Printed Ads Strategy: What Works, What Doesn't
Printed ads about climate change keep coming these recent days. They appear on billboards, magazines, and newspapers; some of them might work, and some of them may not. There should be a certain strategy that is ideal enough in order to influence people to change. According to the lecture, definition of strategic communication is using communication to inform, persuade, or influence a selected audience in order to achieve a specific outcome. Therefore, one thing that we should know before creating the ads is: knowing the audience. That means if we want to influence human, then we need to address them directly.
Below is one of the printed ads that does not work well…
Based on the image and its title “The Tsunami Killed 100 Times More People than 911. The world is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it,” it expresses how nature is so powerful, that it can essentially influence climate change. It presents how ocean currents by Tsunamis are one of the major nature occurrences that cause climate change. By presenting this idea, it can be seen that this ad does not prioritize human as their target. Even though this ad also tries to indirectly send a message to humans that we need to act considerately in order to preserve our planet. However, not many people can see its hidden message. Because of the indirect message, this ad does not necessarily work in influencing people to change their environmental behavior or lifestyle. If it doesn’t involve us directly, we tend to ignore it.
In contrast to the first ad, the clean water ad above works very well in influencing humans. According to its message, “World’s drinkable water supplies are running out. Stop global warming”, seems like it only emphasizes human’s role in influencing global warming, and left the nature influences behind. Because of its message that is specifically and directly targeted at humans, this ad will be more likely influence humans to change their behavior compared to the first ad. This ad also has a clear call to action instead about global warming instead of just a general statement about the world. By putting this printed ad on the water dispenser, it reminds us several times a day, every time we consume water that the earth’s water supply and climate change will be affected creating global warming.
