The Psychology of Advertising

Every day, companies present the people with advertisements everywhere they go. Advertisements have become very prevalent in today’s society nowadays focusing in on a negative connotation. Advertisement has become an effective way for producers to display their new products. In present day, they come in forms of billboards, flyers, e-mails, and even text messages. It is widely known that companies create advertisements to persuade people to buy specific products or goods; however, it is not widely known that advertisements can make a negative impact on today’s society. The companies manipulate people’s mind and emotions, swaying people by new promotions and therefore generating a strong desire to fit into the society, that causes them to make inessential expenditures. Advertisements pose a critical impact on the American culture.

The main purpose of commercials and advertisements is to persuade the viewer to purchase the product that is advertised, but not all commercials are successful in this endeavor. Companies, such as Budweiser and Kleenex, appeal to the viewers’ ethos, logos, and pathos in order to influence them to buy the advertised product(s). In order to appeal to each of the categories, companies use different tactics to catch viewers’ attention. The use of ethos, logos, and pathos can make or break an advertisement based on how it is being used.

Over the last few decades, American culture has been forever changed by the huge amount of advertisement the people are subjected to. Advertising has become such an integral part of society, many people will choose whether or not they want to buy a product based only on their familiarity with it rather than the product’s price or effectiveness. Do to that fact, companies must provide the very best and most convincing advertisements as possible. Those companies have, in fact, done

I targeted more towards the taste, and smell organs. All around we see ads on tv about cheeseburgers, pizza, or all sorts of new recipes coming out. When you're sitting on your couch, and an ad about some new cinnamon pizza comes on the TV, your eyes may light up. You just sit there for a moment, and stare ad the 30 second advertisement while being able to just taste the cinnamon taste in your mouth. That’s where your brain works along with your sensory cells. You see the cinnamon pizza, and your sensory cells send a message of what you're seeing to your brain, which then makes sense of what you're seeing. After your brain make out that you're seeing a cinnamon pizza, your brain sends a message to your taste buds, causing you to just be able to taste the cinnamon. You may have eaten cinnamon before, which is why your brain made sense of that wonderful ad you had just watched. Also, your body went through the vision process. Bipolar cells connected ganglion cells to the optic nerve.

In this paper, I will be discussing Apple’s “1984” advertisement. This commercial aired in 1984, during the time that computers were first becoming widely available to the public. In Apple's iconic "1984" advertisement, the company uses dark allusions to the George Orwell novel "1984" to make their audience feel like big computer business is making computers mindless in a sinister way, and Apple computers are breaking this stereotype. By doing this, Apple makes itself seem like the more superior choice, the different choice, and sells to a human's natural instinct of wanting to be different. In their advertisement, the company uses pathos to appeal to their audience’s emotions and wants al0ong with strong language to make their message appear more important.

While flipping through Psychology Today I can’t help, but notice this magazine has about fifty percent of its pages dedicated to ads. There were sixty-three individuals that either encompassed a part a of page or a whole page. The advertisements were scattered throughout the magazine, however latter half of the magazine primarily had the essays and articles. The majority of advertisements in this magazine included: fifteen ads on health supplements/medications, fifteen ads on rehabilitation/therapy centers, seven on psychology books, fifteen on starting a career in psychology. The magazine also had three ads on insurance, two ads on a medical device to treat anxiety, and one ad on a mental health course, sexual furniture and pheromone booster.

This essay will critically evaluate the use of psychological techniques in an advertisement chosen by the author from a specific range of optional advertisement. The essay will evaluate the impact on the persuasiveness of the marketing communication of a specific target audience. The author of this essay will also analyse the type of appeal, the use of rhetorical tropes, signs and symbols and evaluate the likability, credibility and power of the source of the message. All analysis and evaluation will be supported by the relevant academic references and reliable resources.

