"Influential Advertising: Dove and Its Use of Rhetorical Elements in Commercials and Social Media"

Paulina Alvarez

Paulina Alvarez is an undergraduate student at the University of Central Florida. She is majoring in Advertising and Public Relations and double minoring in Digital Media and Psychology. She wrote this essay for her ENC 1102 class during her freshman year. Paulina wishes to continue learning how visual and written components influence human behavior in order to one day create her own effective advertising campaigns as an art director.

Contents

Introduction

Literature Review

Methods

Results & Discussion

Conclusion

Works Cited

Appendix A

Conclusion

Limitations, Implications, and Further Research

Overall, Dove is effective with its use of television advertisements and social media. Through commercials and social media posts, the company is able to make small “projects” that contribute to the overall larger purpose/message of the campaign. These tactics are successful and affect the majority of people emotionally and morally, making them feel as if they have a duty to stand with the company and support their efforts. In return, this will also encourage them to become loyal customers.

It is important to study and research this because it is a very powerful thing to be able have such a huge influence on such a large group of people. Understanding what makes a campaign successful opens up the possibilities of achieving one’s desired outcome for a goal. However, relating back specifically to Dove, I believe there needs to be more research done. My survey was not as successful as it should have been. I did not reach my goal of at least 20 responses; instead, I received 15. Additionally, the age range was not as extensive as I would have liked. I think the survey would have been more effective if there was a greater variety of ages as well as a larger amount of responses. Also, some of the responses to the question “How would you participate in the company’s efforts (of spreading positivity dealing with women’s beauty standards)?” were alarming. Quite a few people answered that they either did not feel motivated enough to participate or had no clue how to do so. They agreed that Dove did a good job in making its stance clear and they supported it to a certain degree, but then they felt as if they—individually—did not have to join in on the efforts. This shows that Dove or other researchers need to find ways to better motivate the audience into helping. After all, those people are the ones who are missing to truly make the largest impact possible for the cause.