Yes, Or No, Or Do You Just Think So?

"Why Good Advertising Works (Even When You Think It Doesn't)" by Nigel Hollis (The Atlantic)

Central Argument: Good advertising “creates positive memories and feelings that influence our behavior over time to encourage us to buy something at a later date.” This is because the advertisement industry understands that no one likes to think they’re gullible.

The goal of a good advertisement isn’t directly to sell their product. It is to leave a lasting impression. The said impression keeps you thinking about the product, even though you may or may not realize it. And this may make you think you need or want the product. You also don’t feel as though your decision was influenced by the advert, because you genuinely feel you’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it.

In retrospect, it explains why I think of Cadbury Bournville Dark Chocolate as expensive and to be bought only for special occasions; their famous catch phrase being, “You don’t just buy a Bournville, you earn it!” To think all these years I felt the Bournville advertisements were so silly and had no effect on me. Though I guess the advertisement was probably successful in its message, it actually reduced the amount of that chocolate that I buy. Hence, good advertisements are effective in what they are trying to sell. The example given above is trying to sell the worth of the chocolate more than the chocolate itself. Shows how one should really choose their words well.

I’ve also always been amazed at how well car or beer advertisements – with good-looking people in them – work. As ridiculous as it seems, it works for the targeted age group (Young adults). Their logical minds tell them that drinking beer won’t surround them by good-looking people (especially if they got beer-bellies), nor will having a good car work if they aren’t good-looking enough of a person with just an average personality. Despite all this, the advertisement probably gives them a small glimmer of hope and they want to try it for the lack of any other solutions for being popular, or getting a hot girlfriend/boyfriend. So once again, people like to believe advertisements don’t work on them, but it plants a positive memory or feeling in the brain, and makes us want it.

Some ads may have the most useless, irrelevant information. Yet, they stick in our heads sometimes. Bingo: Mad Angles, for example, has the silliest ad in which the triangular shaped chips are turned clockwise, inspecting one corner after another, and the ad concludes with perfectly shaped chips. Nothing about the taste, nothing to make you jealous, nothing about it’s worth or having to earn it, just the shape and how Bingo Mad Angles is good from every angle. The ad sticks with us due to the catchy tunes in the background, and the silly humor that one can only groan at. The kind of humor that we can’t forget because of how bad it was.

Some ads are effective, some are ineffective (or so we think), and some are genuinely ineffective. In today’s world, enough research has been done on the psychology behind advertising, and how it works. This is why most ads now days are effective in some ways. You may still not believe me, even though I’ve told you that it is a studied science. All you really have to do is look at all the things you’ve bought in your lifetime, and ask what encouraged you to buy it. Was it popularity (caused by good advertisement), was it recommended (maybe by someone who was influenced by an ad), or was it just an ad itself?