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Advertising to Your Emotions When a message is transmitted through the media by way of advertising, it can provoke many emotions in the audience. Often times advertising can strike a cord with people and reach them through their insecurities and guilt in an effort to persuade them into buying something that they believe they need. An advertisement can very easily play on someone’s emotions to get him or her interested and “hooked” into their product before the person even realizes it. No advertisement is more effective than one that makes you feel something because of how emotion and Emory are tightly linked together.
When we watch television, we are usually so caught up into the TV show or movie that we don’t even realize how vulnerable our minds can be. Let’s say you’re watching your favorite movie and a commercial comes on; this commercial starts off with very sad, slow music and someone starts speaking in a soft, calm voice. Most of us would make the connection that it’s a commercial about the ASPIC needing donations to save unwanted animals and we immediately start to feel sad and guilty that we can’t do anything about it.
I’d be willing to bet each animal lover that sees that commercial automatically think of their own pets and begin the “What if… ” Chain of thoughts. Guilt can be one of the most damaging and motivating emotions one could experience. If you had no intention in donating money to an organization like the ASPIC before, but all of a sudden decided to after watching a heart wrenching commercial, then they got you good. That right there is the key to bringing in their donations. Not to say donating isn’t a wonderful thing to do, but playing on one’s motions can almost guarantee more donations than not.
According to an article written March 19, 2013 titled, “The Truth About ASPIC”, detonators bring in about 150 million dollars annually. Wicked there be nearly as much money if they didn’t have those commercials to make everyone feel so sad? Who knows? The advertising we are confronted with on a daily basis tries to persuade us into believing that we need (or do not need) a particular product or service. Lets look at another example: This is an advertisement showing how much better life can be for your dog when e/she is in shape and healthy.
The physical attributes of this advertisement is what makes it so appealing considering most dog owners want their dogs to be healthy. This ad however shows skinny dogs engaging in human-like sexual acts as the fat dog watches, which gives it a certain level of humor but still sadness. Yes, this ad is designed to be funny but it’s also designed for humans to remember how over weight people are Judged and play on the desires to lose weight. It plays on your emotions to automatically make you feel that your dog is fat and would be happier if e/she lost weight.
Right then you’re hooked, because then what you might do is try to find the product they are selling and be interested in buying it so that you don’t Tell guilty Not only ten product Itself out perhaps a new lease Ana collar, let treats, and dog toys to get your dog more physically active. This type of advertisement could actually create a domino affect from one product to another. Advertisements that bring out the negative emotions sort of give consumers a deep connection with the ad and possibly even the product.
However, creating these advertisements also risks creating negative associations with that brand. Some people who come across those sad commercials might Just turn the station or channel so they don’t have to hear it or see it; then there is very little chance that advertising product or service will receive a profit. It’s those consumers who automatically associate the advertisement with negative thoughts and actions that help the product or service decline in profit. So why do they go through the depressing steps of advertising? Simple, it works. According to an article on Scenically. Mom, “When consumers are interested in an ad, they are better able to devote mental resources to thinking about it. Therefore advertising aimed at interested consumers can tap into more complicated emotions, such as bittersweet nostalgia, anxiety, and guilt. ” Advertisements with positive emotions and uplifting events, outcomes, or people will not always enhance “persuasion” more than ads with sad and downhearted emotions. For example, when it comes to funny advertisements, if too much of the ad is focused on humor, people ay not even notice who the advertiser is.
To go into a little more detail, a company called “Ace Matrix” and their team looked at every national commercial from January 2011 to March 2012 to measure the effectiveness of humor in advertising. What they found was that funny commercials were more appealing but in actuality were not more effective in convincing viewers to buy their product. The attention and likeability was high; however, low information and relevance on many funny ads resulted in lower desire for the product than non-funny ads.
Negative emotions at he start can grab the viewer’s attention and draw them in to the ad; then turning points can define memorable branding moments. By traumatizing a problem that your brand will solve, negative emotions will actually drive motivation. After writing this paper I was then curious enough to see if negative over positive emotions actually won over my memory and it did. Every commercial I remember from the past is sad in some form of way. The ASPIC/animal shelter commercials, children in 3rd world countries seeking donations, even the Saleslady commercial room last years super bowl came to mind.
Then when I try to think of a funny commercial from the past, I really have to sit and think for a while; nothing immediately came to mind. When it comes to these certain advertisements I now realize I am exactly the demographic the companies shoot for. I love animals and those in need of homes in combination with sad music Just rips me to pieces. What is even more ironic is that I actually do donate to shelters in need. In that sense, I can see how advertisers using negative emotions can appeal to consumers to get them to buy their product.