Study Task 4 - Triangulation

Within the topic of ‘Shock Advertising:does it still work?’, it is important to be aware of key points made by authors and the time they make these points.

We begin with ‘Kepes,1944’ who states that for advertising to be a success it needs to be ‘comforting to the eye’- which completely contradicts shock advertising tactics, which are later studied and proven to give better recall of a product. Kepes would most likely be against using shock tactics, such as ‘Saunders, 1996’ making cynical points throughout his book ‘Shock in Advertising’ undermining the reasons brands have used shock advertising and cutting to what is really disturbing. For example, United Colors of Benettons use of harrowing documentary images in which they defend by saying they want to prompt discussion of taboo social topics of the time, in which he refers is a lie, with their only agenda being to sell products and that the use of these images strips them of their dignity.

As there are so many different themes of shock advertising it is hard to define if an author is completely for or against, however it is easy to see Saunders’ opinion on the tactics of controversial brand United Colors of Benetton. In concordance with this, another author ‘Kilbourne,1999’ focuses her similar tone of cynicism toward over sexualised fashion advertisements depicting violent misogynistic visuals, expressing her disgust and stripping away the lustrous image intended to the bare bone of how scary it is that that kind of violent sexual imagery is used to promote a fashion brand.

However, in more recent writings and studies, shock advertising has been more praised for it’s success. ‘Westcott,2014’ writes positively on shock advertising, noting its success in prompting breakthroughs with the public over the decades, in this example in reference to shocking advertisements used to tackle drink driving with statistics falling after such campaigns are released. In a 2011 university case study, Manral (2011) concludes shock tactics used in advertising are effective in making the advertisement be better recalled, therefore benefitting the campaigns aims and standing out amongst the increasing number of advertising we have been exposed to in the last decade among so many new platforms.
‘Cozens, 2003’ makes points that agree with this, just that they need to be directed to the correct target audience in the correct medium for them to be as successful as possible.

In line with the cynicism tone of Saunders and Kilbourne, now it is also discussed that these tactics are now overdone and the consumer has become desensitized to its affects. ‘Urwin, 2014’ argues that shock advertising tactics need to be readjusted in concordance with our society for them to still work and for the tactic to not become obsolete. This is also due to the amount of information we are exposed to in our modern day Western society.

In conclusion, as time has gone on, and the advertising tactic has been studied, shock advertising has certainly been a successful tool but it is crucial it is adjusted and put in accordance with these fast paced times.