Advertising to Emotions
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 memory 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 ASPCA 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 ASPCA 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 emotions can almost guarantee more donations than not. According to an article written March 19, 2013 titled, “The Truth About ASPCA”, donators bring in about 150 million dollars annually. Would there be nearly as much money if they didn’t have those commercials to make everyone feel so
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 memory 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 ASPCA 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 ASPCA 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 emotions can almost guarantee more donations than not. According to an article written March 19, 2013 titled, “The Truth About ASPCA”, donators bring in about 150 million dollars annually. Would there be nearly as much money if they didn’t have those commercials to make everyone feel so