Advertising can sell you anything

By Carl O Wrighter

Like everyone else in this country, you are an advertising expert. Why not? You have been brought up with advertising. The first words you ever read were probably written on a billboard on the front of a box of cereal. The first sounds you ever heard were probably emanating from a radio or a television set. Before you knew who daddy was, you knew that Wheaties was the breakfast of champions. Before you could tell a Republican from a Democrat, you could tell a Bufferin from a plain aspirin. Naturally, you’re an advertising expert, and as such you know two things for sure.

First, you know what you like and what you don’t like. You know which commercials make you laugh, which ones make you giggle, which ones raise a lump in your throat, and which ones bore you to tears. In short, you react emotionally to each one of them, and are able instantly to identify these emotions. Indeed, advertising is the art form of the common man, making just about all of us react just about the same way, just about all the time. Preplanned? You bet it is. We know what will make you feel happy or sad or calm or mad. And we elicit those emotions from you through the highly skilled use of this art form called advertising. Yet, they are your emotions, your reactions, and you do know how you feel. And that makes you an expert.

The second thing you think you know for sure is the conscious decisions you make concerning products you see advertised. The chances are that you have never made a deliberate decision to buy a product based on an ad you have seen. As a matter of fact, I have heard only quotes to the contrary, ranging from ‘I would never buy a product that I have seen advertised’ to the more basic ‘Come on, who do they think they’re kidding? ’ Well, we’re not kidding anyone. It’s you who are kidding yourself. Because every day, in hundreds of ways, we are selling you products on a logical, intellectual, factual basis. And you are being persuaded.

There is a great mythology in America that advertising has, at best, a negligible influence on you. Nothing could be further from the truth. Today’s advertising industry is the most potent and powerful mass marketing and merchandising instrument ever devised by man.

The truth of it is, advertising can sell you anything.

Advertising tells you what to buy, how to buy, and why to buy any particular brand or product. The thing that amazes me is that it continues to work. You’d think that, after all these years of the same old line people would have become immune to it. But not so. You are continually hanged, drawn, and quartered by somebody’s commercial. So the real question is, how come? How come people keep believing? How come you keep buying things you know won’t do what they’re supposed to do? How come advertising works?

Several years ago a friend on mine was working on Pampers, the disposable diapers. Now, Pampers was so drastically different from anything else in its category that the agency decided to play it straight. They set up a legitimate test situation, and went about showing, without any tricks or gimmickry, that this product was clearly superior. Then they put the thing into a test market (a small area of the country in which Pampers also ran advertising) and the product proceeded to die. Flopped on its ass. Lay there like a dead mackerel. Within a few weeks the manufacturer was getting phone calls from the grocers and supermarket chains, demanding that the product be removed from the stores, as it was taking up valuable shelf space. The agency panicked, so they fell back on the old standby, the so-called ‘slice of life’ commercial. The all-knowing mother, the bumbling, insignificant father, and the bright but uniformed next-door neighbor. They did a commercial, and then showed it to a group of ladies. Well, the ladies laughed at it. ‘Nobody talks that way’, they said. ‘Do you think we’re stupid? ’ Guess what the punch line of this story is? The commercial went on the air, and the product went through the roof. Couldn’t make it fast enough. Within a matter of a few months, Pampers was responsible for more than 90 per cent of all sales in its category. Blame the advertising. Blame its effect on people. It contained, as a matter of fact, less information, less fact in the slice of life than in the straight, honest approach, yet everyone responded to it. Was it because the advertising was reflecting life, or changing life styles? Was it that the group of ladies lied; that, indeed, people really do talk that way? Probably it was a combination of all of them. The point is, people were affected, motivated to go out and buy something. That’s how deeply advertising affects us, and our lives. So the next time someone says to you, ‘Hey, you sound like a commercial’, don’t be alarmed. Don’t be surprised. You probably do.

From The Words you Need