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Ad Persuasion for Global Public Causes

One of the more challenging issues in persuasion is to make your advertising come to life, connect with your audience, and to be distinctive from the thousands of other appeals out there. This can be an even greater challenge when one has to communicate and persuade across several different languages and cultures (e.g., pan-European campaigns) and for public causes (e.g., energy conservation, wildlife preservation) that are competing for funds with other well-publicized issues. Such competing global campaigns for public causes include AIDS, domestic abuse, natural disasters, homelessness, hygiene, antidrug and anti-smoking appeals, energy conservation, anti-pollution, wildlife conservation, hunger, protecting rain forests, global warming, driving safety, children’s rights, among others.
Fortunately, the “Ads of the World” site (http://adsoftheworld.com and then select “public interest” under “industry”) provides thousands of creative ads for many different categories, media, and countries that serve as inspiration for persuasive ad design. Two recent examples in the public interest area include work by Leo Burnett Brussels on energy conservation and by Ogilvy Paris for the World Wildlife Federation. Both campaigns provide creative and vivid images to better connect and persuade their diverse audiences across Europe and do so by avoiding lengthy ad copy.