More than a Feeling: Emotion and the First Amendment

First Amendment law has generally been leery of government attempts to change the marketplace of emotions—except when it has not been. Scientific evidence indicates that emotion and rationality are not opposed, as the law often presumes, but rather inextricably linked. There is no judgment, whether moral or otherwise, without emotions to guide our choices. Judicial failure to grapple with this reality has produced some puzzles in the law. Part I of this Symposium contribution examines the intersection of private law, the First Amendment, and attempts to manipulate and control emotions. Only false factual statements can defame, not mere derogatory opinions. Yet trademark law allows exactly the kind of control over nonfactual, emotional appeals that modern defamation law precludes. These two bodies of law thus stand in contrast, one constrained by the First Amendment to cover only facts and the other allowed to reach much further into the dark heart of emotional manipulation. Part II turns to compelled speech, and again finds two contrasting regulations united by their emotional mechanisms, but divided by their constitutional fates. Courts have struck down mandatory smoking warnings in visual form, but have approved mandatory abortion disclosures and ultrasound requirements that operate in the same emotional register. Regardless of whether the regulation involves a direct government mandate or private parties claiming competing rights to influence the audience’s emotional state, then, current First Amendment law doesn’t have a consistent account of the proper role of emotion in speech regulation. Part III suggests that the contradictions of current doctrine could be ameliorated by less distrust of emotion and more acceptance that where information is being conveyed, emotion will regularly follow. Our focus then should not be on whether deployment of emotion is “manipulative,” but whether it is part of a discriminatory or factually misleading regulation. When the government can otherwise constitutionally mandate disclosure, the fact that these disclosures have emotional resonance is not an independent constitutional barrier

Promoting a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Changes in Promotional Strategies Seen in Star Wars Marketing Campaigns

This piece examines promotional material from the Star Wars campaigns for The Phantom Menace in 1999 and The Force Awakens in 2015 to find differences in promotional strategies with regards to globalization, fandom and fan perception and the use of online spaces. Trailers, tie-in product materials and websites are given visual and textual analysis to find how the films have evolved to accommodate a larger, more culturally diverse audience. In doing so this piece seeks to understand how the changing consumer landscape is impacting the way product are advertised, and how prospective advertisers can maximize their audience through adjusting their strategy

Promoting a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Changes in Promotional Strategies Seen in Star Wars Marketing Campaigns

This piece examines promotional material from the Star Wars campaigns for The Phantom Menace in 1999 and The Force Awakens in 2015 to find differences in promotional strategies with regards to globalization, fandom and fan perception and the use of online spaces. Trailers, tie-in product materials and websites are given visual and textual analysis to find how the films have evolved to accommodate a larger, more culturally diverse audience. In doing so this piece seeks to understand how the changing consumer landscape is impacting the way product are advertised, and how prospective advertisers can maximize their audience through adjusting their strategy

An aesthetics of touch: investigating the language of design relating to form

How well can designers communicate qualities of touch? This paper presents evidence that they have some capability to do so, much of which appears to have been learned, but at present make limited use of such language. Interviews with graduate designer-makers suggest that they are aware of and value the importance of touch and materiality in their work, but lack a vocabulary to fully relate to their detailed explanations of other aspects such as their intent or selection of materials. We believe that more attention should be paid to the verbal dialogue that happens in the design process, particularly as other researchers show that even making-based learning also has a strong verbal element to it. However, verbal language alone does not appear to be adequate for a comprehensive language of touch. Graduate designers-makers’ descriptive practices combined non-verbal manipulation within verbal accounts. We thus argue that haptic vocabularies do not simply describe material qualities, but rather are situated competences that physically demonstrate the presence of haptic qualities. Such competencies are more important than groups of verbal vocabularies in isolation. Design support for developing and extending haptic competences must take this wide range of considerations into account to comprehensively improve designers’ capabilities

Emotional persuasion in advertising – analyzing dialectal language, visual images and their interplay in TV commercials

