The Right Brain Approach: Psychology in Advertising

Advertisements come in various shapes, sizes, and mediums, and as humans, we are constantly surrounded by them. Whether they are on TV, radio, or in a magazine, there is no way that we can escape them. They all have their target audience for whom the advertisers have specifically designed the ad. When a company produces a commercial, their main objective is to get their product to sell. This is a multibillion-dollar industry and the advertisers study all the ways that they can attract their audience’s attention. The producers of advertisements have many tactics and strategies they use when producing an ad to get consumers to buy their product. These include things such as rhetorical

“There are over 250 billion advertisements released to the public every year with the average person seeing over 3000 ads every single day” (Kilbourne). This is an astronomical amount of information for anyone to process in a week let alone in one day. This is a prime example of Capitalism at it’s finest. Controlling the consumer in every aspect of their lives. Jean Kilbourne also talks about how “Only 8 percent of an advertisement is actually processed by the conscious mind, with the other 92 percent being soaked up by the subconscious” (Kilbourne). Thinking about those numbers really brings into perspective how much we are truly influenced by media

Throughout the last decades there has been vast improvements in advertising and its persuasive effects to our psychology. Not only has it become part of our global culture, it is so deeply ingrained in our society that we sometimes don't even notice if someone trying persuade us by their use of simplistic persuasive techniques. It is only when we reflect on the speech, video, or advertisement that we can pinpoint their propaganda objectives.

According to American historian Daniel J. Boorstin, “We read advertisements to discover and enlarge our desires. We are always ready—even eager—to discover, from the announcement of a new product, what we have all along wanted without really knowing it.” We live in the age of advertisement and competition, where each advert tries to act like a magnet and pull you toward its product and permit you to do specific actions. Advertisers use logos, ethos, and pathos as special advertising techniques to help them achieve their task, which is to grab your attention. They are concerned with giving you what you want so that they gain money in return. Yet they will also attempt to make you believe that whatever they are representing is not just something

Arnold Communications undertook extensive market research in order to understand the modern VW buyer and their position in the industry. They set about collecting primary data through extensive interviews, visiting 95 of the top VW dealers and drving VX over 50,000 miles

I remember this commercial back in the 90's of "Your Brain on Drugs". I remember being in elementary and classmates talking about it on how your brain looks when you do drugs. I think this advertising campaign was effective because people were aware of what the illicit drug does to your brain while being on the substance use. It was also effective because I remember being part of the D.A.R.E program and they will tell us to look at the advertising about what does the brain look when you use drugs. While attending elementary many of the students were scared to consume drugs because of the advertising, so the campaign might have been a success in those days.

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.

In the article, “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals”(1982), Jim Fowls, a professor at the University Of Houston, discusses the different ways advertisers are reaching people on a daily basis. He claims that advertisers main goal is to appeal to the audience’s motives and desires, aiming to make the ad as memorable as possible. Every person has a need that he wishes to satisfy, if the advertisement successfully calls this need “then the persons can be hooked”(Fowls, p. 275). Fowls introduces a list created by the psychologist Henry Murray from Harvard University of 15 human needs that advertisement can appeal to. Murray’s classification of needs is a useful tool to understand the effectiveness of an advertisement.

Through a psychoeducational advertisement, I would address stress management as an important psychosocial aspect of an integrated care treatment plan for patients experiencing major depression. Most Americans do not understand how stress can play a role in causing depression or be a symptom of it. This aid would educate the general public, patients of the chosen healthcare facility, of the correlation between mind, body, emotions and behavior and how collectively these body systems contribute to stress which then effects depression or led to depression. Additionally, the advertisement would provide quick stress management tips and encourage professional consultations. Hopefully, if advertised and perceived correctly, the advisement would inform

For our initial strategy we wanted to choose a product line that would be most intriguing to customers in this poor economy. To initiate this we focused our products around better gas mileage, safety, and quality. In order to do this we needed to evaluate consumers’ needs and desires when making a high involvement purchase such as a car. We believe the best target market for this type of car would be a middle class family that does not have as much disposable income due to the recession in our economy.

In the article “Advertising and Behavior Control” there were many arguments for and against advertising. The first and the biggest problem Robert L. Arrington has against advertising is “puffery.” The reason/reasons why Arrington has a problem with puffery is due to the fact that the seller makes exaggerated, or suggestive claims about a product. His overall argument on puffery is that it isn’t just “bragging” but it is bragging that is designed to persuade you to want the item or product being sold. The bragging goes so far as they convince the viewer (of the advertisement) they need the product. Puffery ultimately leads to manipulation, exploitation, and control over what people think of the product. Although Arrington has reasons

There was a time when advertisement were made only to market and sell the products but now dramatic changes have taken place in this field (Shead and Dobson 01). Today companies not only want to sell their products but also aim to create emotional attachment with the customers for which they do emotional or subliminal advertising.

“Advertising is far from impotent or harmless; it is not a mere mirror image. Its power is real, and on the brink of a great increase. Not the power to brainwash overnight, but the power to create subtle and

1) The buyer decision process of traditional Porsche customers relies on the motivations that determine these people to select this brand. Their purchasing decision process is based on the exclusivity of the brand that is connected with the car owner. In their opinion, by purchasing a Porsche, traditional customers purchase the exclusivity and luxury associated with the brand. These customers want to purchase a car that reflects their social status and their financial power. In addition to this, they are not interested in the utility of the car, but in the characteristics that differentiate it from utility cars. These traditional buyers are rather interested in their feeling while driving a Porsche in comparison with the size, price, or fuel economy of the car.

The buyer decision process of a typical Porsche customer focuses on selecting cars that reflect their high social status, their financial power, and their preference for exclusive products. They are not interested in the utility or price of the cars in comparison with other customers that are interested in how much the car costs, its size, or its fuel economy performance. Porsche buyers also take into consideration the car's performance, but they focus on the sensations they have when driving such a car.