Persuasive Advertising - J. Scott Armstrong [162]
Attractive visuals can gain attention. The ad should gain the attention of those looking for a given product. An irrelevant visual might cause them to skip past the ad. Attention is less important for advertising media that customers use to seek products, such as directories.
8.6.1. Consider using visuals that create favorable associations with the product
Ads that include images that the target market views favorably might lead customers to associate favorable feelings with the product. For example, animals and babies are often used to create favorable associations. On the negative side, highly favorable visuals might distract from the message. Hopkins said (1923), “Pictures should not be used merely because they are interesting. Or to attract attention.”
Saatchi & Saatchi, in developing a campaign for British Coal in 1988, realized that people already knew a lot about coal. They therefore decided to create a favorable association through the use of animals. Ind (1993) and Kanner (1999) described the campaign:
Take natural enemies such as a dog, cat, and mouse, and show them sitting together in front of a coal fire. One film maker said he could not make the idea work, another said it could only be done with special effects, and a third said he would have to use people dressed as animals. However, an unknown director, Tony Kaye, took it on. Forty cats and forty dogs were given screen tests. Those that were selected, a bulldog and a cat, lived together in a house prior to the filming so they became used to each other. Bulldogs have respiratory problems, so a fake fire was used. Fish paste was put behind the dog’s ear, so that when the cat walked in during the shoot, it immediately “kissed” the dog, then sat down beside him. The tricky part was the mouse. It was placed under a cup beside the cat. When the cup was removed, the confused cat and mouse went nose to nose, giving the impression of a kiss, before the mouse backed off. When the film was reversed, we see the mouse walking in and kissing the cat and then the cat kissing the dog. The final frame read, “Now you know what people see in a Real Fire.”
Today newspaper readers voted this British Coal ad their favorite in 1988. It had little apparent effect on the sales of coal, but it did seem to increase sales of bulldogs.
It is common for ads to focus on favorable associations in their efforts to create likeable ads. As you will see, there is little evidence to support this. My suggestion would be that the ad should employ favorable associations only when they enhance the message—e.g., beautiful scenery for travel ads.
Evidence on the effects of visuals with favorable associations
This principle rests heavily on received wisdom. Our small-sample analysis of quasi-experimental data on print ads does not support this principle. It is safe to say that further research is needed:
Print ads with favorable visuals had less recall. Our WAPB analysis found seven pairs of ads (six being for high-involvement products) where one ad had favorable visuals that were not related to the message, while the other had neutral images. Recall for ads with neutral images was 1.20 times more than for the ads with favorable illustrations.
8.7. Color for attention
Earlier I discussed the use of color to provide information. Here I discuss color that contains no information and is used simply to gain attention.
Procter & Gamble was one of the first U.S. companies to use color in advertising. It sent an advertising team to France to learn about four-color printing when the process became available in 1896. Because of technical problems and costs, however, the use of color grew slowly prior to the mid-1930s.
8.7.1. To gain attention, consider using color
Color can help to attract attention to an ad or to a section within an ad. An otherwise B&W ad might, for example, show the product in color. On the negative side, irrelevant colors might distract from a message.
Evidence on the effects of attention-getting color
In a lab experiment, 383 subjects were shown alternative