Emotions are gaining ever more traction in marketing research and researchers now broadly recognize the benefits of emotional persuasion. Marketing scholars have become interested in emotions as an aspect of consumer behavior because they are important components of consumers’ responses in pre- and post-purchase buying behavior, in consumer satisfaction, and in shaping attitudes to products, services, and brands. The appeal to emotion is also a central topic of advertising research because the practice targets the consumers’ psychological, social, or symbolic needs to evoke an emotional response. This study investigates emotional persuasion in television commercials and provides insights into consumer persuasion from the respondent’s perspective. Advertising seeking to arouse emotions and interest is intended to make the audience process the message more thoroughly, create a vivid and enticing memory of the brand, and ultimately persuade the consumer to purchase the company’s products or services. The purpose of this study is to investigate emotional persuasion in advertising, more specifically how appeals to emotion are mediated in TV commercials. Television advertising is an important part of modern economies and paid media. Multimodal commercials can simultaneously transmit visual and audio stimuli, which makes them especially persuasive in shaping viewer’ emotions. However, there is a dearth of knowledge of how appeals to emotion are mediated through the interplay of language and moving visual components. This dissertation aims to fill this gap by exploring the emotional persuasion of the joint interplay of language in the Swiss-German dialect and moving images in television commercials. By analyzing such language and images this study provides three interconnected perspectives on emotional persuasion: dialectal language, visual moving images, and their interplay. Accordingly, this cross-disciplinary study touches on the theoretical fields of marketing, linguistics, and psychology. To date, research results have shown positive outcomes of the use of local dialects in the process of persuasion in advertising. However, this study is among the first to investigate how dialectal language can be used in advertising to appeal emotionally to a fragmented target audience. In addition, this thesis is among the first studies to focus on the filmic mediation of appeals to emotion, that is, the joint interplay of language in the Swiss-German dialect and moving images. The data for the empirical study consist of 32 television commercials in the spoken Swiss-German dialect placed by the Swiss cooperative Migros operating in the retail segment and specializing in fast-moving consumer goods. The research is based on a mixed-methods approach and the empirical aspect is conducted in two phases by analyzing commercials quantitatively and qualitatively. In the first phase, content analysis is used as a quantitative method to organize the stream of images and language. In the second phase, the qualitative analysis, the appeals to emotion of the language, images, and their interplay are investigated. The qualitative analysis of the data is divided into two stages: linguistic analysis and semiotic analysis. The linguistic analysis is conducted to study the emotional appeal of the language in the Swiss-German dialect. The semiotic analysis is conducted to uncover the emotional meanings of the images at the connotative level and the emotional meanings of the images in the interplay with the language. The outcome of the study is a framework of emotionally persuasive advertising in emotionally appealing dialectal language, emotionally appealing images, and the interplay of language in dialect and images. The framework can open new perspectives on understanding emotionally appealing advertising. From the managerial point of view, being able to appeal to customers on an emotional level can cut through the noise inherent in advertising, something that is becoming more difficult in today’s media environment filled with messages. Since consumers are exposed to numerous commercials, those that carry an emotional appeal can stand out from the crowd. As a practical implication, the framework is applicable to multimodal advertising in several media channels, including online advertising. The framework can help those designing advertising for fragmented target audiences and help marketers respond to the challenges of localization.