Don't Text and Drive PSA
TranterGrey Media’s Don’t Text and Drive Advertisement is an example of a Public Service Announcement (PSA) advertisement. A PSA is usually carried free of charge by the media and they promote organizations, events, or themes of interest in various communities. This specific PSA is promoting a theme that is very prevalent in many communities in today’s society, texting and driving. The ad starts off by showing a teenager named Antonia Gentry texting and driving. Gentry swerves into the other lane and before crashing with the other car she has a conversation with the other driver, Davina Strickland, who plays a mother in this ad.
It is obvious that the ad has an emotional appeal. This emotional appeal can be singled in on the theme of safety and security. According to Twitchell (p.80), “ But sometimes advertising tries to draw your attention away from the product.” This is a PSA about the consequences of texting and driving. Clearly, the advertisement here is trying to draw the attention of the viewers away from texting while behind the wheel. The creators want the viewers to realize what can happen when they practice unsafe routines, such as texting, while they are behind the wheel.
Most important in the advertisement is the tone. Tone can be defined as a technique that associates a product with the class, age, subculture, profession, etc. of a speaker based on the word choice. This PSA would not be as effective if it were silent without the captions. One could associate the tone of the conversation between the two main characters as a dramatic dialogue. After Gentry swerves into the other lane, the cars freeze in position and the drivers exit their vehicles to engage in a conversation. Strickland starts pleading with Gentry to look up and away from the cellphone because there is hope of saving everyone. In fact, she is quoted saying “My babies are in the car! You have to pay attention!” Unfortunately, Gentry informs Strickland that she is only half way through her text and she does not think she will be able to look up and save everyone’s life. The two drivers then return to their vehicles and the scene continues to play. This dramatic dialogue helps the viewers realize the seriousness of texting and driving. The tone and the dramatic dialogue are great examples of elegant but largely meaningless language, or puffery, in the advertisement.
Another existence of puffery can be attributed to the usage of grammatical errors in this advertisement was intention. As pictured to the right, one can see that the word “Texting” is capitalized when it should not be. This was done on purpose because the creators wanted to create an emphasis on some of the words presented in the dramatic dialogue between the two different actresses. Other words are capitalized throughout the PSA such as “Babies” and “Playing.”
Although this ad was different from the rest, the same holds true for print and televised ads; all advertisements have language that plays a vital role. This ad, however, appeals to the emotions of everyone through the tone and dramatic dialogue. It is what was said during the advertisement that captures the audience’s attention and helps the audience realize the problem. Additionally, even the small capitalization emphasis on the text show what the creators wanted the average consumer to get out of viewing this PSA.