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Ads work by cultural imprinting, not emotional inception

meltingasphalt.com

21–30 of 103 posts

Re: Ads work by cultural imprinting, not emotional inception

#21
>> Q: Have you ever seen an ad for bed sheets? Can you even name a brand of bed sheet? If ads work by emotional inception, wouldn't you expect to have seen at least a few ads trying to incept you with the idea that Brand X bed sheets are going to brighten your day? [2]

By the same theory we should rarely ever see ads for mattresses too, since their "consumption is purely obscure". And yet, I'm bombarded by ads for mattresses everywhere.

Re: Ads work by cultural imprinting, not emotional inception

#22
Complete nonsense. Do you really believe that comms majors are being tought cultural inception in undergrad? The Corona ad, like all ads, is a response ne to a brief that is designed to address a business objective. In this case get people to drink Corona not just in the Summer. Hence find your own beach even if you live in Minnesota in the Winter and would normally reach for a winter beer. We don't sit around at agencies with our clients discussing the best way to mind fuck the public. Ads are tested on awareness, purchase intent, brand association and message association. Creatives reach for the stars. Clients and strategists pull them back to earth. Depending on the people involved. Some ads are great. Some suck. Case closed. - Ad Agency Guy (BTW none of us watch Mad Men)

Re: Ads work by cultural imprinting, not emotional inception

#23
post #16

Oh man. That's a doozy. Well, uh. >We may not conform to a model of perfect economic behavior, but neither are we puppets at the mercy of every Tom, Dick, and Harry with a billboard. We aren't that easily manipulated. Yeah. Yeah we are. It looks like the author of this is just some random engineer without a lot of backround in marketing or persuasion psychology. That's a shame because he's clearly interested in it an…

So how come this doesn't work for me? I am not influenced by advertising in the least. I find it all equally annoying.

I'm not being pretentious, but when I look at the stuff I buy (and I'm as materialistic as the next person, slightly obsessed with 'design', and attached to a brand like Apple), none of it I've seen in ads.

Advertising uniformly has the effect of pissing me off and can even turn me off brands. And I'm not a unique snowflake, my wife is exactly the same.

I honestly cannot fathom why any intelligent human being would be influenced by something as unsubtle and obvious as advertising.

Re: Ads work by cultural imprinting, not emotional inception

#24
post #16

Oh man. That's a doozy. Well, uh. >We may not conform to a model of perfect economic behavior, but neither are we puppets at the mercy of every Tom, Dick, and Harry with a billboard. We aren't that easily manipulated. Yeah. Yeah we are. It looks like the author of this is just some random engineer without a lot of backround in marketing or persuasion psychology. That's a shame because he's clearly interested in it an…

So how come this doesn't work for me? I am not influenced by advertising in the least. I find it all equally annoying. I'm not being pretentious, but when I look at the stuff I buy (and I'm as materialistic as the next person, slightly obsessed with 'design', and attached to a brand like Apple), none of it I've seen in ads. Advertising uniformly has the effect of pissing me off and can even turn me off brands. And I'…

Thinking advertising annoys you doesn't mean it doesn't influence you. In fact it probably influences you more then you think - you dwell on it. You think why it annoys you. But at the end of the day "buy Coca-Cola!" was still the last message in your head and you probably spent more time thinking about it.

There was a McDonalds ad on the radio a while back which had a combination of, not unpleasant but slightly annoyingly pronounced voices talking about their breakfast menu. I couldn't stand it. Tended to switch the radio off when it came on. And yet here I am, years later, telling you exactly which brand it was advertising and what it was advertising.

Re: Ads work by cultural imprinting, not emotional inception

#25
There's an excellent book called Rational Ritual[1][2][3] which develops this idea much more fully. The thesis is that common knowledge (I know something, and I know everyone else knows it too) is very powerful and rationally drives people's behavior.

One of the arguments in the book revolves around the absurd pricing of advertising during big public events like the Super Bowl. If advertisers weren't concerned about the common knowledge aspect of their messages, they would air their ads when the cost per viewer is lowest. And you do see this with non-social goods, which tend to be advertised during off hours. But companies producing social goods like beer pay much more per viewer for prime-time and Super Bowl slots in order to get their product into the cultural zeitgeist. If you see something in a Super Bowl ad, you know most other people have seen it too.

[1] http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9998.html

[2] PDF of the original 2001 manuscript: http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/polisci/cpworkshop/papers/Chwe1.p...

[3] http://www.amazon.com/Rational-Ritual-Culture-Coordination-K...

Re: Ads work by cultural imprinting, not emotional inception

#26
post #2

Lots of theory here but surely there's some solid science that can address these ideas?

The article itself sort of suggests a way. Gather data on how much advertisers are spending on television ads. See if there's a super-linear correlation between non-fragmented audience size and ad dollars spent.

Re: Ads work by cultural imprinting, not emotional inception

#28
post #18
post #16

Oh man. That's a doozy. Well, uh. >We may not conform to a model of perfect economic behavior, but neither are we puppets at the mercy of every Tom, Dick, and Harry with a billboard. We aren't that easily manipulated. Yeah. Yeah we are. It looks like the author of this is just some random engineer without a lot of backround in marketing or persuasion psychology. That's a shame because he's clearly interested in it an…

> It looks like the author of this is just some random engineer without a lot of backround in marketing or persuasion psychology. That's a shame because he's clearly interested in it. Little parenthesis: if you're interested in a subject, make the effort to read about it from well established sources (very often, books). The author of the posted article relies on sources like LifeHacker and pop psychology journalism…

Not to mention that the majority of articles written on subjects like these are pushed to the top of the reading charts because they differ with the authoritative narrative you might learn in a textbook.

I feel it is important to realize that this person is posting an article on this subject (and you are reading it) because it strays from the commonly known, not because it is ubiquitous.

Filling your knowledge base with the exceptions is a good way to make yourself knowledgeable on a lot of incorrect or unsupported theories.

Re: Ads work by cultural imprinting, not emotional inception

#29
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So how come this doesn't work for me? I am not influenced by advertising in the least. I find it all equally annoying. I'm not being pretentious, but when I look at the stuff I buy (and I'm as materialistic as the next person, slightly obsessed with 'design', and attached to a brand like Apple), none of it I've seen in ads. Advertising uniformly has the effect of pissing me off and can even turn me off brands. And I'…

Thinking advertising annoys you doesn't mean it doesn't influence you. In fact it probably influences you more then you think - you dwell on it. You think why it annoys you. But at the end of the day "buy Coca-Cola!" was still the last message in your head and you probably spent more time thinking about it. There was a McDonalds ad on the radio a while back which had a combination of, not unpleasant but slightly anno…

Precisely - advertising, especially for larger brands, is just as much about getting you to buy stuff as it is about awareness.

For example, next time you're on a road trip and you have a choice between mcdonalds and a lesser known chain and you are hungry, you'll be more likely to go to the familiar McDonald's.

Or you might even tell your friends about how much you don't like McDonald's ads, but in the process you just told your friends about McDonald's, thus perpuating the chain.

Re: Ads work by cultural imprinting, not emotional inception

#30

There's an excellent book called Rational Ritual[1][2][3] which develops this idea much more fully. The thesis is that common knowledge (I know something, and I know everyone else knows it too ) is very powerful and rationally drives people's behavior. One of the arguments in the book revolves around the absurd pricing of advertising during big public events like the Super Bowl. If advertisers weren't concerned about…

I would imagine the cost per viewer for a Super Bowl commercial isn't that high. Super Bowl commercials are expensive because there are so many viewers. In addition to the extra press surrounding them.
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