This advertising format tries to gain the viewers confidence and hence the viewers confidence in the product. This format will often apply Presenters that appear to have an authoritative presence in the eyes of popular perception. These presenters may be stereotypically scientific characters or company CEO's.
See the play list for an advert by TJ Technologies that uses both men in white coats and a presenter (Jeff Daniels). Also in the play list is an advert by UPS which uses an expert illustrating the benefits of UPS by drawing on a whiteboard like a teacher or professor (authoritative figure).
Hierarchy of needs
Abraham Maslow, a Psychologist created a theory based upon human needs called the Hierarchy of needs. Apart from Gunn's master formats one of the fundamentals of advertising know how is the knowledge of the consumers needs. The Hierarchy of needs is a comprehensive guideline to human needs which can be used to target certain populations (Age delimitations) within society. The theory shows how humans needs are an evolutionary process that everybody goes through, and hence it is possible to create a demographic of society based upon age and needs. Therefore it is possible to associate certain needs to different age brackets.
Gunn's Master Formats
Donald Gunn was a creative director for the advertising agency Leo Burnett in the late seventies. Similarly to a lot of great minds at this point of time Gunn formulated a system or methodology for creating Television Advertisements.
Gunn theorized that all adverts could be categorized into 12 formats that can be used as a guideline when creating an original idea for a product or company. His methodology became known as the '12 types of Adverts'.
The Master Formats are not just a great tool for advertising execs to use to crunch out another hypnotic advert, viewers can also use the methodology to see the world of advertising laid bare before them on the television. On this website you can view each of the different formats by selecting a link from the carousel above. Each section contains playlists from YouTube.com which shows examples of each of the formats.
