6 Simple Truths About Advertising

Posted by Jill Chivers in Simple Truths

The purpose of advertising, its sole aim, is to convince us to buy something.
Advertising has evolved since its inception and is now a multi-billion dollar industry, and employs not only copywriters and designers, but psychologists as well as guerilla and neural marketing specialists. These professionals are experts in understanding human psychology and, in its simplest expression, manipulating us to feel, think and behave in specific ways.
Advertising can make us feel certain things. In fact, many advertising campaigns are specifically designed to invoke universal human emotions such as belonging, connection, accomplishment, community, security and stability, variety and novelty, and certainty. Advertising can make us feel smart, superior, “in” or up to date, attractive.
Advertisers are experts at evoking particular emotional responses within us, like those described in #3 above, and linking those emotional responses to the thing they are selling. If we didn’t feel something, we’re much less likely to buy.
We have the power, quite literally, to turn off advertising messages. By muting, clicking away, skipping, flipping past and plain old ignoring, we can tune out the advertising messages we choose to ignore.
Being aware of your feeling state (one simple way is by asking “how am I feeling right now?” and listening to the answer that comes up) we take the first step in taking back our power when it comes to the advertising messages we take on board, and those we let go.