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Taking ADvantage Taking ADvantagebyRichard F. Taflinger, PhDThis page has been accessed  since 28 May 1996.Dedicated to Brenda, without whom I'd neverhave finished this book.For further readings, I suggest going to the Mediaand Communications Studies website.This is the text to Taking ADvantage, a book onthe physical and cultural evolution of human beings, how that evolutionhas affected human subconscious processing of stimuli, and how advertisingtakes advantage (thus the title) of that processing by creating stimuli.Table of ContentsIntroduction A Brief Overview of Advertising OverviewDefinitionof Advertising ConsumerPsychology ThePower of Words and Tricks of the Trade BiologicalBasis of Human Behavior: Self-Preservation and Greed GeneralCommentary on Sex Appeal HumanReproduction Social Basis of Human Behavior Introductionand Discussion of Self-Preservation SociologicalBasis of Human Sexual Behavior SociologicalBasis of Greed Liveand Let Die: Self Preservation and Advertising Youand Me, Babe: Sex Appeal and Advertising AdsWe Could Do Without: actual published ads using sex appeal Caution: lots of images -- can take a while to loadon slower equipment(PARENTAL WARNING: not for children withoutexplanation) IWant It, I Want it Now: Greed and Advertising HumanCultural Evolution Me,Myself, and I: Self-Esteem and Advertising Funand Games: Personal Enjoyment and Advertising LetUs Build: Constructiveness and Advertising Crashand Burn: Destructiveness and Advertising CuriosityKilled the Cat . . . :Curiosity and Advertising IWanna Be Like . . . : Imitation and Advertising GiveUntil It Hurts: Altruism and Advertising ConclusionBibliographyReturnto Taflinger's Home Page IntroductionHuman beings bay at the moon.That may seem a strange way to open a book on advertising,but it's true. Deep down inside people bay at the moon.When I first started in advertising, I thought it wasjust a matter of talking people into believing me when I extolled a product'svirtues. As it turned out, I was right.However, the more I worked on advertising, the more Irealized that there was more to it than simply talking to people. It wasnecessary to examine what motivated people; what, deep down inside, peoplewanted from a product. This led me to start studying motivation, in particularthe psychological and cultural aspects that made up what led people todo what they did.This study led me to look where I had never gone before:biology, psychology, psychophysiology, anatomy, communication theory, culturalanthropology, psychoanalysis (no, not because I needed it personally (yes,you did!)(no, I didn't!)).Where my studies have led me is to a series of ten psychologicalappeals that advertising uses to motivate people to buy products. Thoseappeals are: Self-preservation Sex Acquisition of property Self-esteem Personal enjoyment Constructiveness Destructiveness Curiosity Imitation Altruism WHAT IS A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPEAL?A psychological appeal is a visual or aural influenceon your subconscious mind and emotions. It does this by implying that doingwhat is suggested (in the case of advertising, buying the product or service)will satisfy a subconscious desire. It is not subliminal, which are elementsin a visual or aural presentation that you don't consciously perceive butinfluence your behavior. If a psychological appeal couldn't be perceived,it would have no effect at all. In fact, it is blatantly obvious the momentyou know such appeals exist. It doesn't aim at your intellect. In fact,your intellect can often get in the way of the effect of an appeal.Actually, a psychological appeal doesn't have to makesense, and often shouldn't to be effective. Simply remember a nightmareyou once had. Remember how sensible it all seemed while you were dreaming,and how little sense it made when awake. Nonetheless, you woke up in acold sweat, breathing hard and shaking. Why? Because your dreaming mindsaw everything in the nightmare as real, and your body, which you mindcontrols, reacted accordingly.As you look at this book, you may notice that I includea large biological basis for the foundation and use of many of the appeals.For many people, this may cause a conflict. There is a debate going ontoday between nature and nurture, whether biology or environment is thecontrolling factor in human behavior. It may easily appear that I supportthe nature side of the debate.Such is not the case. I do not believe that nature (biology)controls human behavior. However, I do believe that biology is a powerfulinfluence. Please note the difference: nature does not control, butdoes influence. Humans, like all other biological organisms on earth, cannothelp being influenced by the fact that they are biological, that thereare genetic predispositions to regard certain stimuli in a certain way.That this could be doubted I find hard to believe.Nonetheless, humans have an additional factor that influencesthem far more than any other organism on earth (as far as we humans know).We have the most complex social structure on earth, one that permeatesand influences every aspect of our lives. Who we are, what we do, and howwe do it is constantly being restrained by and realized through our societiesand cultures.For example, how do you feel about a snack of nice, freshmaggots?