In advertising, a hard sell is an advertisement or campaign that uses a more direct, forceful, and overt sales message. This approach works in opposition to a soft sell.
Theorists have examined the value of repetition for hard sell versus soft sell messages to determine their relative efficacy. Frank Kardes and others have concluded that a soft sell with an inferred conclusion rather than an overt hard sell can often be more persuasive.
Famous quotes containing the words hard and/or sell:
“It’s very hard to be a gentleman and a writer.”
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965)
“no picture is made to endure nor to live with
but it is made to sell and sell quickly
with usura, sin against nature,
is thy bread ever more of stale rags
is thy bread dry as paper,”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)