Trash Advertising

“Trash” advertising

Execution strategies employed in advertising range from the informational to the emotional. Among those designed to stir emotions or stimulate particular feelings, such as fear, warmth, irritation, and sexual arousal. But another execution strategy has been gaining popularity in recent years. The recourse to provocation, sometimes considers by people as “ trashy “. Without any doubt, the intention is to shock a segment of the population. Although the potential to shock seems has always been in advertising, only recently provocation has been used fully and deliberately in communication strategy.

Trough this paper, we will try to understand the emergence and definite the provocation appeals as a new and popular tool used in advertising.

The Italian clothing firm, Benetton is most often credited with being the creator of provocative appeals in advertising. But after their first “ provocative “campaign, Benetton has shown its sales increasing. The strategy caught on quickly and was adopted by many other clothing and fashion brands. Since then, provocation is likely to remain a viable option for any advertiser striving to reach consumers in an increasingly tight and saturated commercial environment. The question now asked by many advertisers is: “ how we can attract attention in today’s commercial?” and resort to shock and provocation may seem an appealing response.

The issue of provocation as an advertising strategy does, however raise important concerns. Despite the high level of publicity, by gossip and otherwise acquired by provocative ads, it’s seems important at this point to asses the effect of a such strategy on individual consumers and to compare the strategy with more traditional appeals used in advertising. But it’s that certain, the effects of provocative appeals in advertising today attempts to shock consumers by generate a high level of awareness, but also in a low level of acceptance or even high level of disapproval. So the question that we can think here, is how does advertiser to translate in terms of purchasing intentions, especially in comparison with more traditional appeals? Do consumers differ in their reactions towards provocative advertising because of their age or their various levels of involvement?

To answers at those questions, it’s important to define here, what are the provocation appeals in advertising? As we previously said in the introduction, provocation appeals rest at the same strategic levels as another execution strategy such as fear, warmth, humour, irritation and eroticism.

In fact, provocation takes close resemblance to some of those appeals. For instance, sexual appeals or nudity in the context of an advertisement often appear provocative, and can shock a significant portion of viewers in several cultures and countries. However, it’s essential at this point to distinguish provocative appeals from sexual appeals, the latter being a subset of provocative appeals, but when used in a context that has a little or nothing to do with the product advertised (an example: using a nude model to sell a soap is not provocative as would be similar picture used to advertise a brand of a toothpaste or a car) it ‘can’t be consider as provocative. Provocative appeals include much more than sexual appeals since they can

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