Hovis-'Go On Lad'

This advertisement by Hovis, a UK brand of flour and bread, was released in 2008 and used powerful storytelling to evoke strong emotions in the viewers by documenting the 122 years of British history since the brands launch.

Storytelling as an influential technique is used very effectively in the advert in which it tells the tale of a boy buying a loaf of bread and witnessing key moments of British history as he makes his way back home. Evidence for this technique comes from Harris (2008), who demonstrated that higher levels of story in an adverts message can lead to higher levels of response in Self-referencing processing measures as well as likability and ad-induced brand interest.

The advert by taking the viewer through time in British history illustrates how ‘Hovis’ has always  been a British product and has been there for its consumers in both good times and during hardship. This association of their brand with British history inspires feelings of patriotism in the consumer and will encourage them to buy domestic goods, in this case, Hovis bread. Research by Han (1988), found that ‘patriotic emotion’ had a significant effect on purchase intent, in his study 212 consumers were asked to evaluate 2 categories of domestic and foreign-made products, 116 TVs and 96 automobiles. It was found that patriotic emotion led to purchase intent being greater for domestic products than foreign-made products.

Han, C. M. (1988). The role of consumer patriotism in the choice of domestic versus foreign products. Journal of Advertising Research, 28(3), 25-32.

Harris, M. A. B. (2008). Getting carried away: Understanding memory and consumer processing of perceived storytelling in advertisements. Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences, 68, 3197-3197.