Running Head: PERSUASION THEORY FINAL EXAM
Final Exam- COMM 350-02- Persuasion Theory- Spring 2012
Gabrielle Lassahn
Longwood University
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Running Head: PERSUASION THEORY FINAL EXAM
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Final Exam- COMM 350-02- Persuasion Theory- Spring 2012
1. What advantages do celebrity spokespeople have as a persuasive source? What are
some drawbacks to a company’s hiring celebrities to sell its products? Give examples.
Organizations are interested in promoting new products effectively. Source
credibility and image are two aspects that are critical in persuasion. A celebrity can be a
beneficial or harmful spokesperson for an organization. According to Persuasion in the
Media Age, “Spokespeople are used to generate interest in a new product or to regenerate
interest in an established product” (Borchers, 2005, p. 258-259). With this in mind, it is
important for an organization to weigh the advantages and disadvantages when hiring a
celebrity to sell a product.
Image and source credibility are two factors that go hand in hand in order to gain
attention and interest from a spokesperson’s audience. Source credibility depends on
safety, qualification, and dynamism (Borchers, 2005, p. 246). Within the standards of
source credibility a spokesperson is effective when the audience members trust that the
persuaders is honest, knowledgeable, and active.
Image supports the spokespersons credibility. Image refers to the imagined idea
that a receiver creates about the spokesperson (Borchers, 2005, p. 248). In order to
persuade an audience, a spokesperson must represent and deliver a convincing image and
sense of credibility.
Companies use celebrities as a marketing tool for product promotion:
“…celebrities can be used to draw a large crowd to an event. Celebrities are often media
savvy and can represent the organization effectively” (Borchers, 2005, p. 259). There are
advantages and drawbacks when hiring a celebrity as a spokesperson for an organization.
The outcome of this depends on the reputation that comes with a celebrity’s image and
credibility.
Grant McCracken discusses source credibility and source attractiveness as two
key elements in persuasive celebrity endorsement (McCracken, 1989). Celebrity
endorsement is a more familiarized term in modern discussions of persuasive celebrity
spokespeople. In McCracken’s work he explains the relationship between audience and
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celebrity spokesperson. He uses source credibility and source attractiveness models to
break down and analyze how an audience views a spokesperson as being persuasive or
not. In order to analyze the textbook concepts and McCracken source models it is
important to apply an example.
Tiger Woods serves as a famous example to describe the advantages and
drawbacks when hiring a celebrity as a spokesperson. Tiger Woods was once a reputable
American golfer. He was an idolized sports figure and a popular celebrity spokesperson.
In 2009 Tiger Woods was found guilty of marriage infidelity involving an extensive list
of women. At the time of the exposed scandal Tiger was a spokesperson for Gatorade and
AT&T. “Organizations must be careful to create images that are consistent with their
policies and practices” (Borchers, 2005, p. 258). Woods’s image and source credibility
was ruined and in order to protect company reputation, Gatorade AT&T and a several
others dropped sponsorship with Tiger Woods.
According to Borcher there are drawbacks to a company’s hiring celebrities to sell
its products. The Tiger Woods example is one circumstance that outlines the
disadvantages in hiring celebrity spokespeople. “News leaks – anonymous “tips” given
by insiders to news media – both undermine and enhance the spokesperson’s role”
(Borchers, 2005, p. 260). In Tiger’s situation, news leaks resulted in his exposed affairs
and the consequences of his actions caused destruction to companies. Organization’s can
reap the benefits or suffer serious damage when hiring a celebrity to represent their
company.
2. Analyze a recent organizational crisis or political scandal. How did the source engage
in image repair? Which of Benoit’s strategies were used? Did the source effectively use
image repair strategies? Why or why not?
The 2010 BP oil spill was a disaster that will continue to be a global crisis for
many years. The spill initially began mass destruction to the Gulf of Mexico and the
environmental effects have been expanding since the initial eruption. Tony Hayward,
BP’s chief executive, responded about the spill in less than adequate expectations of the
public. Hayward has been quoted on numerous statements he made that led to huge
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controversy and outrage. The BP oil spill caused a long-term catastrophe and Tony
Hayward’s reaction reflected a hopeless image of BP.
