Advertising. Is It Really That Simple?

The advancements in psychological research seem to have really impacted the advertising field. I would be very interested to see how advertisements before such in depth research had been performed and before technological advancements like television compare to advertisements now.

It is interesting to me to learn how products are marketed to different groups of people; obviously this add is targeting young people and probably would not be as relevant to other generations. As we are bombarded with messages everyday, it is important that we realize the ways in which advertisements can encourage us to consume certain products.

It's pretty smart of advertisement agencies to have used psychology to sell their products. I liked how you mentioned that the colors also have an affect on someone's mood, not just the way the people in the ad are acting/wearing.

As an marketing and advertising student, the psychological aspects involved in selling a product to a consumer are definitely important in todays advertising and have been since the mid 1950's. I don't really think there is anything wrong with that though. There has been debate about the negative/positive effects of such psychological catering, especially for children. But for the most part experts agree that most people filter these messages and "take it with a grain of salt", making it essentially harmless. I believe people should be smart consumers, aware of such influences and able to appreciate them. Advertising at it's core, it really an interactive art form.

These Apple iPod commercials fit into the Classical Conditioning model that we learned about a few weeks ago. The iPod can be considered the Conditioned Stimulus. The emotions of happiness, enjoyment, fun can be the Unconditioned Stimulus, and the desire to have these emotions are the Unconditioned Response and Conditioned Response. By buying an iPod, the consumer can be happy and have fun.

To Dahl0973. I think the Conditioned stimulus is "iPod is awesome" The unconditioned stimulus is like you said "happiness" The conditioned response is "buy an iPod" The unconditioned response is like you said "desire to own one"

It is amazing how an introductory psychology course can make us all a little more consumer conscious. Marketers capitalize on staying one or two steps ahead of the target market in hopes of creating these conditioned/unconditioned response. We find that applying what he have learned through simple ad analysis can help us avoid some impulse shopping much to the marketers chagrin.

Analyzing advertisements with a psychological approach is very interesting and applicable to our lives. It is interesting to become aware that we really are impacted by ads in the exact way that is intended by the advertisers. Also, every single aspect of an image or commercial is specifically chosen to induce a certain emotion to be associated with a product. And all humans are likely to fall for these tricks, even if it is subconsciously.

This is a very interesting topic! I never realized the thought that went into advertising until I began taking business classes in high school. I find it interesting that many businesses today have psychological professionals on their advertising team to help them create advertisements that will create a specific reaction or emotion. It's scary to think how easy we are influenced by things in the media.

Great topic of discussion judging by all the well thought out comments. This ad does a similar job as the book in discussing ads as classical conditioners. Many superbowl ads especially for beer advertisements use similar methods. By displaying an attractive woman drinking beer and having a good time, you will now want to experience a similar feeling when you see that beer at the store.

It is no doubt that what advertisers are doing is working to sell products all throughout today's world. Sometimes I see 'Hot Wheels" commercials on TV and think to myself, why would anyone be interested in that? Turns out I was one of those young boys who was obsessed with playing with toy cars like the ones in the commercials. I saw how much fun other boys were having with the cars, and I instantly wanted one for myself. Advertisements are constantly drawing in and targeting specific people to sell their products. It would be interesting to do a more in-depth study of popular marketing techniques.

Nice example. Apple is one that has done well in creating appealing commercials. The US is the people looking cool and UR/CR are feelings of fun and excitement (to all who were questioning this).

After being in Psychology I've learned that psychology is more involved in our daily lives than I had originally thought. It is used for everything and plays such a huge part in advertising and selling products. The Apple advertisement is great because the black silhouette doesn't show a specific face of a person. It is putting the thought into your mind that that person with the Ipod could be YOU. It makes you want to go buy that product so that cool person could be you.

Do you think that apple is also using the all blacked out faces because they don't that their product is primarily for one type of person. They want everyone to feel as if they can have their product, and don't want to limit their customers. A very effective and smart way to market your product..

I agree with the comment above about the blacked out faces. I feel like they are inviting you to identify and see yourself as those faces. It is interesting to take a closer look at an ad and notice things that you never would have before at a quick glance!