Guilt Trip
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This is Canola. Canola is five years old and starving to death even as we film her. But just one dollar a week can provide her with all the food she can eat. Won't you please give? |
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The commercial attempts to extort/extract money from the viewer by making him feel guilty for not doing what it asks, by subjecting him to Sally Struthers and that white-bearded fellow piling on the shame until he cracks. The more cynical viewer is likely to quip back, "That's what my taxes are for, dummy" or "Why didn't you just use the money you spent on that commercial?"
Primary mode of advertising for charities. Many medical products for children take this tack as well. Jewelry commercials are evenly split between this approach ("If you're not willing to buy these overpriced diamonds, you don't really love her.") and Appeal to Vanity.
Advertising
- Sally Struthers' commercials for the Christian Children's Fund.
Web Original
- As of 2021, TV Tropes detects some forms of ad-blocking and automatically displays banners reading "This is page #X you have viewed this month without ads. We get it, ads aren't what you're here for, but they do pay for the hosting and maintenance of TV Tropes. Please whitelist us or purchase an ad-free pass to support TV Tropes." (This is a considerable improvement over a previous tactic, which was to refuse to show any content whatsoever until you relented and disabled your ad-blocking.)
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