How do adverts emotionally manipulate us into

buying products?
1.)Sexual imagery If we see images that show some
skin our bodys natural response is to release
hormones and our subconscious will link this positive
feeling to the product thats being advertised. This is
the reason why adverts show slightly sexual images
even though the product has nothing to do with it.
2.) Cause marketing The adverts link the product to
help a better cause. For example Galaxy Chocolate
has partnered with global AIDS charity (Red) aiming
to raise 750,000 to help prevent the transmission of
HIV from mothers to their babies. However as the pie
charts of the American NFL Breast Cancer Awareness
Merchandise depicts, that only a very little
percentage goes to the people that actually need the
help and it is only another marketing tool to generate
profit.

3.)They use our insecurity about the way we look

Advert (especially of beauty products) define how a
women or a men should look like. For example
encouraging women to look like those perfect
looking Victoria Secret models or men like the
models on the front cover of Mens Health.
They make us feel inadequate and persuade us that
we won t be attractive in the eyes of the opposite
gender if we dont look as perfect as the models on
pictures. Therefore they pomise us we will look like
the models if we buy their product.
Health.https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=iYhCn0jf46U

4.) Adverts confuse us with scientific-sounding high

order lexis (jargon), fake-statistics or making claims about
a product that are not actually true to make us believe
their product is the best on the market. For example in
2012, Nokia released an advert for their new Lumia phone
where their the phone could take better pictures and
videos with the OIS technology. However it turned out that
the advert was a fake and Nokia only responded by stating
the advert showed a simulation of what was possible, not
actual footage of the phone's OIS capability. 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbF7TgX9gy8
5.)
People prefer realistic adverts. Therefore
nowadays adverts became more amateurish and less
scripted. Also they tend to use everyday real
people.
6.)
Adverts also manipulate us by creating new
needs and trends. For example 120 years ago no one
among the average women cared if they had dirty
hair. However during the 20th Century adverts
changed womens hygenical trends by persuading
them that shiny and clean hair is essential in a real
womans life.
7.)
They use social media like Facebook, to pop up
in our everyday life. This is quite successful because
it is a more personal way of products trying to
approach us (also it is a much cheaper advertisement
than television advertisement).
Adverts also attempt to alter our mood and
perception2 by manipulating us through our senses.
However according to Martin Lindstroms book Brand
1 http://www.cracked.com/article_19485_5-outrageous-liescompanies-are-legally-allowed-to-tell-you.html
2 http://disinfo.com/2012/08/how-advertisers-manipulate-usthrough-scent-and-sound/

Sense, some 83% of marketing budgets are focused

on the eyes3. Smell and sound are an addition to
visual tools like television adverts or posters. For
example:
8.)
Adverts use of colors because we associate
different type of colors with different emotions.
Brands convey with the help of colors their main
features. For example blue stands for trust, integrity
and communication 4. Therefore many social
networks like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn uses blue.
9.)
They can also influence us with powerful
scents5 that trigger an emotion in our brain.
Therefore brands use smell to manipulate our
emotions in association that we link to a brand. (The
sense of smell, has a direct connection to the
emotional brain, unlike the other senses, according
to Andreas Keller, research associate at The
Rockefeller University.) 6 Brands Abercrombie & Fitch
stores are well known for the unique smell of their
stores.
http://www.shopify.com/blog/14193377-how-retailersmanipulate-sight-smell-and-sound-to-triggerpurchase-behavior-in-consumers
http://www.cracked.com/article_19485_5-outrageouslies-companies-are-legally-allowed-to-tell-you.html
http://news.distractify.com/culture/ways-advertisersmanipulate-us-into-buying-their-products/
10.) Three quarters of the adverts use music
3 http://disinfo.com/2012/08/how-advertisers-manipulate-usthrough-scent-and-sound/
4 http://www.businessinsider.com/branding-and-the-psychology-ofcolor-2012-12?op=1&IR=T
5 http://news.distractify.com/culture/ways-advertisers-manipulateus-into-buying-their-products/
6 http://disinfo.com/2012/08/how-advertisers-manipulate-usthrough-scent-and-sound/

to serve the overall promotional goals in one or more

of several capacities. There are six basic ways in
which music can contribute to an effective broadcast
advertisement:
Entertainment, (good music can contribute to
the effectiveness of an advertisement merely by
making it more attractive. Good music can
contribute to the effectiveness of an
advertisement merely by making it more
attractive.)
Structure/continuity (good music can contribute
to the effectiveness of an advertisement merely
by making it more attractive.),
Memorability
Lyrical language
Targeting
Authority establishment.
http://www.musiccog.ohiostate.edu/Huron/Publications/huron.advertising.text.h
tml
10.)
Adverts try to distract us with cute thing like
babies, children or pets. Cute things can win peoples
heart more easily, thereby it is easier for the advert
to manipulate people into buying a product and stay
more memorable.
11.)
Adverts try to cover with humour if the product
is generally bad for the audience to consume and
therefore companies have no positive reasons why
consumer should buy it. For instance junk foods like
Skittles or Doritos are very unhealthy for people.
Humour also helps to grab peoples attention and
make adverts memorable.
12.)
Sometimes adverts try to bring back the
feelings of the good old days for example David
Hasselhoff Thirsty for Love Cumberland Farm:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH7INQHTglc. Bringing
back the good old memoires is likely to bee hugely
successful among an elderly target audience.

13.)
To sell products more easily adverts use a timelimit, in other words the offer ends soon so
consumers should hurry up buying it. This is usually a
successful tactic because it puts people under a
great emotional pressure as nobody wants to loose
out on a great offer. Therefore limited time
availability can manipulate people quicker into
buying products. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=jHocwJII8iI
14.)
Apparently if we watch the same channel for 3
hours we will probably see the same advert ten
times. This is called the 3/7/27 Branding strategy
which says that seeing something 3 times make us
realise a product exists, seeing it for another 7 times
make us associate the advert with a product and
seeing it for another 27 times make us trust and
believe the advert. Therefore adverts are repeated to
burn the image of the product in to our mind.
They make the products look breath taking and
amazing on screen even though they dont look that
good in real life at all.

15.)