DailyDirt: Studying Advertising As A Science...?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Mon, Sep 12th 2011 5:00pm — Michael Ho

There's a quote attributed to John Wanamaker that goes: "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half." Marketing analytics is getting better all the time, but it's still pretty hard to pin down what really works. (At least the traveling salesman problem has a brute force approach!) Here are just a few interesting links about advertising.

Sex sells. Here's a project that aims to prove it by advertising to monkeys. Photoshopping the ideal female monkey form must be a pretty weird job... [url]
There's some research that suggests that the special status of fine art could be lost if used in advertising carelessly. Yah, like when I first heard The Beatles' Revolution in a Nike commercial. [url]
Authenticity is important -- even to a Nazi. Psychologist Paul Bloom talks about how we're all essentialists at TED and mentions how kids could think veggies are tastier if they're included in a Happy Meal. [url]
To discover more interesting advertising-related content, check out what's floating around on StumbleUpon. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: ads, art, authenticity, john wanamaker, marketing, monkeys
Companies: mcdonald's, nike

7 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it

stephon, 12 Sep 2011 @ 8:24pm

advertising
Advertising has become a complex area. Companies spend millions every year on advertising and they make back the money most of the time.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Chris Rhodes (profile), 12 Sep 2011 @ 8:50pm

Thanks For This
I love TED presentations, and the previous one on monkeys and money is one of my favorites, so I can't wait to see the results of the new study.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Frost (profile), 12 Sep 2011 @ 9:26pm

Isn't anyone else concerned?
We're literally using science and employing very capable people to figure out how to brainwash people into buying more crap they don't need, in a world where we're already conspicuously consuming our species to death (literally), filling landfills with cheap garbage that people are then brainwashed into buying again as cheap crap that breaks within months in many cases, is put into the next landfill and bought yet again? This should not be a focus for us, for crying out loud; the focus should be on how do we reshape society so that this organized brainwashing becomes nonsensical and people get the stuff they need instead of the stuff the manufacturers want to sell just so they can turn a bigger profit.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Michael Ho (profile), 12 Sep 2011 @ 10:31pm

Re: Isn't anyone else concerned?
Frost.. I think the solution, then, is to somehow make it profitable to use scientific-brainwashing to achieve the more practical and sustainable/productive goals that you have in mind! :P

Imagine if marketing could get people to develop renewable energy sources and make healthcare affordable...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Frost (profile), 12 Sep 2011 @ 11:56pm

Re: Re: Isn't anyone else concerned?
I think we have to get people to stop trying to think about everything in monetary terms. Nothing is expensive or cheap in the real world - it just uses resources, energy and work, and the two areas aren't more than slightly related these days. Healthcare as well isn't expensive or affordable - it just uses resources, energy and work.

When it becomes "expensive" is when it is handled via a money-based system and then abused by every step in the current chain to suck so-called "profit" out of it, as well as overcompensating some people and organizations with obscene resource overabundances. It is also the most "expensive" in the US which has for-profit care, and the least "expensive" in nations where it is paid for via taxation... where the focus is on "good service for minimum cost" rather than "maximum profit for minimum service".

But yeah - the money indoctrination runs so deep it's hard to even argue about things without bringing up words like "affordable" that really have very little meaning.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Chris Rhodes (profile), 13 Sep 2011 @ 7:43am

Re: Isn't anyone else concerned?
We're literally using science and employing very capable people to figure out how to brainwash people into buying more crap they don't need

Err, how do you know the focus isn't on figuring out what makes people tick, so you can more easily fight those influences?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Chris Rhodes (profile), 13 Sep 2011 @ 7:59am

Re: Isn't anyone else concerned?
filling landfills with cheap garbage [...] how do we reshape society so that this organized brainwashing becomes nonsensical and people get the stuff they need instead of the stuff the manufacturers want to sell just so they can turn a bigger profit

Err, the companies produce what people want. Take refrigerators, for example. Today's refrigerators don't last nearly as long as older ones, which were built like a tank. Is this an example of companies putting profits ahead of customers? Not really. If you look at the price of fridges over time, it hasn't increased that much, and if you account for inflation, that built-like-a-tank fridge would cost over $9,000 dollars in today's money.

People have decided they would rather have a cheaply-built fridge for $700 then a last-forever fridge for $9,000. The fridge-makers comply. Don't blame companies for giving consumers what they want.

When you go shopping for airline tickets, sort by cheapest price, and then purchase the most inexpensive ticket on the list, you're telling airline companies what you value most: price. So don't complain when the airline charges for every snack.

Companies respond to the most purely democratic vote that you and I cast, the vote of what to buy with our dollar. If you want to change something, go explain to people why they should opt for a sturdy fridge instead of a new car. If you convince enough people, the companies will come around too.

Good luck with that.
[ link to this | view in thread ]