The College of Wooster
Department of Psychology

FYS:  The Psychology and Propaganda of Advertising
Professor Amy Jo Stavnezer

Course Description:

   The average American is exposed to approximately 3,000 ads per day from TV, magazines, websites, to movie theaters and billboards, but are they really effective? Some would argue that companies would not spend billions of dollars a year if they were not. Yet, as advanced beings, we like to believe we have free-will and what we purchase has been chosen for complex reasons, not simply influenced by a 30-second commercial. We will discuss and assess the effectiveness of ads from select successful companies (Nike Culture). You will discover and evaluate what makes an advertisement successful through the power of persuasion and psychological theories and in the end design your own advertisement. We will analyze advertising from the vantage view of the consumer, the company, and the ad executive and discuss the psychological basis for and sociological implications of nearly naked models selling anything from perfume to shaving cream, among other topics. In the process we will read, discuss and write about several books including Cialdini’s Influence: Science and Practice which outlines 6 basic tactics used widely by advertisers, and Kilbourne’s Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes The Way We Think And Feel, which discusses the way in which women have been dehumanized by advertisements and an unattainable sense of perfection created. In addition, with the upcoming presidential elections, we have the opportunity to assess the advertising of a person and will compare those techniques with those used to sell other products.
    This course has been developed around a topic that I hope you find interesting (at the very least relevant) but also a topic that I believe is controversial in the way that individuals respond to advertising either as consumers or simply being exposed to it. My goal is not to make you all feel the same way about advertising by the end of the semester, or even to feel how I feel, but to become better educated on the topic by spending the semester investigating the topic together. Opposing opinions will only increase the significance of our discussions; the point is to learn to develop arguments and to present evidence to support your point of view, not to change your mind, though if that happens by the presentation of evidence, so be it.

Amy Jo Stavnezer     ajstavnezer@wooster.edu     Morgan 109    330-263-2215