Communication as we liked it

Communications is part of our everyday lives, love or hate it.

We see and hear information all the time. The moment we open our eyes and made out the first sound, we are instantly communicating and there are always audiences to receive that information, like how a baby communicates through crying, indicating to her parents that she is hungry, and the parents immediately reacts to it. From the sender of messages to the receiver of messages.

We cannot survive without communication in the communication-saturated and communication-dependent world we are living in now, believe it or not. It is unbeknownst to us that it has become an addiction almost, obsessed with the idea of communication, to always to be surrounded by communication, and/or communicating.

But why do we communicate? That is because we want to make meaning and exchange understanding across to the next person. “Who says what to whom in which channel with what effect”.

Than what is persuasive communication? It is communicating through implied intentions and purpose. “Intentional Communication, means aiming at connecting in a meaningful way to exchange information, messages or ideas.” An audience is not forced into blatantly accepting information, but is convinced. Unintentionally intentional. Persuasive communication takes into context of the audiences’ values and beliefs, in other words, audiences is first, communicator second. It is the process of persuasion, guiding oneself or another toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic (though not always logical) means.

Generally, I feel that Persuasive communication can be used in the worlds of both good and bad.

Good in the sense that it could help a communicator to influence another, by communicating the right, purposeful intentions to its audiences. Like an anti gambling ad encouraging the stop of gambling in a family, an ad on the lives of victims whose family’s life are hindered by an obsessive gambler who so happens to be their family. The ad is relatable to most Asian families, majority of which are Chinese because of our culture and upbringing, of always wanting to make money through the shortest easiest way and our desperate attempt of making it big in our lives. The ad’s message is not direct and subtle but the strong visuals, emotions and the familiar sounding lines the actor said, has the viewer gradually realise of a similar scenario that he/she could remember and relate in real life, in this case, most Asians, because of our gambling upbringing. I like this ad because it not only targets victims of family members who gamble, but also it affects the gamblers, as they come to realise and understand how their lifestyle has affected their family members. This ad is not one-sided on victims, but on the whole picture – the whole family – and how it affects them.

Now for the bad. The bad of persuasive communication, is not directed on how poorly persuasive communication affects audiences, but rather, on the scenarios it is used. Take for example the Visa credit card ad, where Matt Harding dances happily, holidaying in different Asian countries, whilst still holding the Visa card and with appeared text like, “In Singapore without a dollar ”and“ In Japan without a yen”. It implies that without physical cash, it is no problem, as Visa is the solution. Credit cards are not a bad thing. They offer a service which makes it easier to purchase things. But they are not necessary. It is easy to abuse your credit cards and run up a huge balance on them and you find yourself suffering in debt, rather than dancing around happily in your shades in different countries. Ads like these could encourage bad habits/lifestyle, despite its picture-perfect scenario shown on the advertisements.

Persuasive communicated ads can be enlightening and sinister. And ads as such would not stop coming in, as long as there is a sender and a receiver of messages, communication will always be around because “Communication is the quintessential human activity”.