OFFSTONE | JUNE 2021 | FKP USIM

40 According to ELM, persuasion happens between one of the two routes; one is the central route and the second is peripheral route that led to behavioural change. Central route processing depends on the strength of the argument or the logical processing of the information whereas peripheral route depends on the contextual or simple cues. ELM, Islamic Communication and Ethics in Advertising Perspective ELM theory is synonym with persuasion as it happens daily in our lives. Most of advertising and marketing research has focus on persuasion as it is capable in working on the basic premise of influencing or affecting other opinion or judgment on things such as spending money in a product or service or purchase a certain brand product instead of the other. In the reality of human communication, persuasion is the central for the information used in all types of communication and it serves a purpose and naturally persuasive. Nowadays, advertisement in social media, ignore the basic core of Islamic rules that it should have especially in Islamic country like Malaysia. One of the advertisements’ example that did not follow Islamic rules and ethics is deodorant advertisement as it shows the body parts of a woman’s under arm. It is prohibited to show a woman’s body parts in any social media except face and hands. According to advertising scholars, nudity of body parts in the advertisements is a critical issue that currently dominated the whole world including Muslim countries. Advertisers and marketers use nudity as a tool of persuasion to influence target audience to buy their advertised product or service. Hence, this is not ethical to Islamic religion in advertising perspective. In fact, there are many creativities that can be used to increase sales of products or services that follows Islamic rules and ethics in advertising perspective. Petty and Cacioppo in a study published as early as 1982 discussed ELM theory and according to them, peripheral routes use a simple cues or heuristics where it does not focus on the message in the persuasive communication, but it focuses more on the event context. In addition, Mohammad and his colleagues do agree that it may include the source of attractiveness, credibility, physical appearance, and even the emotional appeal. For example, music can be used as an attractive element as it contains the emotional appeal that may affect target audience mind as well as increasing their motivation towards buying the advertised product or services. As stated by Khan, Hamid and Rashid in Indian Journal of Arts , they found that music has the ability to influence the decision-making mood of a consumer in choosing a product for buying purposes in advertising perspective.