William Benoit (1995) has three methods for companies, like BP, to use when
crisis occurs. Benoit’s three methods are to deflect, minimize, and to use mortification
(Borchers, 2005, p. 266). Tony Hayward the former CEO for BP used Benoit’s deflection
charges in response to the oil spill disaster. The following list of events was found in an
online article from the 680News entitled, A timeline of events spanning Tony Hayward’s
career with BP. One month after the BP explosion Hayward interviewed with reporters
and attempted to minimize the attack, explaining that the amount of oil spilled is
relatively small given the Gulf of Mexico’s size. Soon after, Hayward engaged in the
counterattack strategy when he made an argument different from scientific detectionHayward incorrectly stated that the oil was only located at the surface of the Gulf because
water and oil do not mix. Continuing to damage the image of BP, in June Hayward
excused the spill to be accidental. He claimed that BP was not supplied with the correct
materials to be prepared for such a circumstance. Following this event Hayward employs
another deflection charge of Benoit’s. Hayward denied the blame for the BP spill and
stated that he was not responsible for the explosion because he was not involved in the
decision-making process (680News, 2010). These strategies were failing to repair the
image of BP and Bob Dudley replaced Tony Hayward’s role.
Similar to Benoit, an empirical study was examined based off of the research from
psychologist William McGuire (1964) experimenting with his inoculation theory (HuaHsin & Pfau, 2004). McGuire’s inoculation theory depicts the defensive method used in
the beginning of a crisis situation. Inoculation theory explains that in a given
circumstance the receiver experiences a conflicting perception in response to a
persuader’s opinion. The results of the study found that participants were unsatisfied with
the methods of the persuaders using inoculation theory. The results are comparable to the
consequences BP endured from reactions to Tony Hayward’s statements.
Since the removable of Tony Hayward, British Petroleum has been working to
regain worldwide trust in repairing its image. In order for BP to repair its image
effectively it is critical that they follow Benoit’s corrective action strategy. Benoit’s
corrective action strategy falls under his method to “minimize the attack” (Borchers,
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2005, p. 267). According to Benoit (1995) corrective action is when the company takes
responsibility of the issue and guarantees their dedicated effort to fix and or to prevent
the situation from happening again.
On the BP website there is a link to a video clip promoting BP’s ongoing
commitment. “Publicizing plans to keep the problem from recurring is critical”
(Borchers, 2005, p. 267). In the video clip BP promotes their actions and are utilizing
strategies of Benoit’s plan for corrective action. BP has committed $20 billion to fund the
economic and environmental recovery, and has devoted $14 billion to response and clean
up. BP has also established a long-term plan for $500 million for to the Gulf of Mexico
research initiative to support ten years of independent scientific research on the
environment. The spokesperson in the video, BP rep Mike Utsler, reassures that the Gulf
is active for business. The video concludes with a promise from BP that the progress is
continuing and that BP is committed to fixing the issue. “By using a carefully crafted
strategy, based on the elements identified by Benoit, persuaders… can restore their
credibility” (Borchers, 2005, p. 268). Recently, BP has been developing strategies to
effectively repair their image.
3. Consider a recent movie you’ve seen, and think about how emotions are socially
constructed. What does it mean to “fall in love”? What does it mean to be angry? Sad?
Mournful? Happy? Do these social constructions fit with what you already know about
the various emotional states?
What does it mean to fall in love, be angry, sad, mournful, or happy? According
to Averill (1986), emotions are constructed by standards of social belief systems that
define what feeling we are experiencing and how to control our reaction accordingly.
Emotions are learned behavioral responses that we have observed from familiar people
within our culture. We have learned how to react to the emotion of love, anger, sadness,
mournfulness, and happiness in order to understand and express these feelings
appropriately. Our culture focuses value on the emotion of love. This value is a social
construction that our culture has incorrectly represented as an emotion. Love is a
popularized theme for storytelling, especially for Hollywood entertainment purposes.
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Dear John, a film that was released in 2010, is a movie remake of the original
Nicholas Sparks novel. This movie is categorized as a romantic drama and is focused
around a love story between main characters John and Savannah. It took only two weeks
for the characters to fall in love and at the end of the summer they are separated when
Savannah goes to college and John reports to the army. This movie models as the perfect
example in analyzing the social construction of emotions in our culture. When watching
Dear John, we are observing the interactions between John and Savannah. The movie
frequently refers to the phrase “being in love” and as the audience we are suppose to
learn what it feels like to be emotionally connected to the feeling of love because we have
watched the relationship between John and Savannah develop from their first encounter.
Averill connected two ideas- syndromes and social roles. Syndromes are the
behaviors we learn as a response to our feelings and social roles are our actions of
expressing our feelings (Borchers, 2005, p. 306). Syndromes and social roles can we used
to analyze the emotional content in Dear John. John and Savannah are parting ways for
the summer and the audience is assumed to be experiencing the same emotional distress
that the characters are enduring. Savannah and John’s behavior is seemingly magnetic
towards each other and their behavior portrays their desire to be with one another and
their disinterest in separating, the syndrome. Savannah and John express their behavior
by crying and tightly gripping in a hug and having dialogue about how much they want to
be together, the social role. “Emotions affect how we see our world and give meaning to
the world in which we live” (Borchers, 2005, p. 307). This scene is an example of the
behavioral response that we the audience learns to be the acceptable expression of
emotion when parting ways with someone you feel romantic love for.
