A Journey Into Your Opinion

Cheating has been seen as a taboo for many years by many cultures around the world. I'm not talking about hiding aces in the sleeve of your jacket during a poker game; I mean being unfaithful to your partner. Most people in North America have been brought up to believe that one day they will find a partner, get married, start a family, provide for that family and so on and so forth. Being unfaithful is seen as a sin or an immoral act. That's just it, isn't it? We believe it is an immoral act because it goes against our faith. Yes, there are many different faiths out there. Some take more than one wife, some take only one, some don't even believe in a marital status. All in all, the concept of cheating all depends on WHAT you were raised to believe. I'm not saying you have to believe in some higher power to think cheating is wrong. Most teenagers and young adults think sleeping around with another partner is wrong whether they believe in a god or not, but they are surrounded by an environment who believes that this is immoral, so in turn, they will believe it is. I don't think it is necessarily right or wrong. In my opinion, if you love someone, then you should respect them enough to either let them know, or move on. My generation think being unfaithful is immoral more or less because one person is getting hurt in the end and their friends/family don't want to see them hurt. 

What does cheating have to do with advertising? The fact that many companies/brands exploit this tactic into making the consumer switch to their brand. Why? Because they make themselves seem BETTER. In my opinion, this is actually a great tactic to gain popularity and a larger market. I do not believe that these companies are promoting adultery or infidelity in all forms. I think they are simply recognizing that this is a typical human behaviour and nothing more. Many would argue that this is not only wrong, but offensive. Yes, it can be offensive if approached in the wrong manner. For example, this Reebok ad is trying to promote their brand as being the best sport equipment for getting you in shape. I even find this offensive because they made it very personal. This kind of ad is promoting unfaithfulness. I believe if they took a different twist on it, they would have had better reviews.

This Ashley Madison ad for a dating website also promotes cheating and has been seen as offensive. They could have promoted it using a different concept or comparing different things. There is a fine line between making the ad emotional so the viewer can relate, and attacking their beliefs (even if it wasn't intentional).

Something like this Pretzel Crisps ad is a great example of this tactic. It is not directly relatable to adultery or human relationships, so it cannot be seen as offensive. It is actually playing on our basic instincts to seek out the better brand/product, rather than the weak one.

You are probably wondering what the hell I am talking about referring this tactic to be tapping into our basic instincts. If you think about it logically, we are the only species on this planet that believes that cheating on their significant other is wrong. Why? Because we believe it to be. Every other organism on the earth has survived because they are programmed to. The females seek out the strongest males to make strong babies that will SURVIVE. Where do you think the phrase "survival of the fittest" came from? The fact that 74% of men and 68% of women would cheat on their partner if they wouldn't get caught proves what I have just stated. We do it because we are programmed to, but we are afraid of the guilt and shame that goes with being caught. Many people would tell me that this is a load of crap. Here is a link to a study on how women feel more attracted to strong men when in "heat" or fertile. http://www.livescience.com/8779-fertile-women-manly-men.html

How can women even think this way while devoted to their man? Because this is how we were made. This doesn't just apply to women. The male gender of a species seeks out healthy females to fertilize and make babies to carry on their genes. This doesn't happen to be just one female, they mate with as many healthy females as they can so their species can survive.

All in all, I believe that these ads are NOT promoting adultery, but playing on our natural instincts. I do think that if they approach it this way, they should be sensitive to ones beliefs as to not offend their audience, otherwise, this was all for naught.

(Sub)liminal Advertising

In my personal opinion, if the advertising companies did not want people to see/find subliminal messages or images in their campaigns, there wouldn't be such thing as subliminal advertising. I mean, what better way to pitch a product then to do it without the consumer realizing it's a pitch? Advertising is not JUST about pitching a product, it is about persuading the consumers to buy the product. What people don't realize is that advertising has a lot to do with psychology.

