Akhter, Humayun

Sheikh, Anees A

English

epublications@Marquette

Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Psychology Faculty Research and Publications Psychology, Department of 12-25-1981 Viewpoint Apperceptive Ads Let You Dine On ‘Psychological Smorgasbord’ Humayun Akhter Anees A. Sheikh Follow this and additional works at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/psych_fac  Part of the Psychology Commons Young peppleinflueneed by alcohol ads- BooksheirYOUNG PEOJPLE are the most in-fluenced by alcohol acbrertiising, par-ticularly if they experimented wftti al-cohol during adolescence, accordingto researchers at Michigan State Uni-versity, East Lansing,Celebrity and sport figure endorse-ments influenced young people themost. Two-fifths of the responden^ina^survey of 1,227 young people saidthey used ads to find out which brandsfamous people drank.The seven-phase study examinedthe content and effects of alcohol ad-vertising. It was funded%y a $96,000-grant from the Bureau of Alcohol,.Tobacco~an(JT|rcarms, the FederalTrade Commission, the National In-stitute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcohol-ism, and the Department of Trans-portation. •Advertising has a moderate-influ-ence on drinking behavior during theadolescent years, concluded researchdi M i T l l b t d t i iing the most alcohol ads were News-week, People. Time. Sports Illmlrat-rectors artin^lbck, advertis ngOTaTMSU, and,'Charles Atkin, professor of com-mimications.Nntionnlnf „taled $411 million in 1977, enough tobuy 5,000 beer and 600 wine spots onnetwork television. Magazines carry-ed, and Piavboy."INDIVIDUALS NOTICE largenumbers of these ads and pay ^loseattention to between one-fourth ^ndthree-fifths of them," th'c report states."Ads on television attract greater at-tention than magazine ads."There is "ampJe-epportunitylor'al-cohol advertising to influence thecognitions, values, and behavior of.the public, especialfy the young peo-ple," the researchers concluded.Advertising is a significant informalsource of socialization about alcohol,although the focu&of most advertise-ments is on l>Hind awareness ratherthan general ^ i^£pii:in t^ion about alco-YioL Audiences receive oertain favor-able impressions about the character-istics of drinkers from. a<IsJJ>utimpact isn't strong.People who are heavily exposedLikewise, those heavilyexposed to beer commereials perceivebeer drinkers as more adutf, fun tov"ing, young, friendly, and happy.Advertising may contribute to the'feeling that alcohol provides escape,researchers said, and more public ser-vice advertising showing the conse-quences .of drunk driving may helpreduce the effects of advertising onad61escents. I t n ^ also be helpful touse celebrities in Avarnings againstoverindulgence.A Handbook for Smilt BwkMMBy. Sandra LinvUte Dean. Guidebook de-wgned to? thb small t>min»s» ownerPag* 5in the 19806. Organized by general fore-casts, forecasts of industries and subjects,forecasting methodology, and referencesources. Entries include name of book orarticie. publisher, address, date of publica-tion, number of pages, and price. Publica-tions Office: Baker Library, Harvard Busi-ness School, Boston, MA 02163,68 pp., $5.plains the jargon and methods of buyingadvertising time and space, planning an ad. campaign and budget, media alternatives,and what to exp>ect when working with an adagency. Discusses public relations agenciesand madia reps. Enterprise Publishing Inc.,72SMar1(«t St., Wilmington, DE 19801, 198pp., $12.96.Businen Forecasting for the'1980s and BeyondCompiled by Lorna M. Daniels. Bibliog-raphy lists and abstracts 275 t>ooks and arti-cles published on business forecasting^^How-to Create and MarketaSuccessfuiBy Howard L. Shenson. Offers guidance orr .' marketing, pricing, promoting, and seiect-irtg seminars. Explains why some seminypresenters succeed and others f aH. 5eaWreia chapter on advertising and. setting, up an •*'.•_ad agency Describes how to select a t e s t -market and capitalize on future selling op-portunities. Everest House Publishers, 33 W.epthjSt., Nev York, NY 10023,180 pp., $27.to alcohol ads typically estimate thai-they consume jin average of about twodrinks more a week than people whot lightly <'vpf rorf tfViwty^Individuals with si heavy exposureto liquor ads tend to perceive whiskydrinkers as more friendly, happy, re-laxed, fun ldvlng, sophisticated, andViewpoint^Apperceptive ads let you dineon 'psychological smorgasborcF^BY HUMAYUN AKHTER, PhD Candldat*. IMveraHy of OklahomiM Norman . :and ANEES A. SHEIKH;-O<|»iririMwit of Psychology . :MarqiMtt* Univafslty, MHwaulaM__ ^ - ; ' ^ — .SUBUMINAL STIMULI, OR STIMUU BELOW the threshold ofperception, were used in 1957 in Fort Lee, N.J. by independent market-ing researcher Janies^Vicary to induce peopleto eat popcorn anddrink Coca-Cola in^anow-famous movie the-ater experiment. Everyseconds thefivesages "Eat popcorn"and "Drink Coca-Cola"alternatively wereflashed for .003 seconds. . ^ o n the screen. VicaryHumayunAkhter ^i^^^^ that sales ofpopcorn increased 57.5% as a result, and Coke sales increased 18.1%.The experiment created a considerable amount of public alarm, withpeople