Ads Gettin' all Emotional

A recent article by Michelle Williams of the Minnesota Daily urges voters to be aware of the emotional appeals in the upcoming election.

"We can’t keep letting politicians treat us like horses in blinders, seeing only what they direct us to see. There is much more to a political platform than a religion. There’s more to a voter than their tax bracket." - Williams

She is urging Americans to see past their emotional pleas for votes, but what I took out of the article is that emotional appeals are effective (even if it is taking a sort of 'brain-washing' approach to the topic). So what is it exactly that make emotional appeals effective? I, myself, do not find a lot of joy in discussing politics so instead let's turn the investigation to a more exciting topic- advertising.

Emotional appeals are something that I've learned about in almost every communication course I've taken at NDSU. To save on tuition costs, Ads of the World breaks emotional appeals down nicely as either:

• Personal (Safety, Fear, Love, Humor, Nostalgia, Excitement, Grief, Pride, etc.)
  
• Social (Recognition, Status, Respect, Involvement, Approval, etc.)

As you can see emotional appeals encompass a vast range of feelings- feelings that companies rely on to sell their products and services.


It takes McDonnell Hayes less than three minutes to show why emotional appeals work in this video.

Yes, emotional appeals tug at your heart strings in some way and get you to in turn like the So let's look at a few brands that do emotional appeals best.

Humor

I don't always enjoy laughing. But when I do, I prefer to do it while watching Dos Equis commercials. Ok, so I don't think I have actually ever 'LOLed' at these ads. But I do find their wit humorous.

Nostalgia

The classic example of nostalgia is Campbell's Soup. It may be worn out at this point, but you show me a more popular brand that is able to successfully run a commercial that was shot in the 1980's.

Fear

"That's Allstate's Stand" Yes, stan-D not Stan. I was just as shocked when I first found out. But Allstate used fear appeals in there ads once they signed Dennis Haysbert in 2003. The thought of crashing, or being in a difficult situation sold to some consumers. Lately, Allstate seems to have mixed in a little humor along with the fear.

Status

I'm sure I will never be one of the members of the Bentley community, and by community I mean gated. Some of their ads show their status a little more aggressively than others.

Obviously emotional appeals can be seen in almost every ad in some way- whether or not the brand was trying to convey that emotion to its consumers or not. So next time you buy a product, think about why you are buying it. If you don't know why, well I'm guessing advertisers still got the best of you. The best advertising is when you don't even realize it.