Being the last few days of our schooling life the school has gladly provided us with some useful talks on Sex, Drugs, Alcohol and Driving. In the three talks we had for the day they used a technique that I was first introduced to in English, and researched a little more about. It’s hard sell. Think of the smoking packets that contain the bad teeth or ads that contain gore. This is hard sell and it differs from soft sell because of they way the message is conveyed.
First I would like to thank the speakers for taking the time to come and talk to us, and it does help us. Although the problem I found with all three talks is that it was hard sell. The problem is, it is shown that hard sell does not work for our age group (15 through to 30) as effectively as soft sell.
We were shown car crashes, statistics and the works, however in the afternoon when it was time to go, a large number of people still left the school speeding, music blaring or driving dangerously.
It’s a shame to see all the effort of the talks being wasted, and no message being conveyed, so I think they need to work on their act a bit. If I had to make a clear judgement, I think the hard sell technique made a negative effect.