Touching Consumers,engaging the Senses in Consumption

ABSTRACT

For years, the Campbell's Soup Company advertised their brand of soup through a message of “Mmm, Mmm, Good.” This slogan reached mass audiences primarily through visual and auditory media messages of television and print. Campbell's recently switched to a new form of advertising to consumers through an IAd application. The format works through Apple iPhones by first showing an interactive ad teaser, “You're getting warmer,” then when clicked through asks consumers to download cooking applications individually to their iPhones. This shift represents a change in appealing to consumers' senses and social sensibilities. The former media approach appealed to a rational social sensibility and mass audiences of eating soup at home as an enjoyment shared with others. The latter iAd slogan and iPhones media approach appeals to a more tactile sense and individualistic sensibility. This article explores the particular confluence of social, sensory, and media factors that intersect with a marketed food brand, and discusses its implications for the way manufacturers mix and blend new sensory messages and mobile media channels to appeal to a new sensibility in people's changing eating habits.     

The Effect of Negative Campaign Advertising on Vote Choice: The Mediating Influence of Gender*

Objective. Some studies of negative campaign advertising's impact argue that a backlash or “boomerang effect” exists. However, the appropriate conceptualization of a boomerang effect might not be an immediate backlash against the sponsor but a delayed response that comes after repeated exposure to negative campaign advertisements. Method. We conducted an experiment using a variation of the pretest‐posttest control group design in which treatment groups were exposed to varying numbers of negative campaign advertisements. Results. There is a parabolic effect of repeated exposure to negative advertisements that is gender specific. Among women, the sponsor initially benefits from an enhanced image but suffers a decline in image when the voters become overexposed to negative advertisements. Conclusion. A reconceptualization of the “boomerang effect” of negative campaign advertising is in order.     

Gender Advertising: The Self- Fulfilling Prophecy?

The socialising role of advertising is discussed in the context of gender bias, and reference is made to studies analysing advertisements from various media. Policy considerations in regard to the regulation of gender advertising are discussed, with a review of the relevant Australian legislation. Alternative possibilities for reform in the area of sexist advertising are canvassed.     

“汽车梦”的社会建构:对《南方周末》（1998～2007）汽车广告内容的分析

今日中国,拥有汽车已成为大多数城市家庭幸福生活的一种理想。在“汽车梦”的社会建构过程中,作为一种消费意识形态的汽车广告在其中起了非常大的作用。本文以《南方周末》（1998～2007）为例,对近十年的汽车广告内容进行分析。文章认为,“个体享乐性想象认同”和“社会参照性成功认同”是汽车广告用来建构“汽车梦”的两个重要的“认同策略”,其影响作用远远超过了汽车广告中的“功用策略”,对广告内容分析的结果证明了本文所提出的研究假设。文章最后对“汽车梦”为什么在近十年得到极力建构的社会根源进行了探讨,并对其所带来的潜在的社会后果进行了深刻的反思。

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“汽车梦”的社会建构 对《南方周末》(1998～2007)汽车广告内容的分析

今日中国,拥有汽车已成为大多数城市家庭幸福生活的一种理想.在"汽车梦"的社会建构过程中,作为一种消费意识形态的汽车广告在其中起了非常大的作用.本文以<南方周末>(1998～2007)为例,对近十年的汽车广告内容进行分析.文章认为,"个体享乐性想象认同"和"社会参照性成功认同"是汽车广告用来建构"汽车梦"的两个重要的"认同策略",其影响作用远远超过了汽车广告中的"功用策略",对广告内容分析的结果证明了本文所提出的研究假设.文章最后对"汽车梦"为什么在近十年得到极力建构的社会根源进行了探讨,并对其所带来的潜在的社会后果进行了深刻的反思.     

试论消极修辞手段在广告语言中的运用

丰富多彩的消极修辞手段的运用,对于广告的成功起着决定性的作用。广告语言是一种诉诸听觉的语言,语音形式的选择加工是广告语言所需要处理的首要问题。相同、相近的音节结构或相同、相近的韵母的使用,洪音、细音的调配,相同音节结构的重叠等等是广告语言语音形式加工的主要内容。成功的广告语言无不重视词语的精当运用。词语的选用既体现在同义词语的抉择上,也体现在多义词语、同音词语的选用上。广告语言往往以超乎寻常语法规范的形式来运作,突破语法规范主要表现在词语的超常配搭、拓展词的语法功能和句式的变化三个方面。汉语言永远是中国广告最肥沃的土壤。     

Political opinion leadership and advertisement attitude: The moderating roles of cognitive and affective responses to political messages

Political opinion leadership is a type of viewer involvement measure that may be relevant to predicting the viewer's attitude toward an advertisement with political content. This study was designed to investigate if cognitive and affective responses to political messages in fashion advertisements play any moderating roles in the relationship between political opinion leadership and advertisement attitude. The results suggest that effectiveness of political content in the advertisement for politically involved consumers may be determined by how clearly the message is communicated to the viewers. Discussions were also made as to the distinction between textual and pictorial messages and to how the viewer's recognition of a pictorial message can be a factor affecting the impact of political opinion leadership on attitude toward advertisement with political content.     