#You probably went, "Yuck!!!", or some otherexpression of dislike. However, your society determines how you actuallyfeel about eating maggots. For some societies, particularly in the tropics,they're a wonderful treat. How about cannibalism? In some societies, itis the greatest honor you can do the entree: you eat grandpa because hethen, quite literally, becomes a part of your living body, and when youdie you become a part of the living body of your descendants, taking apart of grandpa with you, etc., etc., etc., and thus no one ever actuallydies--they live forever in the bodies of their descendants. When you thinkabout it, that's not a bad afterlife, since it isn't an afterlife at all--it'sa part of a current life.Then why don't you think of things that way? Because yoursociety says you don't eat maggots or frowns on cannibalism, and has taughtyou that they are wrong.However, when biological forces, such as starvation, comeinto play, the social lessons you have learned lose their power. Just rememberthe Donner Party. They were a group of 19th Century settlers who got snow-boundin the Sierra Nevada mountains. After a time, the only source of food,and thus of survival, came from the people who were still alive eatingthe people who had died. Deep down inside, staying alive (a biologicalimperative) took precedence over social proscriptions against cannibalism.Thus, those who died kept those who still lived alive.The same applies to the other appeals. Although thereare proscriptions against lust, greed, fun, etc. by whichever society youlive in, they nonetheless have an effect on you: everyone wants to stayalive, to reproduce, to have a larger piece of the pie, to have fun. Althoughhumans need society to live, we've had society for only a few thousandyears; we've had biological urges for millions of years, and it's theseurges that advertising can take advantage of when using psychological appeals.You must always bear in mind that the use of these appealscannot force anyone to do anything. That they exist is true; that theyare incontrovertible, uncontrollable and inescapable is not. The use ofany one or combination of them in an ad does not automatically result inpeople buying the product. That they can force anyone to buy anything isgiving advertising a power that it neither has nor should have. They can,at the most, make a product look more attractive, and, at the least, attractthe attention of someone in the target audience. Nonetheless, they exist,and the advertising person should know about them, as should the audiencethat sees them.In the following chapters, I will discuss the appealsand their biological and social bases. The organization reflects the degreeto which biology or society influence the appeals. The first section isto provide some principles of advertising and psychology. For those peoplenot in advertising it will give you some background. For those people inadvertising, it will serve merely as a reminder. I will also provide somebackground on human psychology, how a human responds to and thinks aboutthe world around rher.Please realize that you should consider neither of thesechapters an exhaustive treatment of either advertising or psychology. Theyare just background that will help you understand what is in the rest ofthe book. If you already have a good understanding of advertising and psychology,feel free to skip this section. You may, however, wish to skim it.The second section covers the appeals of self-preservation,sex, and greed. Biology is the strongest influence on these three appeals.They are instinctive reactions to being alive and staying that way. Societymitigates rather than creates them. Chapter Three is the biological basis,Chapter Four is the social basis, and Chapters Five, Six and Seven lookat how advertising can take advantage of self-preservation, sex and greed.The third section covers the remaining appeals: self-esteem,personal enjoyment, constructiveness, destructiveness, curiosity, imitationand altruism. For these seven appeals, human society and culture have thegreatest influence on their effectiveness. However, each also has a biologicalbasis. Chapter Eight looks at the biology of these appeals. Chapter Ninecovers social influences. Chapters 10 - 16 discuss how advertising usesthese appeals.Return to Table of ContentsReturnto Taflinger's Home PageYou can reach me by e-mail at: richt@turbonet.com This page was created by Richard F. Taflinger. Thus, all errors, badlinks, and even worse style are entirely his fault.Copyright © 1996 Richard F. Taflinger.This and all other pages created by and containing the original work ofRichard F. Taflinger are copyrighted, and are thus subject to fair usepolicies, and may not be copied, in whole or in part, without express writtenpermission of the author richt@turbonet.com.DisclaimersThe information provided on this and other pages by me, Richard F.Taflinger (richt@turbonet.com),is under my own personal responsibility and not that of Washington StateUniversity or the Edward R. Murrow School o f Communication. Similarly,any opinions expressed are my own and are in no way to be taken as thoseof WSU or ERMSC.In addition,I, Richard F. Taflinger, accept no responsibility for WSU or ERMSC materialor policies. Statements issued on behalf of Washington State Universityare in no way to be taken as reflecting my own opinions or those of anyother individual. Nor do I take r esponsibility for the contents of anyWeb Pages listed here other than my own.This Web page created in Web Factory. |
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