Ch. 6—Advertising: Baiting, catching, and reeling us in
Guidelines for in-class discussions and exercises:
• To get students to understand how much advertising is a part of mainstream American
culture, name some products and companies (e.g., Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, Pillsbury,
• Create an assignment by asking students to find examples (print or electronic) of various
kinds of ads (deceptive, central-route, peripheral route, hedge words, humorous appeal,
etc.)
• Present students with examples of backmasked music (available online—see Jeff
Milner’s website) and have a discussion of existence vs. effect in subliminal stimulation
and advertising
• Unless they have children themselves, most college students don’t have much memory
(or recent familiarity) with children’s advertising. Consider recording a children’s show
on a commercial network (or finding online clips of children’s ads) and showing your
• Ask students to keep a diary for a week of their TV and movie consumption, noting any
product placement they see.
CHAPTER SUMMARIES/ABSTRACTS
Chapter 6: Advertising: Baiting, catching, and reeling us in
• In this chapter, we take a look at one area of media that has always used psychology:
advertising. Specifically, we examine the different kinds of psychological appeals underlying ads
as well as the cognitive processes we use in understanding them. There are also important