Are subliminal messages and a curious mind enough to get you over the advertiser’s edge? 

Due to how flooded the market is with countless brands, logos plastered everywhere and an unhinged amount of fierce market competitors, advertisers are turning to the latest psychological studies to generate cut-through with their audience.

How brands tap into your subconscious?

Due to people being constantly inundated with brand collateral, it has desensitised people to buzz words and generic pop-up advertising. A prime aspect of a brand is of course, their logo. Company’s truly outsource bigtime on phycological research to reflect everything from their consumer honesty to creativity. When you are exposed to a well-executed logo this activates a set of associations the consumer has with that brand, subconsciously leading us to exhibit behaviours that are consistent with the brand’s image.

Example:

Repeated exposure to luxury brands has been proven to make you spend bigger. If you are seeing an influx of high end products visually or even in-store and literally are being hands-on with these tangible products; this juxtaposition makes cheaper products seem inferior to the consumer -  promoting them to spend that extra money to feel more whole about the purchase (possible even if they don’t have that money to spend).

Example:

Another trigger advertiser capitalise on is tapping into the subconscious to reignite childhood memories or feelings associated with a time the consumer felt pure joy. Basically, advertisers have the power to distort a person’s memory in the same way eyewitnesses in a crime can be led to believe they have seen something they haven’t. The memory is surprisingly easy to manipulate, which works in the advertiser favour because it gives them an opportunity to win a consumer over for life by triggering them to associate positive thoughts and emotion with their product or service. 

Advertising is built on intertwining with the consumers mind through cherry picking the best psychological techniques.  With advertiser’s possessing strong and direct motivations for brand exposure; combined with constantly progressing scientific/psychological research, consumers don’t stand a chance refraining from being sucked in by memorable and triggering ads of all formats.

By Jessica McCabe.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane…

Decore

We all remember that well overplayed Decore tune; blasting during peak TV viewing time in the late 80s early 90s. This would literally play in 15-minute increments while you were trying to choke down your Dolmio Spaghetti bolognaise (an Aussie family staple) to the point where we all still know it word for word before even clicking play. I believe Herbal Essence came in not long after and quashed this silky, soapy rinse with its heavenly botanical fragrance. Still effective nonetheless.

Sorbent

Remember the chubby little disgruntled face of Mathew Krok, famous for his role as schoolboy Arthur McArthur on ‘Hey Dad!’. This kid was so full of sh** (literally), that he couldn’t actually remember the correct logistics behind preparing his morning cornflakes, poor darlin’. See for yourself…

Colgate

Ok. This one had me sold all over again. Colgate ads featuring Mrs. Marsh and her piece of chalk were prevalent on Australian television from the 1970s to the 90s. Is it just me, or is there a very strong alignment here with Mrs. Magpie, Blinky Bill and the rest of the random marsupial clan who attended Greenpatch school?

Antz Pantz

No words. I’m just going to leave this one here.

Eighties culture is big in every way, from nostalgic TV dramas to synth pop, clip-on earrings to Sun-In spray. If you think this era is dated and “daggy” it’s time for you to undergo a clear-eyed assessment of how this cultural phenomenon of a time has constructed Australian society in a ground-breaking way. This was a time when TV, radio and cinema were finally well established enough to utilise in advertising products and services in the most creative ways. Looking back on this time is collectively as insightful and entertaining as when Harold and Madge Bishop finally reunited. See all nine minutes of this iconic moment below.

By Jessica McCabe

Britain’s advertising watchdog is moving with the current of our progressive society and making changes to advertising standards which could ban advertisements that promote harmful gender stereotypes. 

Stats have shown audiences are increasingly turned-off by narrow gender representations, especially women who equate to the majority of consumer purchasing figures.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) decision is based on numerous industry studies that display how advertising often creates expectations for gender roles and back people into a corner of ‘how they should look, feel and be’ if they are to excel in life.

With rampant activism, sexual freedom and gender binaries continually being broken down by the impressively large amount of forward thinking boys, girls and everything in-between in our world; shallow tactics or backwards representations of any gender just isn’t selling to people like it used to.

Long-haired boys are equally as beautiful as long-haired girls now. It’s ok if a drag queen is better at make-up than your female self and it’s certainly fine if your eight-year-old boy wants to push a pram in his pink plastic pumps.

PRIME EXAMPLEs OF WHAT WE DON'T WANT TO SEE:

The premise of advertising is to generate cut-through in a market where most things have already been done. If you’re going to be persuasive – it’s important to remain hyper-vigilant on how the world is evolving. Peoples idea of utopia or what they’re drawn towards aesthetically, is no longer what was.

Companies persuasive tactics need to reform to reflect what people want. The advertisng industry in general plays a big role in constructing identities, particularly in relation to gender; so despite wider gains in equality, intensified or stereotyped gender portrayals in advertising will not survive.

Below is the way of our advertising future:

By creating empathy and reducing social distance, depicting women and men more authentically builds closer relationships with the consumer.

Advertisers and their corporate clients may be pleasantly surprised to hear that being forced into the 21st century by the ASA may also help their bottom line. There is a host of research to show that it makes simple business sense to eradicate unfair stereotypes from advertising completely.  

By Jessica McCabe