It steals your soul in a good way. Usually.
Note: Really long ramble about psychology and advertising and random crap that spurned from the “1984″ commercial for the Mac. Only read it if you feel like absorbing my thoughts.
I had a great conversation with someone the other day about what’s missing with the new generation of marketing that’s evolved from traditional marketing/advertising. Many people view the new-ish marketing mediums as a quick way to engage users online, but they don’t really look behind the actual psyche and fundamentals of the company that’s being marketed or the people that are being marketed to. While the allure of “quick, flashy and fun” can be appealing and work to some extent, marketing and advertising will always come down to one key component- Psychology.
Enter… the rambling.
I’ll admit, I’ll always have a soft spot for great advertising or design that leverages emotions. It’s a bitch of an industry to work in, but the effect a strong advertisement or design has when executed correctly and ingeniously created is unbelievable. Great advertising campaigns- along with artwork, design, music, whatever it is- makes you feel. The ability to evoke raw emotion is something that is severely overlooked in our 2.0 generation and it’s hard to effectively generate that in 140 characters or less or with Facebook status updates. The message changes in microbites that feed to our attention span deprived generation. I mean sure, humor is the direction most people try to go because there’s really-funny, stupid-funny, and dumb-funny. There’s smart-funny and over-your-head-funny. There’s completely-off-topic-so-its-supposed-to-be-funny-and-cute-but-really-just-sucks funny. A funny for everyone. But funny doesn’t always do it.
Note: I won’t ever appreciate the jerks who made the ASPCA commercials with Sarah McLachlan. I don’t like the feeling of looking at sad little puppies who need homes and wanting to steal them all. It’s effective at mind f’ing you though.
It’s true that any “good” product can sell itself. Hell, just take a look at TV after midnight with all those damn infomercials. The sales person that’s selling the product and foaming at the mouth can certainly make us believe that at 2:30 in the morning there really is only 30 minutes left to call and get the 1/2 off special on a Snuggie, but I bet you 50 dollars they’re not the reason you’re going to actually buy that product. Even though infomercials are annoying, some of the products on there are kind of cool, and people do buy them. (Note: I have never purchased something from an infomercial.)
But let’s be real here. Who could resist the charm of the Billy Mays?
So yes, there is that kind of marketing (unfortunately) in this world. And it works and serves its purpose. Sort of. What really made you buy that product? Did it touch any kind of emotion inside of you? Or was it just one of our compulsive tendencies of human nature to buy something because it looks neat, and is cheap enough where if it sucks or breaks it wouldn’t really matter? I’m guessing the latter. Just because that method works, it doesn’t mean we should do it.
Late night advertisers aren’t reaching consumers who give a damn about the company behind the product, because the company behind the product really just cares about selling obscure objects late at night and making a cheap buck. Knowing who your current, and future consumers are and reaching them with a strong message is something that old school, traditional advertising and marketing agencies were good at before the whole social media thing and users with no attention spans were thrown into the mix. That kind of advertising is still around, don’t get me wrong, but some companies aren’t really harnessing the whole psychological thing.
Take Apple’s 1984 Macintosh ad. Yeah, I’m talking about the one with the lady who is dressed in the Hooter’s colors and running rampant with a sledgehammer.
One of the great things about Apple’s advertising is that they’ve always marketed to an audience who didn’t know they needed the product yet.
The late 1970′s to 1980′s was a time when the ‘hippie’ (for lack of a better word) sub-culture was still going strong and lots of people wanted to stick it to the man. The creation of personal computers had many people shying away from it’s uses- for whatever reason they considered the use of technology a betrayal of the lifestyle they fundamentally believed in. They felt like it was pushing them towards a Big Brother-esque environment where creativity and freedom was completely oppressed and suits were the normal.
While this may not send the same message to us now, because we’re a lot different as a society, this resonated strong in the era that it was launched. What I love about this ad is the fact that it’s weird and really off-beat. It’s not directly selling a product. It’s not pointing out features and telling you why you need it. Hell, it’s not even outwardly pitching the product that’s being sold until you get to the end. The Board for Apple hated the story board for this ad so much so, that they told the agency to sell back its to SuperBowl time slots because it was shitty. Steve Jobs thought the advertisement was genius, and the agency only ended up selling one time slot back because they believed the ad was going to be a killer. It’s a good thing they kept that one spot, because the whole audience watched in silence as the captivating atmosphere of 1984 blanketed the stadium.
This ad appealed to the raw emotions deep within the people and culture they were targeting. The steely metal and grays. The dim lights. The deep, ominous tones. The images of individuals marching in white, stuck in conformity with unblinking stares.
Drones.
Representing what they were trying so hard not to become on the outside. Angry, raging sledgehammer-girl representing their inner screams for freedom and fighting to keep all that was creative and different in this world around.
They played off the concept and paranoia of “Big Brother”, with David Graham’s booming voice chanting in the background, suppressing all individual thought. Pretty cult-esque. Side note: I need to stop using ‘esque…’
What this ad managed to do was speak to an audience that was blinded by the overtones of society and sold them on something they didn’t know they wanted by appealing to their emotions. They had no interest whatsoever in using this devil-machine but suddenly they felt as if this company was on their side. This company was a rebel just like them. They felt like the company understood them. And while die hard Apple fans can make me fear my life, you can’t deny that Apple did a good job of building a loyal following by fostering that feeling of wanting to be different, creative and free. Which is kind of ironic because everyone who is trying to be different is really the same. But I digress.
Their iPod advertising was so effective that legendary bands who had slow downs in sales over the years begged to be in them without getting paid. When they were featured, their sales skyrocketed because Apple was so effective at appealing to its audience that those same emotions were able to be projected onto the artist. They suddenly recaptured the hearts of old fans, and gained new fans that weren’t even born when they were around. That’s the power of marketing and advertising.
So back to my point. Because we’re so focused on the fun and flashy on the surface, we’re neglecting getting down into the nitty gritty of what makes people tick. Really evoking that raw emotion (whether that be happiness, loss, fear, comfort, uncertainty, love, hate… whatever) is something that is being slowly lost in translation. And I like that raw emotion.