-- Tunteisiin vetoava markkinointi on keskeinen aihe niin akateemisessa tutkimuksessa kuin käytännön markkinoinnissakin. Kuluttajien tunteiden on osoitettu olevan keskeisiä tekijöitä tuotteista, palveluista ja brändeistä muodostuvissa asenteissa. Tunteita on pyritty ymmärtämään myös osana ostokäyttäytymistä ja koettua asiakastyytyväisyyttä. Tutkimustulokset osoittavat, että tunteisiin vetoava mainonta on tehokas tapa puhutella katsojia. Vetoamalla kohdeyleisön psykologisiin, sosiaalisiin tai symbolisiin tarpeisiin katsojissa pyritään herättämään tunteita ja saamaan heidät ostamaan mainostettuja tuotteita. Tutkimusten mukaan tunteisiin vetoava mainonta herättää hyvin huomiota ja saa vastaanottajat käsittelemään mainosviestejä syvällisemmin. Näin brändeistä pystytään luomaan eläviä ja mieleenpainuvia muistikuvia. Lisäksi on todettu, että kohdeyleisön puhutteleminen heidän omalla murteellaan vetoaa vahvemmin tunteisiin. Käsillä olevan väitöskirjan tarkoitus on tutkia tunteisiin vetoavaa televisiomainontaa vastaanottajan näkökulmasta. Televisiomainonta on tärkeä osa taloutta ja maksettua mediaa. Televisiomainokset välittävät viestejä sekä näkö- että kuuloaistia hyödyntäen, mikä tehostaa mainosten vetoavuutta ja vaikuttavuutta. Vaikka monesta merkkijärjestelmästä koostuvaa multimodaalista mainontaa on tutkittu aikaisemminkin, aiempi tutkimus ei ole osoittanut, kuinka tunteisiin vetoavien mainosviestien kokonaismerkitys muodostuu sekä kielen että liikkuvien kuvien vuorovaikutuksessa. Käsillä oleva väitöskirja pyrkii täyttämään tämän tutkimusaukon tutkimalla tunteisiin vetoavan mainonnan kolmea toisiinsa kytköksissä olevaa näkökulmaa eli puhuttua kieltä, liikkuvia kuvia ja niiden vuorovaikutusta sveitsinsaksan murteella tuotetuissa televisiomainoksissa. Tämä poikkitieteellinen tutkimus onkin yksi ensimmäisistä, joissa selvitetään sekä puhutun kielen että liikkuvien kuvien yhteistoimintaa mainonnassa. Työn teoreettinen viitekehys kytkeytyy markkinointiin, kielitieteeseen ja psykologiaan. Paikallismurteiden ja mainonnan vaikuttavuuden välisestä yhteydestä on olemassa jonkin verran aiempaa tutkimusnäyttöä. Käsillä oleva väitöskirja on kuitenkin yksi ensimmäisistä tutkimuksista, joissa selvitetään, miten mainosten murteellisella kielellä pyritään puhuttelemaan fragmentoitunutta kohdeyleisöä tunnetasolla. Tutkielman empiirisen osan tutkimusaineisto koostuu 32 televisiomainoksesta, joissa puhutaan sveitsinsaksan murretta. Mainosten julkaisija on sveitsiläinen vähittäiskaupan alaan kuuluva osuuskunta Migros, joka on erikoistunut päivittäis- ja käyttötavaroihin. Tutkimusmetodologisesti työ edustaa monimenetelmätutkimusta, jossa yhdistetään sekä määrällisiä että laadullisia tutkimusmenetelmiä. Ensimmäisessä vaiheessa mainosten puhuttua murteellista kieltä ja liikkuvia kuvia tutkitaan määrällisen sisällönanalyysin avulla. Sisällönanalyysi selvittää kielen ja kuvien määrää mainoksissa. Toisessa vaiheessa tunteisiin vetoavaa murteellista kieltä, liikkuvia kuvia ja näiden vuorovaikutusta analysoidaan laadullisin menetelmin. Tutkimuksessa hyödynnettyjä laadullisia menetelmiä ovat lingvistinen ja semioottinen analyysi. Lingvistisen analyysin avulla selvitetään, miten murteellisella mainoskielellä pyritään vetoamaan katsojien tunteisiin. Semioottisessa analyysissä tutkitaan kuvien tunteisiin vetoavia konnotaatioita sekä tunteisiin vetoavan kielen että liikkuvien kuvien välistä vuorovaikutusta. Väitöskirjatutkimuksen tieteellinen kontribuutio esitetään tunteisiin vetoavan mainonnan mallina, johon tiivistyy murteellisen kielen, liikkuvien kuvien ja näiden vuorovaikutuksen keinot vedota kuluttajiin tunnetasolla. Näin ollen tuotetaan uutta tietoa markkinoinnin ja kielitieteen tutkimukseen. Mallista voi olla hyötyä käytännön markkinointityössä, sillä tunteisiin vetoava mainonta erottautuu paremmin kilpailevien mainosten täyttämästä mediaympäristöstä. Mallia voidaan soveltaa käytettäväksi eri viestintäkanavissa, esimerkiksi verkkomainonnassa. Lisäksi tutkimustulokset voivat auttaa markkinoijia kohdentamaan mainontaa paikallisille kohdeyleisöille ja vastaamaan lokalisoinnin tuomiin haasteisiin

