In this quick quid advert they try to paint the situation as
one of ‘just plain folks: similarity altercast’ (Werkmeister, 1948) by creating
the impression that the kind of situation in which one might fall short between
paydays is one that occurs to almost everyone. This situation in and of itself
inspires fear in the intended audience whilst also creating a feeling of
acceptance and legitimacy around what most people regard the very risky option
of seeking financial help from a short term lender.
Through trying to create the impression of this being a
social norm and then trying to associate their brand with the occurrence of
this situation. The advertisement uses social modelling also by people on the
film demonstrating getting loans from quick quid or their smart phones and
laptops in an easy and guiltfree fashion. Bandura and Menlove (1968) conducted
a study in which 32 girls and 16 boys whose ages varied from 3-5 formed 3
groups. All of these children had an aversion to dogs and in particular
interacting with dogs. The first group watched a video in which someone interacted
and played with a dog, the second group watched a video showing a series of
dogs ranging in size and ‘fearfulness’, and the third group watched a video
entirely unrelated to animals. In the consequent task where the children were
asked into a room with a brown cocker spaniel and then were asked to perform ‘escalating
tasks’ (walking the dog, feeding the dog a biscuit, touching the dog, etc.)
those in condition one who had seen a person modelling non fearful behaviour
and interaction with a dog were far more likely to achieve higher levels of
interaction with the spaniel than the other two groups although those in
condition two where they were seeing images of dogs faired better than those in
condition three.
Most people are prudent when in comes to engaging in any
kind of short term lending lending due to what is usually and extortianate rate
of return. These kinds of short term lenders tend to pray mostly on the
misinformation and lack of knowledge of potential customers. Quick quid has (
as is visible in the very small writing in the video) a representative APR of
1734% therefore waiting to pay back the money on your next payday will cost you
a significant amount, but by normalising the behaviour and by socially
modelling their demographic by demonstrating others do it they can obfuscate
this fact. This cleaver combination of tactics make the audience feel as though
this is ok and safe.
Bandura, A., & Menlove, F. L. (1968). Factors determining vicarious
extinction of avoidance behavior through symbolic modeling. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 8, 99-108.
Werkmeister, W. H. (1948). An introduction to critical thinking. Lincon, NB: Johnsen
Publishing.
Nice coverage of Bandura and Menlove, though it was covered last week. What can we do about this? Is there another study similar to Bandura that might be relevant here?
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