiful arts: poetry and music. With the magnanimous help of great poets and composers such as Mohamed Shawqi, Bayram Altunisis and Mohamed Abd-alwahab, all whom truly believed in me, I became a star in the Arab skies and I was honored with the title “The Voice of Egypt” I was seen as a paragon of the musical arts.

Now as I lie on my deathbed in my time of nadir, I am that little boy again, longing to sing, longing to see the pulchritude of the Arabian land, longing to hear the voices of the love filled admirers. Between these lifeless four walls, all I hear is silence, but when the ebullient final stage lights hit me I will die with love in my heart for God, for my nation and for music.