How Does Advertising Influence Us?

710 words | 3 page(s)

Patrick Rau, Pei-Luen, et al. “The influence of repetition and time pressure on effectiveness of mobile advertising messages.” Telematics and Informatics 31.3 (2014): 463-476.
The authors in this study indicated a couple of critically important factors. For one, advertising can help to add to the anxiety of a customer having to make a choice under time pressure. This means that advertising is sometimes not effective under that time pressure because it is viewed as a nuisance by consumers. Likewise, overly burdensome advertising can become a negative for consumers. In answering how advertising influences us as consumers, this study concludes that in some cases, it can cause aggravation and produce the exact oppose response than advertisers were originally looking for.

The authors are in this case are skilled researchers on human behavior, and they are seeking to provide information to people both for business purposes and for generally understanding how the human mind interacts. They have no real agenda, other than to expose the truth through scientific testing. Their work is supported by a solid research methodology, as the study’s conductors controlled for the proper factors and used a large enough sample size to be meaningful in this regard.

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This text ultimately adds some new dimensions to the debate, taking on not only what positive effects advertisers can have, but also the potential risks of advertising. It demonstrates that not all is necessarily positive when it comes to advertising.

Rozendaal, Esther, et al. “Children’s Responses to Advertising in Social Games.” Journal of Advertising 42.2-3 (2013): 142-154.
The study here demonstrated that when children are exposed to advertising through social games, it was a low critical attitude that made them more likely to be attracted to a brand. Likewise, this study noted that peer influence plays a major role in determining whether or not a person would want to purchase something from or remain loyal to a brand.

These authors are scholars in the field of advertising, and they are writing in a trade journal for other professionals in this particular field. What this means is that their research is neutral, and thus, can be trusted more than research with a clear bias. It is, however, written for a purpose, looking to give advertisers a view into the mind of young people. Because the work is supported by a study, the conclusions have sufficient backing. However, the conclusions do rely some on self-reporting from young subjects, which does weaken the work to some extent.

In terms of adding to the body of work on how advertising impacts people, this work shows that quite often, advertising is designed not to get a direct response, but rather, to make people want to do what their friends are doing. This demonstrates a potentially effective tactic for those advertisers who have a trend or product that is extremely popular. If the goal is to make sure that young people follow the crowd on an issue, then this can be very effective if the company’s product has already attracted a large following.

Burki, Talha Khan. “Selling hope: advertising and patient expectation.” The lancet oncology 15.8 (2014): 798.
This author writes that in some cases, advertising can be designed to give people hope. In certain settings, the purpose of advertising might be to activate the positive, optimistic parts of the human brain, allowing people to tap into positive emotions rather than the negative emotions that one might expect out of a given situation. Depending upon how the advertising message is presented, it will have either some or no positive influence on the hopefulness of the individual hearing the message.

The rhetorical situation in this case is somewhat unconventional. The author is writing from a medical perspective about advertising in the patient care realm. The stakes are higher, and the goals are different for advertisers in that realm when compared to the consumer realm. However, the messages about how advertising influences the brain can be applied across different areas, as it has cross-sectional application. The author’s study is empirically substantiated, which gives it significant power.

This adds to the body of research by applying these concepts in the patient realm rather than the consumer realm. It expands the body of research as a whole, making the conclusions more meaningful in the end.

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