Making A Global Pitch

Introduction

Advertising is a message designed to promote a product, a service, or an idea. It is designed to inform, influence, or persuade people. To be effective, an advertisement must first attract attention and gain a person’s interest. It may then provide reasons for buying a product and for believing the advertiser’s claims. Advertisers use a variety of techniques to create effective advertisements. They start with a basic appeal, which is the main selling point, or theme, of an advertisement. They then use certain specific techniques. The most commonly used techniques include (1) attention-getting headlines, (2) slogans, (3) testimonials, (4) product characteristics, (5) comparison of products, and (6) repetition.

Task

Your group, employees of the Acme Advertising Agency, has just been assigned to design a new campaign promoting one of the products of the Columbian Exchange as being the most influential to world history, affecting the largest number of people. The products are cassava, the potato, the trade in silver, the Atlantic slave trade, and sugar. To add to the mix of products, an old time favorite commodity is offered as well, silk. Your group must present its advertising campaign, its pitch for the product that your group is assigned, to company executives trying to decide which product to represent in an international advertising promotion. Your “global pitch” must include a poster-size ad and arguments demonstrating the significance and influence of your product in world history and its effect on the largest number of people. Your group should display the “print” advertisement during the group’s brief, in-class presentation in which each member of the group must present one argument. Your “global pitch” must include a Power Point presentation or a poster, and a one page written