The intensity of emotions is discussed an empirical source, Emotions as Dynamic
Cultural Phenomena, in the works of Ratner (2000). Ratner explains that intensity of love
results from cultural importance focused around elements that are involved: “ideals of
physical beauty, personality, ethnicity, wealth and family background…self esteem and
social status” (Leu, 2011). Love is an important social construction in our culture and it is
dramatized in movie filmmaking.
I was educated about the different emotional states in a Social Psychology course
at Longwood University. The course was centralized around socially constructed
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emotions mainly in the United States. It is important to understand that individual
cultures express emotion differently and it is dependent on the learned behaviors within
each. Emotions are developed differently for various people and it is within the social
learning theory that we relate emotion and expression.
4. To what extent should information sites mark the presence and identity of advertisers?
What kind of controls should be used to prevent advertisers from exercising influence on
editorial content? How can consumers better protect themselves from hidden advertising
on Internet information sites?
My personal experiences in dealing with Internet advertising have been controlled
to an appropriate degree. Currently Internet advertising is not excessive because of
Internet protection blocks, such as Pop Up Blocker. When connecting to an information
site the advertisements are systematically organized around the content that a viewer is
interested in viewing. The purpose of the advertisements are to catch the attention of an
interested consumers, but to the average Web user it is understood to ignore ads that
involve entering personal information for an unrealistic chance to win a car.
I am only familiar with the control Pop Up Blocker, and I have access to turn the
blocker on or off at any time convenient for me. From understanding the seven needs and
concerns audience members have for using the Web identified by Korgaonkar and Wolin
it is obvious that the Web audience is aware of the false advertising that consumes junk
advertisements. Therefore, for the most part the audience protects their own privacy.
To further support this position two out of the seven needs and concerns are
relevant for discussion from Korgaonkar and Wolin’s works. A transaction-based
security and privacy concern recognizes that Web users are mindful when buying
something online because we are protective of our credit card information (Borchers,
2005, p. 377). The second concern is interactive control motivation, which is the Web
users power to manage personal information at their discretion and the Web user is
capable to screen or block the information they receive (Borchers, 2005, p. 377). These
concerns can be compared to the information site Google. Google is an information site
that supports constant Internet activity. Google users can filter their own searches in order
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to fit their needs and numerous links are provided. Google can be personally managed to
fit the needs and pleasures of the individual searcher.
Empirical research reported in Internet Uses and Gratification, provides a
supportive theoretical model that examined the relations between motivations for using
the Internet, interactivity on a Web site, and interactive advertising effectiveness capacity
(Ko, Cho, & Roberts, 2005). This study stresses the importance of being educated about
Internet use because of the rapid growth in Internet accessibility. The results of the study
can facilitate in calculating and analyzing Web site effectiveness for Internet users based
on the same concerns studied by Korgaonkar and Wolin.
Protection is in the hands of the information site user. The control access is in
favor of the Web users and if the consumer is not satisfied they can easily visit another
information site source. Those who are not Google fans may find a more enjoyable
Internet connection through Bing or Yahoo.
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References
Borchers, T. A. (2011, 2nd Edition, re-issued). Persuasion in the Media Age. Publishers:
Waveland Press, Inc. ISBN: 1-57766-767-0
Calmes, J., & Cooper, H., (2010, June 16). BP chief to express contrition in remarks to
panel. Retrieved from:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/17/us/politics/17obama.html?pagewanted=all
Hua-Hsin, W., & Pfau, M. (2004). The Relative Effectiveness of Inoculation, Bolstering,
and Combined Approaches in Crisis Communication. Journal Of Public Relations
Research, 16(3), 301-328.
Ko, H., Cho, C., & Roberts, M. S. (2005). Internet uses and gratifications. Journal Of
Advertising, 34(2), 57-70.
Leu, C. (2011). Emotions as dynamic cultural phenomena. Journal Of
Linguistic Intercultural Education, 465-75.
McCracken, G. (1989). Who Is the Celebrity Endorser? Cultural Foundations of the
Endorsement Process. Journal Of Consumer Research, 16(3), 310-321.
Utsler, M., BP. (2012) Our ongoing commitment. [video]. Retrieved from:
http://www.bp.com/bodycopyarticle.do?categoryId=1&contentId=7052055
680News All News Radio. (2010, July 25). A timeline of events spanning Tony
Hayward’s career with bp. Retrieved from:
http://www.680news.com/news/world/article/81626--a-timeline-of-eventsspanning-tony-hayward-s-career-with-bp