In commercials and advertisements, the marketing committee’s main objective is to try and change the audience’s attitude towards a particular idea or product. According to the Elaboration Likelihood Model there are two routes to persuasion: central route and peripheral route. Majority of commercials are created in the peripheral route knowing that the audience may not always have the ability and motivation to listen to the message carefully, whereas the central route of persuasion deals with details and no distractions. Even though studies show that persuasion has longer effects through the central route, the main focus of advertisements are solely peripheral. Why is this?
It’s built for our multitasking society. America is always on the go. That’s why they invented soup at hand, go-gurt and drive -thrus. Rarely is our society free from any distractions, whether we are mothers, students, or workers, we are never focused on one take. Especially, where I am from. Everything happens in a New York minute (which is more like 30 seconds).
The average person is exposed to 300-400 advertisements per day. They are posted on bus stops, in newspapers and even in our bathroom stalls. Companies had to come up with a quicker way to get our attention and change our attitude, and with our current pace, the central route was not the way.
In the peripheral route we are more persuaded by other cues such as attractiveness and expertise. Our eyes are brought to bright colors and celebrities. We even are more likely to believe the statistics that “4 out of 5 doctors agree.”
Given that we see about 300-400 advertisements at day, you would think we would spend more money on useless crap but the fact that our persuasion is strictly peripheral, we might be persuaded at the moment to buy their product but we are more likely the to forget about it the next second.
So next time, you see an advertisement in the bathroom stall, take the time and ability to be pay attention and read carefully so you can make an informed decision after all what else do you have to do in there?
Despite all of the emphasis this course has placed on advertising, I still don't feel that ads ever really cause me to buy a product. More often than not ads seem to dictate which items I will avoid.
ReplyDeleteThe New York minute analogy really appeals to me as well. Your analysis is absolutely correct, and it definitely seems as thought advertisers need to both gain and keep our attention. It sort of feels as though our collective attention span has decreased over the years. Personally, I attribute this to the technological increases of the 21st century. These innovations have made information accessible near instantaneously, and we have grown accustomed to this pace.
ReplyDelete