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The little girl in this commercial is so annoying! It makes me never want AT&T! But I think these commercials get me too cause I always look for the bars in them.

Oh my god I laughed so hard when he punched the koala bear! This commercial is hilarious!

First of all I want to talk about why humor is used so much in commercials. Many of the commercials students chose for class were humorous. The reason for this is most likely that we like to watch these humorous commercials more than once and we seem to remember at the least the commercial better, but not necessarily the product. One very important aspect of memory is the role of attention. As someone mentioned in class, things that are humorous are usually things that are odd or surprising. Therefore, these commercials will get our selective attention from others in the room or other activities we are doing while watching TV and also keep us from switching the channel.

This commercial specifically had some interesting aspects of memory besides humor to get their audience to remember the commercial. As opposed to radio ads, commercials use visual imagery to get us to remember the commercial. In addition, these visual images and sounds are repeated multiple times throughout this commercial. Repetition and rehearsal are vital to transferring information from short term into long term memory. This commercial uses both humor and rehearsal to get you to remember their commercial.

One problem is that you may remember all this hilarious imagery, but not remember careerbuilders.com! However, I feel that even though most of these images are a bit ridiculous, the issues the actual words address are very real and can still reach some viewers in an emotional way. While it may be funny, many people dread going to work every day, feel coworkers/bosses don’t respect them, wish they were somewhere else while at work, have feelings of depression and aggression associated with work, and have coworkers they dislike. Also, during the economic recession many people have lost their jobs and need a new job. Though this commercial seems to focus on people who still have jobs, it’s very possible that this commercial could inspire recently laid off individuals to look for a job on careerbuilders.com that they believe they will enjoy more than their previous job.

I think these commercials are awesome. They present both sides of a situation and how differently the same stimuli can be perceived. By showing both sides of the story, we are able to see each side's point of view. For example, the commercial with the surprise dinner starts off like a romantic thing to do. However, when things take a turn for the worst when the guy's girlfriend/wife show up and sees him holding the cat with a knife. Since we have background information, we don't judge too quickly and can see what's actually going on. However, the woman doesn't have this background information and might flip out at seeing what she thinks is going on. So, I think this commercial is a great portrayal of what can happen when one judges too quickly. This relates to Ameriquest and mortgages, because a person can get discouraged when companies continually judge them too quickly and turn them down. By showing situations where judging too quickly was detrimental, Ameriquest shows it's potential customers that they will take more than a glance at them before making their decision. Overall, this commercial is funny and also effective.

I think this careerbuilders.com commercial is generally geared towards middle aged people who are frustrated with their job. It seems to be mostly targeting workers with office/cubicle jobs. I think this commercial probably hits home to very many people, however, even though many people may not necessarily enjoy their job or coworkers, they may be in a spot in their life where they do not want to change. For example, the people in the commercials seem to be at an age where they would have kids in school. Therefore, they may not want to move because they want their child to finish their schooling in the same place. Also, with the economy the way it is now, many people would be afraid to leave their jobs (even if it is a bad one) because they are afraid of not finding another one. Therefore, although I believe this commercial is something many people can relate to, I don't think it would be very effective, especially at this point in time. Entertaining, but not effective.

I found this commercial hilarious. It seems to be targeting young to middle aged men. I'm not sure how effective this commerical would be. It seems to be advertising a walk in beer refrigerater more than the brand of beer. I think this commerical is one that would be talked about a lot among viewers, however I'm not sure if the discussion would have the brand name in it. Even if it did, the focus of the discussion would be on the closet. Either way, it is good for Heineken to have their name associated with such a funny commercial because it will lead to laughter (good feelings) and also a lot of discussion about the commercial beyond the television, thus getting it more press.

I think this commercial is hilarious and plays off of stereotypes a great deal. However, as we discussed in class, I'm trying to figure out who the ad is geared towards. As Iowans we think it is funny mostly because it fits our stereotypes of West Coast people as being the typical "dumb blonde." I'm assuming though that the commercial was televised in the LA area and was therefore geared towards the people who live there. Would they find this commercial funny? Would they be offended by it or take it in stride, laughing at themselves? I'm not exactly sure...

This commercial also has another example of various forms of intelligence. Maybe these women are able to complete incredibly difficult math problems, or maybe they are really creative and able to paint an astounding work of art. However, one thing they are lacking is contextual/practical knowledge. When discussing intelligence in this manner though, we do need to acknowledge cultural differences. Though we live in the same country, there are a great deal of differences between the circumstances of how we grew up. To people from other 'cultures' certain things may be practical for their everyday life that are not practical for ours.

