PROPAGANDA FOR CHANGE is a project created by the students of Behaviour Change (ps359) and Professor Thomas Hills@thomhills at the Psychology Department of the University of Warwick. This work was supported by funding from Warwick's Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning.
This advert
directed by Tista Sen and Shammsunder Gooud in India, depicts an amazing idea
to tackle child labour. Goldenberg’s described ‘Consequences Template’ (1999)
is reflected in this advert. The consequence of donating to the Care Foundation
is shown to make a difference in children’s lives, one at a time, by lifting
the burden off of their head. As the box states, “Your contribution can end
child labour”, the interactive imagery of this piece drives people to be a part
of the change.
The
demonstrated consequence is based on a true fact, and it plays on emotion to
get a response. With a problem as big as child labour, people may be inclined
not to give, feeling their small donations make little difference. However,
this advert emphasises that each individual contribution makes a difference by
tugging on the rope, beginning to lift the weight off the child’s head.
Goldenberg, J., Mazursky, D., &
Salomon, S. (1999). The fundamental templates of quality ads. Marketing Science, 18, 333-351.
The Lynx ‘Billions’ advertisement used the Goldenberg,
Mazursky, & Salomon (1999) extreme situation template in which an ordinary
deodorant for men was shown to possess unrealistic attributes. The
advertisement features the ‘Dies Irae’ requiem by Karl Jenkins, which makes the
racing women affected by the Lynx deodorant look dramatic and humorous at the
same time.
In the first scene the audience can see an
attractive brunette in a red bikini costume running though a jungle. Soon other
brunettes in red bikinis join her and they continue running together, they run
very fast as if they were taking part in a competitive race. In another scene
there are blondes in green bikinis competing in the race as well, and there are
more women of different ethnicity in the sea in white and blue bikinis swimming
quickly towards the beach.
Finally, the audience can see the object of
the desire of all the females. He is a young man who stands on the beach using Lynx
deodorant. At the end of the advertisement a statement is made: ‘Spray More. Get
More. The Lynx Effect’.
The commercial implies that women will be
drawn to a man who uses Lynx deodorant, they will find him overwhelmingly attractive,
and will be overpowered by the ‘Lynx Effect’.
Moreover, the advertisement is creative and
humorous, which increase a product liking, comprehension and attract consumer
attention (Fugate, 1998).
Reference
Fugate, D. L. (1998). The advertising of
services: What is an appropriate role for humor? Journal of Services in Marketing, 12, 453-472.
Goldenberg, J., Mazursky, D., &
Salomon, S. (1999). The fundamental templates of quality ads. Marketing Science, 18, 333-351.
This advert by Fairy uses the dimensionality alteration template (Goldenberg, Mazursky and Solomon, 1999). The advert depicts a maternal figure in an ordinary situation. The emphasis is put on the fact that the washing up liquid lasts a long time, therefore it does not have to be purchased often. Time leap is achieved by manipulating the era depicted by changing the style of the fashion and the furniture and kitchen appliances in the adverts. With the woman in each era saying the same thing, it infers that Fairy liquid lasts a long time and always has done. The situation depicted has to be relevant to the product in order for this template to be successful, therefore a kitchen scene is always chosen as that is where the product would be used. The direction of the time leap has to be relevant too, and in this case, it has been chosen to depict earlier eras first, giving the advert a chronological sense of the product. It seems sensible to do this as it has a more persuastive feel, as depicting the future would not seem as verifiable to viewers.
Goldenberg, J., Mazursky, D., & Solomon, S. (1999). The fundamental templates of quality ads. Marketing Science, 18, 333-351.
In
the ad the little boy is shown standing alone in a train station while separated
from his mother. When he loses sight of his mother, his look of puzzlement
turns into abject fear as tears roll down his face. A voice-over then says,
“This is how your child feels after losing you for a minute. Just imagine if
they lost you for life.” This caused quite a bit of controversy as the child
was separated from his real life mother yet the producers assure us that he
only felt anxiety for a few seconds and there were child protection officers on
site the entire time.
This
advert fits into the consequences template of Goldberg’s (1999) schema of
templates that highlight the implications of complying or not with what the
advertisement is saying - in particular the extreme consequences template,
owing to its shocking and emotional nature. The advert highlights a possible
consequence of not giving up smoking. It specifically targets parents, which is
evident in that the focus of the consequence is on them and their child. This
has been purposely done owing to the majority of people who quit smoking are in
their 30’s; around the age people start to have children.
Additionally,
this advertisement fits into the extreme situation template of Goldberg’s
(1999) schema of templates, as it creates a visual image of a very extreme
situation- one that is known as every parent’s ‘worst nightmare’. It combines
the thought of losing your child in a large group of people with that of
leaving them forever, and forces the parent to imagine their child feeling so
distressed for the rest of their life. The voice-over reinforces this by firmly
placing the responsibility on the parents’ heads in the hope that they will
want to prevent this from ever happening by simply stopping smoking- which this
ad presumes is morally the right and easier choice.