The effects of loss aversion on deceptive advertising policies

We extend the deceptive advertising model of Piccolo et al. (RAND J Econ 46(3):611–624, 2015) to a framework in which consumers may be loss averse. There are two sellers, competing on prices and offering experience goods with some differences in quality. Prospective customers may be harmed by deceptive advertising: a marketing practice that can induce them to make bad purchases. We show that although deceptive advertising occurs depending on the degree of consumers’ loss aversion, this behavioral bias does not reflect on firms’ prices. Nevertheless, the presence of loss-averse consumers crucially changes the optimal deterrence rule that a Public Authority should adopt against false claims and misleading advertising. Unlike Piccolo et al. (2015), in this more general model, strong enforcements may improve the buyer welfare according to the degree of loss aversion.

     

“It's hard work,believe me!”: Active efforts to optimise housing by people who live with mental illness and access housing assistance

Secure and appropriate housing is critical for the well‐being of people living with mental illness (consumers). Yet it is often difficult to achieve. Housing assistance is available, but is often difficult for consumers to access and negotiate. While the need for support is well‐recognised, little is known about the active part consumers play in finding and keeping appropriate accommodation. This paper addresses the research question: How do consumers who use housing assistance actively manage their housing situations? In‐depth interviews were conducted with 18 consumers who had used housing assistance within the past five years. These were analysed using constant comparative analysis, based on a grounded theory approach. Participants engaged in a range of activities to address six major concerns: working toward my home; following the rules to keep what I have; managing and improving my accommodation; working with housing services; living within my current situation; and finding and using supports. All participants described times when their mental health negatively affected their ability to do these activities. The findings highlight the need for housing services and mental health services to collaborate to develop policies and protocols that place reasonable demands on consumers and support their abilities to actively manage their housing situations.     

The Impact of Clique Membership on Children's Social Behavior and Status Nominations

The impact of children's clique membership on their peer nominations for social behaviors and status was examined in a sample of 455 third‐ through fifth‐grade children. Social identity theory (SIT) and children's peer group affiliation and context served as primary conceptual frameworks for this investigation. As suggested by SIT, results indicated that children displayed favorable views toward their own cliquemates, nominating cliquemates more often for positive characteristics (e.g., prosocial, cool) and high status indicators (like‐most, most‐popular) than for negative characteristics (e.g., aggression) and low status indicators (like‐least, least‐popular). At the same time, children's views toward their cliquemates were commensurate with the clique's normative reputations as determined by the broader peer group (i.e., grade). This suggests that children's perceptions toward their cliquemates, albeit favorable, are also regulated by the overall clique context. Meaningful gender and grade effects on children's cliquemate nomination patterns were found. Findings also were discussed regarding the impact of clique size on a peer‐based assessment of social reputations and status.     

Radio and Advertising in Colombia

Over the last few decades radio has becomeone of the primary means of mass communication in Latin America, able to reach euen the remotest rural populations because of the transistor. Colombia, where ninety-one percent of the homes in the seven largest cities have at least one radio, has also been heavily impacted by this modern technological phenomenon, Elssy Bonilla de Ramos focuses on radio advertising as a means of characterizing the relationship between radio and the Colombian economic sector. She argues that private companies who own most of the country's stations and networks influence programming and advertising in order to widely promote products which they produce. She believes that in many cases these products are not necessary to the consumers'well-being but are advertised in a way to make them more desirable. The authorgives a brief history of commercial radio in Colombia during the last fifty years, stating that early in its development programming underwent significant changes in order to capture an expanded audience. Comedy, sports, news, soap operas, classical and popular music, and quiz shows soon dominated the airways to the exclusion of programming that could play a role in the political, social and economic development of the country. She contends that industries that owned radio were intent on training for consumption and she uses a week's sample of programming and advertising to illustrate her point.     

Selective exposure to partisan media: Moderating factors in evaluations of the president

The conditions in which moderating factors – media trust, mediabias, and political ideology – increase or limit the approval ratings of a politician in a partisan media environment were investigated using data obtained from the 2010 Pew survey. The findings show that media trust and media bias intensify negative presidential evaluations among consumers of conservative news programs, whereas these factors do not influence presidential approval among consumers of liberal news programs. The findings also reveal that conservatives tend to choose to be exposed to news messages that are congenial to their ideological orientations, while liberals select a more balanced diet of news messages. This study proposes that moderating factors have different effects on conservative and liberal news consumers.     

Celebrity and politics: Effects of endorser credibility and sex on voter attitudes,perceptions, and behaviors

While much research examines the effects of celebrity endorsements in commercial advertising, scholars have only recently sought to investigate the effects of celebrity endorsements of politicians on voter perceptions and behavior. This study expands existing research on celebrity political endorsement effects via an experiment exploring effects of different versions of a news story describing a celebrity's endorsement of a political candidate on participants’ voting attitudes, perceptions of candidate credibility, and voting behavioral intent. Although participants perceive credibility differences between high- and low-credibility celebrities, neither endorser credibility nor endorser sex impact attitudes toward the endorsed candidate, perceptions of the candidate's credibility, or intended voting behavior. Conceptual relationships to other studies on celebrity endorsement effects are discussed, as are implications, limitations, and directions for future research.     