Oh my gosh ... that commercial is SO funny! Since my expert area is social psychology, I really picked up on the stereotypes that Heineken is playing on to advertise it's product. Stereotypes are defined as a belief or set of beliefs about people in a particular social category, in this case the genders of male and female as you described. Stereotypes can also be negative or positive and correct or incorrect. Figuring out whether or not stereotypes are positive is much easier than figuring out if they are correct or not! In this commercial, the stereotypes were definitely positive, but may or may not be correct for certain men and women. Personally, it would depend on my day whether or not I would prefer a closet full of shoes and clothes to a closet full of beer! ;) Gender stereotypes really cannot be consistently correct because ALL men and ALL women do not behave the same way or appreciate the same things.

I really enjoyed that! :) It must have taken a lot of time to put all that stuff together ... wow. I perceived the psychologically elements as strong in the area of sensation and perception. I haven't seen the movie, so I'm not sure, but I think te sound track is from the actual movie. The sound track gives us the sensation that we're going to see people being killed and lots of blood and gore, but instead we see Legos being broken and Lego people tossed around! I'm not sure if this fits into the psychological definition of sensation and perception, but I feel as though many of us perceive Legos as a childhood toy; therefore it is odd to see them being used to act out a violent scene because children are continuously being discouraged to act out any form of violence with toys or towards one another.

This commercial was really great. Obviously there was a lot of repetition, which was probably intended to make us remember it better. However, like we were discussing in class, I think that this commercial could be remembered merely for its humor, rather than what it was advertising. However, on the other hand, we were also talking about how commercial designers want us not only to buy something, but to do something, and so perhaps after watching this commercial, viewers could be more likely to go the Internet and look for a new job, even if it was not on careerbuilder.com. But then again, if you are one who has just lost a job, I would think that you would be more prone to remembering things like this, because it is very important to you.

I was also wondering if, while this commercial was funny, and caused me joy, it could have caused other people stress. I know right now my mom really dislikes her job, and any mention of it causes her to get a little stressed and think negative things. But I suppose that could also be motivation to go to the website and look for something new.

These five commercials are great examples of the power of perception and stereotyping. I think one thing interesting about them was who they were intended to be for. The target group of people watching these commercials were probably individuals who could afford to do the things that were being done in the set of commercials. Not just anyone can afford to cook a nice meal for a loved one, go to a hospital, ride on a plane, or even have a pet. And yet, the target people are also the ones now that need help financially, thus the significance of "Don't judge too quickly. We won't." Perhaps there is a relationship too, between humor and hard circumstances. In this ad for a mortgage company, and Adrian's about finding a new job, they both use humor. Maybe that helps bring a little light heartedness to the bad situation. I would think that if you are able to look at your situation in a more positive or humorous light, perhaps you are more likely to do something about it than if you are down in the dump.

I love Twix, I really think they're delicious. And some of the "Need a Moment" commercials are really great. I think it actually does hit on something that happens a lot in our lives - we all run into those situations where we wish we had a pause button to have one more second to get our thoughts together (in my case, I wish instead of pause it was rewind). But despite how much I love twix and how much I wish I had a pause button, I really kind of hate this commercial. I don't know what it is... I think the lying? I don't know, I'm sure it appeals to men on some level, but is that level "Hey, we can give you that extra second to think of a better lie for your girlfriend?" because that's kind of uncool. And the thing is, he's really not doing anything really bad. It's a stupid book - is there really that much cause to lie? Would she really have been that mad if he'd said "Oh, I'm reading this book with my friend." ?

But in the end, how much does the commercial do? It's hard to say. I think the commercial might be a little misguided, but I really don't think there's that huge of a population of men who want an extra moment to lie and think that Twix is the best solution. And in the end, I still love and eat Twix. They're delicious.

This is truly one of my favorite commercials of all time. My friends and I used to know the whole song. And set to one of the most well-known and catchy songs ever? Genius! It pumps you up and makes you laugh.

But I didn't remember that it was a Starbucks thing until I re-watched it today. I feel like that's a pretty big mistake on the part of the makers, because really... how hard would it have been to sneak in "drinkin his Starbucks" in that song and then people like me would be walking around singing about it. Really, the product is in the very beginning, and then mentioned at the end, but the bulk of the commercial you're just jammin with a chubby Neal Diamond and (as was already said) wishing that you also had a personal work-commute band. And from what we know, song is a really effective way to enact memory - probably why it's so easy to remember it all. They must have known that it would get stuck in people's heads, and we know psychologically that the familiar tune and tune itself helps with memory. Just saying - put the product in the song.

I think Megan is right to say that motivation is a big part of it though. A lot of us could use that kind of a rush or incentive to get up and go to work/do what we need to do in the morning.

It is really interesting how commercials demonstrate what is and isn't a social norm for certain cultures. I studied abroad in Australia in 2007, and witnessed a lot of the type of humor that this commercial demonstrates which is uniquely aussie.

