A radio commercial I heard yesterday for a shoe store began, "When it's time to shop for a new pair of shoes, consider (our shoe store.)"
Upon hearing that, I remembered a broadcasting school instructor telling aspiring copywriters, "You don't want people to just consider buying your product. You want them to buy it."
He's right, but as a listener, I'd be more likely to buy from a store that wants me to consider buying its products rather than commanding me to purchase them. The soft sell approach is more courteous, after all. Besides, if you go too far down the hard sell road, you end up with the '90s TV commercials in which an announcer said ominously, "At Silo, we want your business, and we'll do anything it takes to get it." The spokesperson's sinister tone made me wonder if non-Silo shoppers had to risk being scolded or possibly maimed.
Consequently, I never shopped at Silo. Maybe they would have stayed in business past 1995 if their ads simply asked people to consider shopping there instead of implying that not shopping there might affect one's fate in the afterlife.
