In Euro, we were talking about how Freud and other philosophers of the late 19th Century believed that humans had a "Stream of Conscious", which basically means that we never truly focus on just one thing, but rather have many ideas in our head at one time. For example, while your reading this, you are probably also thinking about other things, like perhaps a possible comment you could make. We went on to talk about how this is sometimes used in advertising. In order to get your wandering attention, there are many advertisements that have almost nothing to do with the product but throw random things at you that you may later associate with their product. Is this an effective way of advertising? I know personally, many times when I see this type of advertising, I myself feel that it is ineffective because they're not really promoting their product. However, this type of advertising is not meant to be rational, but on the other hand, it is supposed to get at the irrationality of the human mind.
Thoughts?
(Arvind Kalidindi)
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3 comments:
I actually just saw a commercial on TV the other day that really made me wonder how all the family mushy gushy acting on screen related to the product at all. As a people, are we just getting smarter? Are we now able to root out the truth form the lies? I can't say that it's because we've read Hayakawa. I mean, my 11-year-old brother even points out ridiculous advertising.
The Stream of Consciousness has taken over our lives. Just imagine how far behind we'd fall if we only thought about one thing at a time. I think that Dr. Bjornstad was trying to explain to me that the book Ulysses was written to show man's inner dialogue and to reflect on how far we've become from typical hero stereotypes described in The Odyssey.
(Sam Maliha)
Well, the idea of using a stream of consciousness technique in novels and the sort is to replicate the normal thought process that humans undergo. After all, the nice neat narrative format doesn't really imitate how human minds think; our thoughts go all over time and space, disregarding order. It's a technique that has been used notably in Ulysses, as Dr. mentioned.
Regarding advertising, well, advertisers are trying the best they can to create something, anything, that will stick in our heads. It might not relate to the product directly, but as long as it is memorable, it's effective. Advertising works best when appealing to our emotions anyway, which is why we end up with ads that don't directly and logically relate to their subjects.
-Eric Wei
In some cases, it may be that advertising works the best when it's the most ridiculous because we notice it and remember it. We've probably all seen the Southwest commercials, "Wanna get away?" Really, what do embarassing moments have to do with a plane flight? But, the marketing technique is a valid and effective one. We remember the commercials not because we have an "aha" moment and realize that Southwest has the merits of the best airline agency, but because we can connect with the embarassed person, and the embarassed person is connected to Southwest.
Emily T.
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