1) The document is a journal entry by Lim Joe Onn about a McDonald's advertisement promoting their new chicken foldover. 2) McDonald's used persuasion strategies like showing credible images of ingredients and emphasizing healthiness through color choice to attract new health-conscious customers and change perceptions of their food. 3) The advertisement uses emotional language like "crispy", "juicy", and "mouthwatering" to make readers crave the foldover and associate it with positive feelings like love to successfully persuade people to purchase it.

1. NAME: LIM JOE ONN
ID NUMBER: 0318679
SUBJECT: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
COURSE CODE: PSY 30203
TITLE: SECOND INDIVIDUAL JOURNAL

2. CONCEPT INVOLVED: PERSUASION
Persuasion refers to efforts to change the attitude of others through the use of various kinds of messages.
The advertisement selected for this journal is taken from The Star. It was published by MacDonald’s, a
worldwide franchise company in order to promote their new chicken foldover.
As people nowadays are more health-conscious, fast food companies such as MacDonald’s are encountering
competition from other food companies that promise to serve healthier food choices. Thus, MacDonald’s
need to apply persuasion strategies to gain customers from a new target market - people who are more
concerned about their health. Therefore, MacDonald’s came out with the new chicken foldover as a healthier
alternative for burgers, fries and nuggets.
In order to persuade customers to buy their chicken foldover, MacDonald’s advertised in The Star, the most
read English newspaper in Malaysia. Credible communicators are applied in this printed advertisement as
they show what the chicken foldover is made of. On the right hand side of the advertisement, pictures of
flatbread, fresh salad, patties and garlic sauce are shown. This successfully persuades customers to buy the

3. foldover as people tend to trust food companies that provide trustworthy information about the ingredients
of their food.
According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the most fundamental level of needs is physiological.
Physiological needs include physical requirements for human survival, such as food, water and sexual
instincts. As food is one of the most basic needs of mankind, it has a high tendency to draw attention of
people. This makes food an effective attractive communicator. Hence, the advertisement maximizes the size
of the food it is promoting – the chicken foldover to attract attention of readers. The well-thought-out
composition makes the advertisement attractive and persuasive.
Moreover, successful persuasion involves messages that do not appear to change attitudes. Due to
perseverance effect, the public already had a mind-set that MacDonald’s serve unhealthy food. In order to
change this perception, MacDonald’s need to persuade customers to believe that they serve healthier options
but they cannot convey the message directly. This is due to the fact that messages that forcefully change
attitudes will not be effective. Thus, green is selected as the theme colour of this advertisement as it
indirectly gives out the message that the foldover is healthy, resulting in successful persuasion.
Apart from that, messages with emotional content is useful when persuading people. In this printed
advertisement, words that express deliciousness is used frequently. These include ‘crispy’, ‘juicy’, ‘tasty’
and ‘mouthwatering’. While reading the advertisement, people will crave for the foldover as the
advertisement made them perceive the chicken foldover as something appetizing. Therefore, the emotion of
desire is aroused, making the foldover a ‘must-try’ for customers. Also, the word ‘love’ is placed with the
image of the foldover in close proximity. As people perceive love as something wonderful, they associate
positive feelings with the foldover. Lastly, the words ‘limited time only’ are mentioned, encouraging
customers to try this foldover as soon as possible.
(495 words)