United Kingdom

Advertising in the UK can be different from the US by the method of persuasion. In British ads, they use the method of soft sell, which are more subtle, casual and indirect. This approach allows the audience to be more emotional and connected to the product or service. On the other hand, American ads use the method of hard sell, which are more direct, aggressive, and informative. This approach is designed to get straight to the point and put pressure on the audience so that they are able to make the decision quicker. Their main focus is on the facts of the products opposed to British ads, which are focused solely on entertaining their audience. British ads tend to use humor as their main factor in advertisements, mostly pun and satire type because it draws the audience's attention and mood to the product. American ads tend to not use these types of humor because they believe that their audience won't understand the irony and pun or take the time to pay attention to its humor. Thus, American ads uses humor when the product or service is targeted to younger and more professional audiences. Another distinctive factor that go into the two countries' ads is the structure. British ads at times don't introduce the product until the end, which the use of a story line is ideal to entertain the audience. In contrast, American ads mostly use a narrative approach that speaks directly to the audience while displaying the product. 

 

Below are two Coca Cola commercials from each country.

 

The first example is from the UK, which is advertising Coca Cola as well as a healthy life style. This ad illusrates the method of soft sell. It contains humor, displays emotional expression, and is entertaining with its story line, introducing the product at the end of the commercial.

 

The second example is from the US, which has a similar purpose like the UK's commercial, but specifically concerning obesity. This commercial illustrates the method of hard sell. With the narrative approach, it is very informative and direct in regards to the concern of obesity and how Coca Cola has changed their product to help reduce the number of obesity in the US. Different from the British Coca Cola commercial, it shows the product throughout the whole commercial.