Lastly manipulative advertising in which uses deceivable promises or results about consumers emotions and experiences to encourage consumer's decision-making process. There exist advertisements in which invoke methods aiming for consumer's emotions and trust to buy their products. I intend to discuss how consumers need to be more informed about advertising messages to prevent any influences in our free choice and how advertising can manipulate consumer autonomy. Summary

Sex is a very controversial subject that normally attracts a lot of attention, which forces it be extremely exploitable for attention craved advertisement creators. Sex can be defined as ways to gain consumers attention (Belch & Belch 2007). What makes sex in advertising so special? Why is sex so appealing to consumers? Sexual appeal can be characterized as an emotional trigger. Sex can be construed as the soul of advertising. (Brayan 2003) There are various emotions that an advertiser can utilize to aid in delivering messages to audiences. Emotional messages utilized in advertisements can arouse views from different backgrounds and force them to take action. (Brayan 2003) These emotions consist of, but not restricted to: guilt, love, leisure, sadness, lust, pleasure and peace.

Firms spend large amounts on advertising, estimated to reach $600b in 2015 , this spending represents sunk costs . Increases in spending will not necessarily prove successful; moreover an effective campaign will engage consumers and provide positive brand attitudes. For this reason this area of research is important and should be noted. Increasing the effectiveness of one’s advertising campaign is not an easy task; there are many issues that have to be acknowledged and, more importantly, understood. A plethora of research has been undertaken regarding consumer behaviour; one only needs to look at the sheer volume of academic articles and books on the topic. There are however several categories within consumer behaviour that a firm can target dependant on their product offering. Exposure, memory and attitude pose these issues. Foremost exposure refers to the process by which the consumer comes in to physical contact with a marketing stimulus and they can be exposed to this stimulus during any stage of their decision making process. Exposure is mostly affected by three factors; the position of the advert in mediums (e.g. TV or print); product distribution; and shelf placement. Furthermore consumer memory refers to the persistence of learning over time ; information is retrieved both consciously and unconsciously. Such memories can be retained for any given period of time and stem from experiences and evaluations. Finally attitude is an evaluation a consumer expresses

It has been acknowledge (Romaniuk & Sharp 2004) that Brand salience can be defined as the propensity of the brand to be thought of by buyers when they are in a buying situations. A brand awareness strategy depends on how well known the brand is, Brand Salience is forming image to refresh their memory about the brands that can linked to consumer mind as well as the quantity and quality of the cue to brand links (Olson & Peter 2005), it is very important that consumer can connect to their mind as many cues as possible . The level of consumers’ brand awareness necessary to induce purchase varies depending on how and where they make their purchase decision for that product category or form. The brand attitude is focus on evaluating the brand, according to Schiffman and Kanuk (2007) “attitudes are relevant to purchase behavior are formed as a result of direct experience with the product, word-of-mouth information acquired from others, or exposure to mass-media advertising, the internet, and various forms of direct marketing”

In Chapter 6, our book discusses 7 different advertising appeals that companies use that invoke certain responses . These seven are: fear, humor, sex, music, rationality, scarcity, and emotions. Several considerations are put in place before a business decides which of these go into their ad, such as the product sold and the wishes of the client. For example, fear or sex would not make sense for a children’s toy commercial while it would make more sense for a car ad.

I've always been interested in advertising. I usually pay close attention to commercials when they come on the television or the radio. I like pointing out what I do and don't like about the commercials, and whether or not I believe that they will be successful in enhancing the sales of the product or service they are advertising. I don't know much about what goes into advertising. I simply like giving my opinions. Advertising is even something I may consider getting into after college. Because of that, I wanted to find a website that discussed the psychology involved in advertising. I found the website for an advertising company called Kenny and Associates, Incorporated.

An example of this is if you put an ad out to sell a car and put all of the information about the car on the ad people are more likely to buy it over the car without that info because they know what they are buying. The last psychological factor is people's beliefs or attitudes. What consumers believe about a seller, product or service affects whether and what they buy.. If you think a product is beneficial or its competition as harmful, you move toward one and avoid the other .Advertising strives to position products so they appear associated with positive traits and to counteract beliefs that interfere with the products' ability to attract

In this study we are able to understand that consumer and their behavior will determine the success of a firms marketing efforts. We have to observe all their physical, mental and their