Although
it is undeniably emotional, the ad may be less effective for younger smokers as
they are not as likely to be at the stage in their life where they see dying or
having children as a reality. Therefore, the advert has low perceived
susceptibility to young smokers and is easy for them to deny that what happens
in the advertisement will happen to them, thus they are likely to disregard the
message and continue smoking.
Goldenberg,
J., Mazursky, D., & Solomon, S. (1999). The fundamental templates of
quality ads. Marketing science, 18,
pp.333-351
When online shopping, I have been influenced by the scarcity of an item on multiple occasions. Normally, I would browse for items online when bored. If an item catches my eye, depending on my mood, I will or won’t buy it.
However, if that same item comes up with a sign saying “only one left in stock” or even just “ low in stock” regardless of my mood or budget, I won’t think twice
about buying that item. The fact that there is only one item left in stock
tells me that it must be so good that everyone wants it, and that I may never
have the chance to purchase it again, therefore need to buy it instantly!
The picture above shows an example of when scarcity persuaded me to buying a dress. The red arrow points to where it says, "low in stock".
The power of scarcity was shown by Worchel, Lee, and
Adewole (1975). In this study, participants were asked to rate how attractive
cookies appeared to be. The result showed that when there were just two cookies
in a jar, compared to ten cookies in a jar, they were rated as more attractive.
Worchel, S., Lee, J., & Adewole, A. (1975). Effects of supply
and demand on ratings of object value. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 3, 383-389.
This advert for dog food uses the extreme consequence template, as it depicts a dog digging through concrete, which is an over the top version of the positive consequence of feeding your dog Pedigree food. Doing this sends the message that Pedigree food makes your dog stronger. Goldenberg, J., Mazursky, D., & Solomon, S. (1999). The fundamental templates of quality ads. Marketing Science, 18, 333-351.
In order to raise awareness of the rising sea water
lever because of global warming MTV Switch confronted its viewers with a
floating board in the Amsterdam canals. By using what appeared to be a submerged
man with just his hands sticking out of water this campaign used the inverted
consequences version of the ``consequences template´´ (Goldenberg, Mazurksy and
Solomon, 1999).
The board the man was holding said: Global warming. What’s
the fuss about? Find out for yourself www.mtvswitch.org.
By providing an image of what could be the future if global warming keeps on
being belittled this campaign was trying to attract viewers’ attention and
raise their awareness at the same time it directed them towards the webpage.
References:
Goldenberg, J., Mazursky, D., & Solomon, S. (1999). The fundamental
templates of quality ads. Marketing
science, 18,
333-351.
This advertisement uses the extreme consequences template, of smoking to promote Nicoteinell gum, a nicotine replacement aid, to help smokers to quit smoking. The advertisement depicts an older-looking woman lighting a cigarette on the candles of her 42nd birthday cake. Goldberg, Mazurksy & Solomon (1999) listed the extreme consequences template as an effective creative template for advertisements. The image below also displays the extreme consequences template. The advertisement suggests that if you give your dog Denta Stix they're teeth will become stronger, to the point where they can bite through a plastic frisbee.
Goldberg et al. (1999) claim the extreme consequences template indicates the implications of not carrying out the suggested action. This advertisement shows the long term use of cigarettes causes the user to age prematurely. To avoid these negative consequences users can switch to Nicoteinell gum, showing there is an alternative for the user, with no cost to their appearance. In terms of the Denta Stix advert the extreme consequence is a positive consequence of the use of the product, dogs will have stronger and healthier teeth.
References
Goldenberg, J., Mazursky, D., & Solomon, S. (1999). The fundamental templates of quality ads. Marketing Science, 18, 333-351.
This was a really clever and very funny interactive ad
campaign by Qualcomm. The idea behind this ad campaign was to highlight how
much better everyday life is with smartphone mobiles (the majority of which are
powered by their chipsets). They put up a poster in a bus stop which featured a
URL address, they then waited for people to visit the site and once the person
had interacted with the sight (i.e. pressed the button), sent them a little surprise.
This ad campaign uses one of the creativity templates
presented by Goldenberg, Mazursky and Solomon (1999); in this instance the
interactive experiment template. This very innovative and hilarious ad campaign
allowed these customers to experience the full advantages of the mobiles
powered by Qualcomm’s chipsets. Additionally it is an incredibly memorable advertisement
not only for the people who experienced it, but also for those who later watch
it.
References:
Goldenberg, J., Mazursky, D., & Solomon, S. (1999). The
fundamental templates of quality ads. Marketing
Science, 18, 333-351.
