POP CULTURE: The Clever Tricks of Advertising
Published May 26, 2023, 12:20 p.m. by Courtney
Most of us are pretty good at spotting when we’re being sold to. We can see through the hard sell, the soft sell, the ‘bait and switch’, the ‘upsell’, the ‘false scarcity’ and all the other manipulative tricks that are used to part us from our money.
But there’s one area where we’re not so good at spotting when we’re being sold to, and that’s in the world of advertising. We’re bombarded with advertising all day long, and most of us just tune it out. But the fact is, advertising is getting smarter and more sophisticated all the time, and we’re not always aware of the clever tricks that are being used to sell us stuff.
Here are some of the clever tricks that advertisers use to sell us stuff:
1. The ‘Bandwagon Effect’
This is a psychological phenomenon whereby we are more likely to do something if we think everyone else is doing it. advertisers use this all the time – think of all the ads that show a group of people having a great time using a product or service. They’re trying to tap into our desire to fit in and be like everyone else.
2. ‘Cognitive Dissonance’
This is when we hold two conflicting beliefs or ideas in our head at the same time. For example, we might know that smoking is bad for our health, but we might still smoke because we enjoy it. advertisers exploit this by showing us ads that create cognitive dissonance – they show us people enjoying a product or service even though we know it’s not good for them.
3. ‘Framing’
This is a technique whereby advertisers present information in a way that influences our perception of it. For example, an ad might show a person using a product in a positive light, while framing the product itself in a negative light. This can be done through the use of words, images, or both.
4. ‘The Halo Effect’
This is when we associate a positive quality with a product or service simply because it’s associated with something else that we like or admire. For example, we might think a car is good because it’s made by a company that we like. Or we might think a person is attractive because they’re wearing expensive clothes. advertisers use this all the time – they’ll associate their product with something that we like or admire in order to make us think positively about it.
5. ‘The Power of Authority’
We tend to trust and respect people in positions of authority, so advertisers will often use authority figures to sell us stuff. This could be done by using celebrities, experts, or simply by using someone who seems like they know what they’re talking about. The goal is to make us think that if this person likes or uses this product, then it must be good.
These are just some of the clever tricks that advertisers use to sell us stuff. The next time you see an ad, see if you can spot the techniques that are being used to sell you the product or service.
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When advertising began in a significant way in the [early] 19th century
It was a relatively straightforward business. It showed you a product told you what it did where you could get it and what it cost
Then in 1960s America a remarkable new way of advertising emerged
Led by Luminaries of Madison Avenue Like William Bernbach
David ogilvy and Mary Wells lawrence in their work for brands like Soa vests and life cereal
Adverts cease to be in a narrow sense about the things that they were selling
The focus of an ad might ostensibly be on a car
But our attention was also being directed at the harmonious handsome couple holding hands beside it
It might unsurfaced be in adverted out soap
But the true emphasis was on the state of calm that accompanied the washing
It might be whiskey one was being invited to drink
But it was the attitude of resoluteness and resilience on display that provided the compelling focal point
Madison Avenue had made an extraordinary discovery however appealing a product might be there were many other things
That were likely to be even more appealing to customers and by in twining their products with these ingredients
Sales could be transformed
[Patek] [Phillipe] is one of the giants of the global watchmaking industry
Since 1996 they've been running a very distinctive series of adverts featuring parents and children
It's almost impossible not to have glimpse one somewhere in one example a father and son are hanging out together in scenes
Which tenderly evoke filial and paternal loyalty in love we can imagine the boy will grow up confident and independent
It also respectful and warm the advert understands our deepest hopes around our children
It's moving because what it depicts is so hard to find in real life
We're often brought to tears not so much by what we have as by what we long [for] but cannot reach
Father-son relationships are dependably problematic, but in the world of patek phillipe
We glimpse a kind of psychological?
Paradise we can turn to Calvin Klein the couple seemed like they might have been together a while
They may have a couple of children, and they're in it [for] the long term [the] perfume is called eternity
But their passion is still so intense they have sex. Maybe a couple of times a day often in unusual locations
Calvin Klein knows all about what we really want in relationships
It's brilliantly latched on to our deepest and at the same time our most elusive [in] a long house
Adverts wouldn't work
If they didn't operate with a very good understanding of what [our] real needs are
What we truly require to be happy their emotional pull is based on knowingness [eerily]
Well as they recognize we are creatures who hunger for good family relationships
Connections with others a sense of freedom and joy a promise of self-development
Dignity calm and the feeling that we're respected yet armed with this knowledge
They and the Corporation's who bankroll them are unwittingly somewhat cruel to us
For while they excite us with reminders of our buried longings. They cannot do anything wholehearted about quenching them
Adverts may want to sell us things but incommensurate things in relation to the hopes they've aroused
Calvin Klein makes lovely Cologne Patek Phillipe swatches are extremely reliable in beautiful agents of timekeeping
But these items cannot by themselves help us secure. The goods are unconscious believed were on offer
the real crisis of capitalism is the product development lags so far behind the best insights of
advertising since the [1960's]
Advertising has worked out just how much we need help with the true challenges of life
Its fathomed how deeply we want to have better careers
stronger relationships greater confidence in most adverts the pain and the hope of our lives have been superbly
Identified but the products are almost comically at odds with the problems at hand
Advertisers are hardly to blame. They are in fact the victims of an extraordinary oblem of Modern capitalism
While we have so many complex needs we have nothing better to offer ourselves in the face of our troubles
Then perhaps a slightly more accurate chronometer or a more subtly blended perfume
business needs to get more ambitious in the creation of new kinds of
Products in their own way as [strange-sounding] today as a wristwatch would have struck observers in 1500
We need the drive of commerce to get behind filling the world in our lives with goods that really can help us to thrive
Flourish find contentment and manage our relationships well to trace the future shape of capitalism
We only have to think of all the needs we [have] that currently lie outside [of] [commerce]
We need help in forming cohesive interesting benevolent communities. We need help in bringing up children
We need help in calming down at Key moments
We require immense assistance in discovering our real talents in the workplace
[our] higher needs are not
Trivial or minor once
Insignificant things we could easily survive without they are in many ways central to our lives
We've simply accepted without adequate protest that there is nothing business could sell us to address them we don't know today quite
What the businesses of the [future] will look like just as half a century ago?
No one could describe the corporate essence of the current large technology companies, but [we] can know the direction
We need to head [to] one where the drive and inventiveness of capitalism tackles the higher deeper problems of life
Advertising has at least done as the great service at hinting at the future shape of the economy it already
Trades on all the right ingredients
The challenge now is to narrow the Gap between the fantasies being offered and what businesses should be able to sell us
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