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Isherwood  ·  2352 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Ads Don't Work That Way

This article feels like a big ol stack of false premises. I think ads can appeal to emotion, but that doesn't mean they're incepting an emotion. Take disney for example - they aren't talking to customers who have never experienced a disney product before, they are talking to customers who have had a good experience with disney before. They aren't telling people how to feel, they're reminding people how they felt.

As for the second section quoted - that process actually works for a lot of people. It's very common for people to tape pictures of their goals to their morning mirror as a motivator. You might be more familiar with a much more common version of this tactic - people keeping pictures of their kids on their desks at work. But once again, this technique is to an emotional appeal that was already within the person.

Advertising is a part of marketing - and good marketing is aware of how a product is viewed in a market. The marketer then makes advertisements to play up the product's strength while downplaying the weakness. If the product's strength is an emotional association - like Coke, which is largely consumed by kids, outside the home, on special outings - then a good marketer will play to that strength.

But all that aside, this is all just one strategy in a huge sea of advertising strategies. The premise that advertising works in one way is like saying all stories are dramas, the funny ones are just very bad dramas.

The article feels overly complicating and overly simplifying at the same time. Ugh, I've gotten myself flustered.