Persuasion Application Post 1 - Fogg: My Father Lies. What About Yours?

The artifact that I chose to analyze by using B.J. Fogg's behavioral model is a commercial produced by MetLife Insurance entitled "My Father Lies. What About Yours?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1eYebq3nWs

The commercial starts out with a young girl and her father walking down the sidewalk. The narration is of the writing the girl has included in a piece about her "daddy" that she has given him to read. As the commercial goes along, joyful and touching instances and happenings are shown that match the traits that she loves and that she has written about her father. Many are easy to relate to, especially if you are a father yourself.

A more shocking part of the commercial comes when she says that her daddy lies. The commercial then shows the kind of things that he has to endure in order to try and provide her with such a happy life. It shows his struggle to find a job and all of the miserable tasks that he performs just to provide for her. All the while, he presumes that she isn't aware. She even goes as far as to say that he lies because of her.

The commercial ends with him coming to the end of her writing and them engaging in a touching hug. That image is then followed by a screen containing the words, "A child's future is worth every sacrifice." This is followed by another screen that says, "Pursue more from life." Finally, "MetLife" comes up on the last screen.

I hadn't seen this commercial before and so I was a little bit surprised when MetLife came up as the creator of it. There really was an effectiveness to the advertising in that it was very engaging and that it stirred emotions within me, as the viewer, and caused me to think of images from my own memory. It was as though the commercial should have been for Hallmark instead of for an insurance company.

The Pleasure/Pain motivator was evident by the positive and pleasurable emotions that come to the viewer as the commercial is watched. The stirring of such emotion made the commercial enjoyable and really kept my attention. I also had a feeling of hope for the father's success and for the daughter's happiness, which is part of the second motivator set forth by Fogg. Social Acceptance/Rejection was also present as a motivator. This is evidenced by the unending efforts of the father to provide all that he saw was necessary for his daughter's social acceptance at school and in their community. We can relate to this as viewers in our efforts to do things that are also socially acceptable.

Ability is the one element of Fogg's that was most lacking in the commercial. Even though the father provided well for his daughter and took care of her needs, it was never easy. The depiction didn't ease the viewers' possible concerns about time, money, or physical effort, for example, but it did endeavor to create a feeling of worth for all that a parent has to do to provide for their children and family.

The two screens at the end of the commercial that contained the words, "A child's future is worth every sacrifice" and "Pursue more from life" are definite triggers to the viewer. These triggering statements could serve as a spark, a facilitator or as a signal depending upon how motivated you are to buy insurance or how much ability you have to pay for the insurance. One may also only need to be reminded about how important insurance may be for their children and family. The inclusion of these triggering statements at the end of the commercial was very effective.

I think that the process premise that best fits as a basis of persuasion is the use of emotions. There are definitely emotions displayed by both the father and daughter and emotions are drawn out of the viewer as they see their interactions. MetLife was quite effective in using emotion to make their point regarding the importance of insurance and, even if great sacrifice is necessary, that this is one component of taking care of your family's needs.