Teenagers' Multisensory Routes for Learning in the Museum

ABSTRACT

In this article I draw on a study of sensory aspects of teenagers' use of digital media, how these sensory aspects are incorporated in emerging learning strategies, and the implications of this for the same teenagers' engagement in museums. My focus is on how an ethnographic approach that attends to the senses may enable a critical review of prevailing pedagogical ideas in museums. Recent developments in museum education have led to large investments in state-of-the-art technology to produce interactive, multisensory exhibits. However, the question of how teenagers respond to these campaigns remains rather under-researched. This article shows how habitual use of digital media in teenage everyday practice incorporates learning to appropriate other people's experiences and ideas through a configuration of vision, touch, motion, and imagination, thereby enhancing non-representational learning qualities such as affect and sensation. The implications of this sensory approach open up routes to differentiate pedagogical settings in museums that on a superficial level apply the same educational technologies, but since they are based in different sensorial belief systems, different conditions for learning unfold in their use. In developing this analysis I argue that through ethnographic attention to the senses we might advance theories of learning within museum education.     

Public Attitudes Toward the Census: Influences and Trends*

Objective. This article considers the determinants of attitudes toward the census. Methods. Data from a survey of Connecticut residents are analyzed. Some of the questions replicate items from previous national surveys. Results. Conservatives and people with low trust in government have more negative views of the census, while interest in politics has no effect. Exposure to advertising has a positive effect on some attitudes. Conclusions. Despite the Census Bureau's efforts to maintain political neutrality, support of the census is influenced by general outlook on government and politics, suggesting that conflicts over the census are likely to continue.     

Your lying,incompetent and selfish member of Congress: Cynical appeals in U.S. Senate advertising

Scholars still do not fully understand what activates cynicism in citizens. Although many expect that negative campaigning contributes to this, no consistent evidence has been found. This research introduces a new measure of appeals to cynicism that expands the commonly used positive–negative taxonomy of tone in advertising. Through a content analyses of more than 600 political advertisements aired during U.S. Senate elections, we identify the extent to which candidates use cynical appeals and the conditions under which these are used. We find that appeals to cynicism are common, are distinct from negative appeals, and that most often, ad sponsors target opponents with cynical appeals, describing them as selfish, dishonest and incompetent. Cynicism appears to be a central part of American campaign rhetoric, used by all sorts of candidates, regardless of party, in many different situations. The prevalence of appeals to cynicism may help explain rising cynicism among the public.     

A space for safety: the transformation of automobile safety advertising in response to NHTSA crash test implementation, 1977 and 1981

Automobile safety became an issue of increased public concern during the 1960s. These concerns were institutionalized in the creation of a national regulatory administration charged with overseeing automobile safety. This article examines the impact of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s 1979 mandated federal automobile crash testing program (FMVSS 208) on the content of automakers’ advertising. Automakers’ advertisements were not directly responsive to mandated safety testing, though references to safety features increased.     

Pluralistic media ignorance: Presence and causes

This study examines the presence and causes of pluralistic media ignorance - incorrect estimation of media content in a way that creates the impression that popular broadcasting is overabundant with morally controversial material. Using the appearance of sexual content in television advertising in Israel as a case study, we compare survey estimates (N = 305) of the prevalence of this material with its actual level according to the findings of a content analysis of commercials (N = 752). Pluralistic media ignorance emerges as a predominant norm, when viewers are requested to estimate the prevalence of “soft core” content like kissing and partial nudity, but it is a minor phenomenon, when estimating the share of more explicit material such as intercourse, homosexuality and rape. The most prominent predictors of pluralistic media ignorance are disapproval of the inclusion of objectionable content in popular media and extended recall of media exemplars that contain such content. Religiosity, ethnicity and sex are only partly predicting the emergence of pluralistic media ignorance. Media consumption, fear of media influence and other demographics are not predicting it at all. Public policy implications are discussed and suggestions for future research are given.     

A political-economic theory of relevance: Explaining climate change inaction

Why have societies failed to effectively respond to climate change? We address the question of climate change inaction by (1) examining how an unambiguously ominous report about climate change (IPCC 2018) was made palatable by news media and (2) explaining why climate change is typically unthematized in everyday life. Drawing on Adorno and Schutz, we develop a political-economic theory of relevance. The imperative to accumulate capital is not only a social-structural reality but also shapes why particular facts are regarded as relevant in experience (topical relevance) as well as how relevant material is interpreted (interpretative relevance) and acted toward (motivational relevance). Applying this framework, we (1) argue that media popularizations of the IPCC's dire Global Warming of 1.5°C (2018) are constituted by relevance systems conditioned by a capitalist social context and (2) strengthen Ollinaho's (2016) Schutzian explanation for climate change inaction by examining how productive relations and the culture industry perpetuate climate change irrelevance in everyday life. Schutz's framework helps conceptualize the intricacies of ideology and, when revised with Adorno's sociology, shines new light on an old question: the relations between social conditions and knowledge.