fearing such advertising would reduce them to automatons^. Thisform of advertising, variously was referred to as "the super-soft sell," the"invisible sell," and "the little ad that wasn't there."Several studies have been conducted to either repudiate or corrobo-rate the effectiveness of subliminal stimulation in itifluencing humanbehavior since Vicary's ex{>eriment. While a defmitive conclusion hasn'tbeen reached, advertisers have tried to inject subliminal techniques ofvarying degrees to influence customer's buying decisions. The result hasbeen a new form of advertising in wbich ads are replete with images,symbols, colors, words, and other cues that attempt to sway consumerswith vague stiriluli that are subject to vaiied interpretations.Such advertising is erroneously labeled as subliminal because all thestitiluli are presented above the threshold of perception, not below it.The most distinctive feature of these ads is the eqtiivocality of themessage. The message lends itself to multiple interpretations by themembers of the target audience. The more equivocal the message, thegreater the chances the audience members will rely on previous exjTe-'riences or expectation; to interpret and organize^eir impressions of themessager-— , • -""-— • , • • ;• \ : ' ;' "" • . j ^ _ , 'Princ^les.Practice.The students in your Principles of Market-ing course will need to know two things.They'lhtieed to know the four Ps andother marketing basics. And they'll heedto know how to use thesebasics as*tools to solveactual marketing problems.to know wliich text offersthe right marketing mix.Hard facts and hands-onknow-how. Sound princi-ples, plus lots of practiceapplying those principlesto "real life" situations.M^SMSi^  R u s s & Kirkpatr ick^MARKETING is all you need to know.It's the major new intro text that teachesproblem solving while it teaches princi-pies. It's extra-thorough... and it's alsoextra-heavy on "hands-on"features that really moti-vate students. Russ & ^ ^KjrlcpatncksIt's coming in January...so write for your com-plimentary copy todayto: Joan C. KellyLittle, Brown and CompanyCollege Division34 Beacdn Street -Boston, MA 02106^ /^  .For the Principles course,from Little, Brown.A BETTER DESCRIPTION OF SUCH MESSAGES would be"appercgjptive advertising." Apperception refers te ambiguous stimuliwhich are interpreted based on prior individual experiences. All theprojective^techniques described by psychologists deal with apperceptionroiigh the presefiiation^junstructured stimuli in tfce form of income,plete sentences, inkblo^, ambiguous pictures, and the like. Once it isrecognized that these ads are apperceptivein nature, there is a wealth ofliterature that can be tapped in the area of projective techniques thatadvertisers wouIdlTndrrelevant and profitable to peruse.— Advertisers want ads that will appeal to a broad spectrum of people.They want advertisements that are carefully designed fot a particular^population and leave people outside that group unaffected or evenrq)elled. Considerable psychological literature implies it is necessary tocreate dilTeienl stimulus situations to attract the attention oif differentindividuals. -SiiWT the stimuli in apperceptive advertising are primarily pictorialand ambiguous, they serve as a "psychological smorgasbord" in which__Jhe perceivers see what they are aet mentally to see. However, advertise-^ntients of this nature must be constructed with great areumspect^on.Care m^Sl be taken that the viewer's fancy does not run wikl and eniAeshhim or her In unpleasant themes that cause negativrfEelingsio beccimeassodated with the product'being advertised.We currently are exploring the possibility of developing "controlled"apperceptive advertisements. They would have the advantage of appeal-to an audience of widelv differioK bocksrounds. while beine sufli-"iSj^v^!^-• If you're impatient fofmore sales, talk to us.Saxton Communications has a proven systemto help you sell faster. • We custom-build amarketing campaign for you that's sleek andstreamlined. And aJLmuscle^tilo-nansen^V adS^istng: €hr-target promotion. Sales meetings andtrade shows packed with sales excitement. • A fully-intiigratedmarketing program specificalLy designed to accelerate your salesarKi profits. All p lann^ and executed for you under one roof by apros. • Vlfe fine-tune your program and putInto place. • Then we make It run. Just as fast as. it'll go. • W^ help you* • • • •p .^jrab every sale you can^et. • We do tt for many of the nation's biggestand nrast successful marketers.And we can dn it for younext time somebody tells you not to bAso impatient fof sales andprofits, call Michael Enzer at (212) 953-1300.impatience is a virtue.' * ' " fSAXTON COMMUNICATIONS GROUP. ITD.Bottom Line Marketing Communicationsciently structured to avoid eliciting uni , unpleacait} reactions. 605 mri /Nwnw. Hew Ylorfc. Wi Kn5B^21?) 9S3-130(Vl8leK SAXTOW WVK

Viewpoint Apperceptive Ads Let You Dine On ‘Psychological Smorgasbord’

https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1462&context=psych_fac

Viewpoint Apperceptive Ads Let You Dine On ‘Psychological Smorgasbord’

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