Wendy's Persuasion

In order to attract a specific demographic, advertisement companies employ diverse methods of persuasion. Companies, such as Wendy’s, hire advertisement companies to entice target audiences to their products. Wendy’s ad campaign for ‘Where’s the Beef?’ integrates a few different methods of persuasion; credibility, similarity with the target, and likeability. Wendy’s is trying to entice the 16-40 age demographics of Americans. Incorporating these methods of persuasion, in combination of targeting a demographic of Americans aged 16-40, Wendy’s is anticipating to attract new customers from this demographic to increase profitability.

The primary objective of advertisement companies must be establishing the target audience. With that in mind, Wendy’s

The goal of similarity with a target audience is the appearance of having shared characteristics between the receiver and the source of a message. An attempt by Wendy’s to demonstrate this persuasion feature is showing they are just as the average American. By utilizing a young attractive American woman on her smartphone and a young handsome American man, as well as having the two meet at the end of the commercial and saying score one for the guy’s without cool accents, Wendy’s is demonstrating they are an American brand that appeals to youthful people. The concept of opposites attract is a common belief in popular culture. According to the communication textbook Real Communication an Introduction, research shows that attraction is more often based on the similarity we have with another person: whether through shared hobbies, personality traits, backgrounds, appearances or values. This paper will be utilizing Real Communication an Introduction claim to discuss Wendy’s advertisement attempt to demonstrate similarity by shared hobbies, backgrounds, and values between them and the target population. Having the young girl on her smartphone illustrates an appeal to shared hobbies because the youth of America are the largest users of smartphones. Additionally, having actors without accents is an attempt to persuade American’s that Wendy’s is an all-American brand or similar backgrounds. Establishing that their company only uses American and never frozen beef, Wendy’s may be trying to appeal to the values of the youth of America that appreciate fresh fast food. All of these separate methods are used cohesively and effectively by Wendy’s to established similarity with the target