Advertising is undoubtably manipulating people into buying their products. What good would an ad be if people didn't want to buy it? This is where priming is a good method to use. Priming in advertising can be used in many different ways and can induce moods which can further influence how information is interpreted. Priming initially only works if the product is relevant to the consumer. It doesn't have total control over whether or not a product is successful, but it can help persuade the consumer to buy it IF it is meaningful to the target audience.

Priming is an implicit memory effect in which exposure to a stimulus influences a response to a later stimulus. It can occur following perceptual, semantic, or conceptual stimulus repetition. The effects of priming can be very salient and long lasting, even more so than simple recognition memory. For example, if a person was given multiple lists of words that all included the word cat, and later asked to complete a word starting with C, the probability of the person saying the word cat is much higher.

Some examples of priming:

Mood - The mood or tone of a TV show can be carried over into a commercial. Generally, happy TV programs followed by commercials are more inclined to receive positive evaluations by customers. (Why do you think the ads tend to be relative with the change of seasons and holidays?)

      Articles - Articles can also be used as primers. An ad for a large screen laptop generates more positive reactions when the ad is followed by an article on visual quality and versatile functionality (attributes positively related to a large screen laptop).  The interest in the large screen laptop dropped when the ad followed an article about mobility and convenience.

      Sex does sell. It is the ONE thing that every human being craves and can relate to. It entices strong emotions. Due to this fact, consumers tend to buy the products because they connect to our primal needs. (As lame as that sounds, it's true) If the sex aspect of the ad is too prominent, it is generally seen as offensive, hence why advertising companies make it less obvious in their ads.

Here are a few examples:

As far as people having too much time on their hands and looking for subliminal messages, I don't necessarily think they ALL have too much time on their hands, I think some are just pointing out the messages that most people see subconsciously and don't realize it. The Burger King ad is a perfect example. Most people would see is as though the woman is about to eat the sandwich and has a surprised expression on her face because of how amazing the food is. What the advertising company did is hid a sexual aspect in there. They put emphasis on the word BLOW. Some people, especially young teens-adults, will get the hint that they are actually implying falacio as well.

Many films and video games tend to include subliminal images/messages that are not necessarily used for advertising, but are included as hidden messages. They are called Easter Eggs in geek talk. THESE are what people who have too much time look for.

Some examples include:

1. Sex written in the stars after the scene where Simba talks to his father (cloud formation)
2. R2D2 and C3-PO are found carved as hieroglyphs on the wall beside Indiana Jones
3. The little stars on the edges of the Super Mario Galaxy title read MR. GAY
4. ET and his family are at the counsel meeting on coruscant in Star Wars
5. At the end of the Clover Field movie, if you play the last thing said backwards, it actually says "It's still alive" (referring to the alien)

Humour

It is a proven fact that humorous ads attract more attention than serious ones. I suppose this has something to do with the fact that consumers don't like a product to be pitched, but rather entertaining. There is a fine line between being humorous and offensive. I think to have a successful humour advertisement is to include a subject that is generally funny and can't be seen as offensive. For example, the little wrestler in the Koodo commercials is a funny and entertaining way to present/promote your brand name/product. Seriously, who can find a little animated wrestler offensive? If you were to come up with a campaign like the Mike's Hard Lemonade in 2002, where men working labour jobs were having freak accidents and becoming seriously hurt, you are going to not only insult people, but create a bad reputation for your name brand. You also need to take into account that if your ads are on TV or the internet, children may have access to them. Who would want their children to see men being impaled by metal bars to promote an alcoholic beverage? The target audience is the utmost important thing to consider, but the medium in which your presenting your ad is very important as well because other personas WILL see it. It's inevitable.

It is true that funny ads will die out in time, but they DO help brand recognition. Variety is key in humour! If one ad starts to fall off the shelves, add another spin to it, or make a new funny ad. You need to keep the consumers interest and humour is one of the easiest and most effective ways of accomplishing this. I do think it is worth all of the work and risks because humour is universal. You don't  need supporting text to get the message across. All in all, you can have an ad made in Germany and still have the same impact if you brought it here in Canada.