Need for narrative

What do consumers need from a narrative? How can videographers satisfy those needs? Through semi-structured interviews with 55 Eurostar passengers from 14 countries, this film documents how people define narratives, why they need them, and how they experience the effects of need for narrative. The adjoining commentary contributes to the development of videography as an attractive method by introducing the videographer’s perspective and elucidating key story elements that can help satisfy viewers’ needs for narrative. The suggested approach maintains the vivid quality of videography and respects its methodological rigour, while increasing its effectiveness in close alignment with a consumer society that visual communication increasingly permeates. As such, the commentary and the film jointly unveil videographers’ etic and viewers’ emic use and evaluation of the videographic method

Design and semantics of form and movement (DeSForM 2006)

Design and Semantics of Form and Movement (DeSForM) grew from applied research exploring emerging design methods and practices to support new generation product and interface design. The products and interfaces are concerned with: the context of ubiquitous computing and ambient technologies and the need for greater empathy in the pre-programmed behaviour of the ‘machines’ that populate our lives. Such explorative research in the CfDR has been led by Young, supported by Kyffin, Visiting Professor from Philips Design and sponsored by Philips Design over a period of four years (research funding £87k). DeSForM1 was the first of a series of three conferences that enable the presentation and debate of international work within this field: • 1st European conference on Design and Semantics of Form and Movement (DeSForM1), Baltic, Gateshead, 2005, Feijs L., Kyffin S. & Young R.A. eds. • 2nd European conference on Design and Semantics of Form and Movement (DeSForM2), Evoluon, Eindhoven, 2006, Feijs L., Kyffin S. & Young R.A. eds. • 3rd European conference on Design and Semantics of Form and Movement (DeSForM3), New Design School Building, Newcastle, 2007, Feijs L., Kyffin S. & Young R.A. eds. Philips sponsorship of practice-based enquiry led to research by three teams of research students over three years and on-going sponsorship of research through the Northumbria University Design and Innovation Laboratory (nuDIL). Young has been invited on the steering panel of the UK Thinking Digital Conference concerning the latest developments in digital and media technologies. Informed by this research is the work of PhD student Yukie Nakano who examines new technologies in relation to eco-design textiles

It’s Just Muzak: Music, Activism, and Advertising.

This thesis builds on recent scholarship explaining the relationships between music, advertising, and society through a series of focused case studies in the clothing industry. Globally ubiquitous and reaching all socioeconomic strata, the fashion industry offers a useful focus because, in addition products, it also sells identity. Fashion is a means for individuals to create and express identity by associating themselves with certain brands and styles that help express social, political, economic, and ethical standings as well as gender, sexuality, race, and religion. This thesis considers the ways that sound and music influence the aesthetic and mood of recent fashion industry commercials. Focusing mainly on North American commercials and video advertisements (including those airing on television and across internet streaming services), it explores the various methods and approaches to contemporary commercial music that the fashion industry uses to craft careful messages about environmental sustainability, social power dynamics, and contemporary politics, explaining the ways that these issues are linked. Eschewing an Adornian critique of the culture industry and instead considering all music and sound to be important, regardless of how utilitarian or commodified it may appear to be, this thesis suggests that music plays a key role in linking social issues to music in fashion industry commercials