{"id":123,"date":"2013-04-24T14:40:31","date_gmt":"2013-04-24T18:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/?p=123"},"modified":"2020-02-07T09:20:37","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T14:20:37","slug":"violence-and-sex-for-greater-recall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/2013\/04\/24\/violence-and-sex-for-greater-recall\/","title":{"rendered":"Violence and Sex for Greater Recall"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In today\u2019s digital world, advertising agencies are constantly trying to develop new campaign strategies for promoting a company\u2019s product. The essential goal is to embed that product into consumers\u2019 minds so that they will eventually buy the item. Due to successful advertising campaigns, we are all familiar with the Geico gecko and Flo from progressive (it is a love-hate relationship with Flo, to say the least). Consumer behavior relies on the buyers\u2019 memory processes and the abilities of the buyers to remember the product they perceived via advertisements. In television advertisements, specifically, strategists and designers must consider several things when designing commercials presented between shows. Not only must strategists and designers successfully convey the details of their particular product, but companies must also keep their audience interested so that they will attend to the commercial. Without attending to the commercial, people will be less likely to remember the item shown on-screen.<\/p>\n

Advertising agencies have implemented all sorts of strategies for their commercials. One study, by Ferguson and colleagues, examined the usage of violence and sex as a strategy in television commercials. Violence and sex in commercials has been a controversial issue, to say the least – just take a look at this commercial from GoDaddy that the company tried to air during the 2005 Superbowl: http:\/\/goo.gl\/ZgUIt<\/a>. FOX network decided against airing this commercial, which referenced Janet Jackson\u2019s wardrobe malfunction incident, for as you can see it is quite inappropriate for many viewers. If you are seeing that commercial for the first time, you must be shocked that a company would attempt to use such advertising tactics on national television. Although the use of violence and sex in commercials quite a debate, there may actually be some benefit to using violence and\/or sexual content in commercials as a way to increase brand recall.<\/p>\n

Ferguson et al. investigated whether or not the television show prior to commercials had any impact on the memory for commercials and motivation to buy the products, or if the violence and sex in the commercials themselves were the main factors in increasing memory for brand recall. The study included 212 college students who were instructed to watch either a violent, sexual, combined sexual and violent, or neutral television show. Embedded within the show were 12 commercials promoting today\u2019s well-known brands (see tables below for the violent and sexual ads); four violent, four sexual, and four neutral commercials were presented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Brands with Violent Commercials<\/b><\/td>\nTake a look at example ads from these brands!<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Nike<\/td>\nhttp:\/\/goo.gl\/HQBzS <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Reebok<\/td>\nhttp:\/\/goo.gl\/2f9DZ<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
John West Salmon<\/td>\nhttp:\/\/goo.gl\/mXEv3<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Federal Express<\/td>\nhttp:\/\/goo.gl\/tU1t9<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Sexual Commercials<\/b><\/td>\nTake a look at example from these brands!<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Victoria\u2019s Secret<\/td>\nhttp:\/\/goo.gl\/Kfi2W<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bud Light<\/td>\nhttp:\/\/goo.gl\/RiEyz<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Axe<\/td>\nhttp:\/\/goo.gl\/IT4U8<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Microsoft Office XP<\/td>\nhttp:\/\/goo.gl\/viBAv<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Following the viewing session, participants were then asked to recall as many of those commercials as they could remember, as well as rate on a 5-point scale how likely they were to buy those products in the remembered commercials in the future. Ferguson et al. observed that the type of television show presented did not influence memory for commercials or willingness to purchase the advertised products. The study revealed a significant association with commercial content and memory of the commercial. Participants were more likely to remember the commercials if they contained violent or sexual material (to test this yourself, which commercials do you remember watching from the links above?). The willingness to buy the material at the time of testing was not impacted by the content in the commercial.<\/p>\n

Although there was not a major difference in recall between violent and\/or sexual and neutral commercials, the results still indicate an important association that advertising companies want to take advantage of. While the study indicated minimal influence of the commercial\u2019s content to the willingness to buy the product at that time, it must be kept in mind that companies ultimately hope to familiarize the product in your memory first. Through attending to these commercials and increasing memory for these brand names, advertising agencies are one step closer to greater sales of their products. Considering the controversial nature of sex and violence, hopefully advertising agencies reach alternative methods of strategy for marketing!<\/p>\n

Ferguson, C. J., Cruz, A. M., Martinez, D., Rueda, S. M., & Ferguson, D. E. (2010). Violence and sex as advertising strategies in television commercials. European Psychologist, 15<\/i>(4), 304-311. doi:10.1027\/1016-9040\/a000016<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In today\u2019s digital world, advertising agencies are constantly trying to develop new campaign strategies for promoting a company\u2019s product. The essential goal is to embed that product into consumers\u2019 minds so that they will eventually buy the item. Due to successful advertising campaigns, we are all familiar with the Geico gecko and Flo from progressive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4720,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[80215],"tags":[129795,54559],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4720"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5414,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions\/5414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}