Saturday, 26 September 2009
Most of you would not be unfamiliar with the above advertisement that has been running in the television for the past few weeks for Tiger Beer. Where one tries to outdo the other by switching characters ,where the robot ultimately loses to the lady and thus handing over the last bottle of beer.
The commercial uses non verbal communication through the whole advertisement. We see the use of different kinds of non verbal communication in the commercial to bring out what the characters want to express , which then contributes to the overall message.
1. Kinesics were used where body language was used to communicate to the audience.
- The use of the body to create a symbolic action : at the start when the man on the right of the screen moved his hands to challenge the other to compete with him for the beer.
- Illustrators were also used when we see the camera close in on the two men’s hands gripping frimly on the bottle showing they both want to have power over it.
2. Physical appearance of the various characters they changed into also signalled to us about certain characteristics of it.
- The change in costume for every character they change into shows certain traits that would , they feel defeat the other. Eg : the man on the left changed into a wrestler , with his muscles showing off and all , giving audience the idea that he was stronger than the ordinary man and was sure to defeat him.
3. Oculesics were used , where the eyes transmitted a certain message to the opponent.
- When one man changed into a gorilla the other responded by changing into tarzan and then looked straight into the gorilla eyes ,and slowly leans across the table closing the gap between them with his eyes bearing straight at the gorilla. It transmit the message of challenging the opponent, it seemed like it was saying “ who’s the winner now?” prompting the opponent to come out with something better.
4. Haptics were also used in this commercial to bring out a certain message
-The gorilla hit his chest after being challenged by the opponent, bringing out the message that it is angry.
We saw how powerful verbal communication was in the previous post and here we see how powerful non verbal communication is, where we can express a message by the different things we do without speaking. So which is more effective communication tool then?
I feel that verbal communication is definitely more effective. No doubt non verbal communication can bring out a message effectively as seen in the above example, but it, I feel, will more easily cause miscommunication as different people may receive a different message from a similar action. For example, someone cries, it can signal so many different things, the person could be happy or sad or frustrated and so on. There are so many possibilities but with words, we can just express ourselves directly , when we say we are happy , there is only on meaning and no other and we can even explain why we are happy to give others a clearer picture. Thus , verbal communication is more effective.
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HELLO THERE!
ReplyDeleteI think that non-verbal communication is more important! This is because I feel that every word that we speak is accompanied by non-verbal cues (paralinguistic). It's also not very accurate that verbal communication will suffice. If that's the case, then wouldn't messaging services be enough to convey messages successfully? But for most of the cases, we know that it's not.
The richest form of communication is still face-to-face! Where we can read facial expressions and other non-verbal cues so as to receive the complete message :)
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I feel that it's subjective to say whether verbal or non-verbal communication is more important or effective because people are wired to receive information in different ways.
ReplyDeleteThat's why there are many theories written about people being audio learner, visual learner, etc..
Nevertheless, we can't deny that we're living in the sight, sound and senses era. If we look at a poster advertisement on the bus stop today, e.g. the recent advert on an energy drink "Naughty G", I believe the advertisers doesn't just want to tell people a visual message.
Why would there be MTV? Because people saw that it's not enough to just have songs without communicating with people visually and as the song is presented in a non-verbal way, it evokes people's emotions.
:)
So apparently, actually we do use a lot of nonverbal cues in our daily lives. It's only upon learning this very topic in COM 101 that we realise just how much NVCs we display.
ReplyDeleteYour last point on how verbal communication is more effective: However, dont you think that that is often only the ideal situation?
Humans are so complicated that usually, we dont know whether what we hear are what we truly get. Well, in my opinion, it's whatyou're best at in interpreting that makes which more effective.(:
Aiming (:
Shu Ling : Yes, verbal communication is not always suffice. Verbal communication plus the non-verbal communications work together in a face to face conversation to allow the full message to be brought out.
ReplyDeleteBut I guess it can be said that verbal communication is more effective because most of the time , we get most of the message out of verbal communication. Non verbal communication usually just help to bring out the message and are usually a secondary role.For example , like when someone is crying, it can mean different things , only when it is verbalised that we would know why and what message is the individual trying to bring across.
Though there are times when non verbal cues tell us alot about the message the person is trying to get across. Back to the crying example ,a person smiling while crying may bring across the message effectively that those are tears of joy and not otherwise. :)
Bings : I do agree that different people receive messages differently but I think that verbal communication more or less decreases the chances of miscommunication or misinterpretation as things can be clarified through carrying on the verbal communication.
ReplyDeleteHowever , with non-verbal communication , different people can receive different messages , increasing chances of the audiences not receiving what the encoder wanted the audiences to receive.
Chances are that non verbal communication is more likely to go wrong in my opinion. It has to be sometimes aided by verbal communication to bring out the correct message. Like in MTVs.
Hey hun!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the fact that verbal communication definitely cuts down on misunderstandings and people are able to comprehend one another better. However, more often than not, many disregard the importance of non- verbal communication too. It is much more essential than we give credit for. Think about it. :) (Just my thoughts btw)
But otherwise, great post!
Much love...