Individuals with low literacy skills strongly prefer advertisements involving testimonials and people relating their own experiences. Research on informational television advertising conducted by Créatec on behalf of the Fédération canadienne pour l’alphabétisation en français^{Footnote 4} suggests that communication effectiveness is seriously compromised by certain advertising techniques, including:

• implicit and unspoken messages;
• subtleties of language;
• the imaginary and unlikely;
• unclear advertising objectives;
• visual illustration indirectly related to the message.

Results also showed that individuals with low literacy skills:

• pay selective attention to televised informational advertising;
• seek first to determine the relevance of the message;
• memorize the various elements to quickly determine the general sense of the message at a literal level.

To promote effective informational television advertising, the communicator should:

• raise interest at the very beginning of the message to sustain the effort required for understanding;
• minimize the effort required for the recipient to understand, accept, and act on the message, if desired.

It must be recognized that informational television advertising raises important challenges when communicating complex messages. This means of communication does not permit people with low literacy skills to control the pace at which the information is transmitted, or to retain the information for future reference.

Research regarding informational television advertising and studies conducted by Communication Canada underline the importance of being relevant, understood and persuasive. They reinforce the value of the key factors for successful communication (see tab 1, Successful Communication).

This research also highlights the importance of applying lessons learned for communicating in plain language for successful televisual communication (see tab 2, Successful Written Communication).

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