Along the same lines, I've noticed these trends in a lot of places. For example, we discussed the Hindi condom commercial and how it reflected the culture of Bollywood -- a blend of modern pop (the music and colors and some of the dance) and tradition (the facial make-up, the hand symbols, and some of the other dances). While we find this to be strange and therefore unrelated to our lives, it most likely would be a very effective PSA for the target population. I also posted the insurance commercial from Thailand, part of a series of advertisements which portray extremely touching stories as a way to promote life insurance. While we do have moving commercials (Think those ASPA or Christian Children's Fund advertisements), I don't think that any of that length or with that amount of emotion would fly in the United States. That is, I don't think it was really motivate Americans to go out and buy insurance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJB0CzlzSwY

I found this commercial the other day and thought it was pretty good. It seems to be appealing to middle-aged men and women who are in an Office Space-type job (cubical every day for 8 hours, monotonous work). Most children have dreams to be doctors, lawyers, or firemen (respected, well-paying, rewarding jobs) when they grow up, but these children simply desire to be completely average. This would likely make many people in these types of jobs feel sad or angry about their current position in life, because it is unlikely that was once their dream. It would give them a sense of failure, and maybe push some into a mid-life crisis (just kidding…I hope a commercial wouldn’t be that influential!). Also, I cannot imagine many parents would hope for their children to have “climb their way up to middle management” as their career goal. Since many of these people would be in Erikson’s seventh psychosocial stage of Generativity versus Stagnation in middle adulthood, which focuses on a person’s involvement with the next generation, they would feel the desire to help their children be more than middle management, perhaps through being a good example and finding a better job through monster.com. Although I think this commercial is hilarious and emotionally appealing, it doesn’t really do all that much for its product, like many other commercials. Still, its entertainment value is enough to keep it around.

OK I thought this commercial was really funny. I got a good laugh. But when you do watch it you know that they are mocking women. "Macho men" find a lot of humor at womens' expense and this is a good example of that.

At the same time, I think it plays on the rich in general and their need to show off material possessions. The woman whose house it was was taking her friends on a tour to show off her things so they would all be envious. It's like the commercial version of the Real Housewives shows.

We talked about this commercial in class and how funny they are but how we don't remember what the commercial was for in the end. This definately show advertising not doing its job, but at least we all got a good laugh. Overall though I think it kind of displays a good message to not judge too quickly. Like the speeding commercial, the message of these commercials can be generalized to other areas of our lives. We're taught as children to "not judge a book by its cover". As adults we may forget that and these commercials kind of reiterate that.

Kids are funny but they probably told him to say this. All I could concentrate on was how the kid was talking. His accent took away from everything. Does anyone ever have that problem where you can't even listen to what someone says cause all you can focus on is how they are saying it? I also think the music has this humorous tone to it so we know the kid is going to say someone funny and the music is encouraging us to laugh. This commercial wouldn't be nearly as funny if it was an adult speaking. Why is it so funny to get kids to say grown up things?

If you want an example of an appeal to fear as a form of persuasion, it's hard to come up with a more perfect example than the Daily commercial. It was controversial and not well liked, but those may be the very factors that made it successful. It got everyone talking about it and it was all over the news. It generated a buzz for LBJ that helped him to win the election.

It's interesting that the new commercial created an almost exact copy of the original, down the same incorrect counting of the little girl. I think using this old commercial to create the new one has an added effect to it. Even if someone's never seen it before, if they know about the old commercial they already have an idea about what is coming. It creates a nostalgic feeling which I think somehow makes it more easily acceptable than the original was in its time.

Comparing the two commercials is telling about how things have changed. At the time, the major issue was Nuclear Holocaust. Today it is Global Warming. This reminded me very much of the movie "The Day After Tomorrow". The original was also about nuclear holocaust and the new one about global warming. This goes to show that when it comes to persuasion, it doesn't really matter what the subject is because the same techniques can still be effective. Not even just the same general techniques, but even practically the exact same specific techniques can be reused for different issues to persuade you to perform certain actions, in this case to vote for a certain candidate.

What is the message they are sending? If you drink this, you'll not only feel energized, but you'll also feel better about yourself. Starbucks Double Shot= raise in self-esteem and encouragement. I think this song is from the really early 80's, but it's known by pretty much everyone--recognized as the song from Rocky that plays while he gets pumped up. It is a song to get pumped up to! I feel like this commercial was gared towards people wo are just sort of reaching that boring point in their careers (there are many of them.) And it at the end of the song they had written as substitute lyrics they say "Someday he'll be supervisor" which made me think that they were tapping into the motivation for achievement or power, something that most people (especially career-minded people) are subject to.

I think this commerical could be looked at in terms of needs. For example--how starbucks coffee can meet multiple needs. When examining Maslow's hierarchy, the context around the coffee and commercial suggests that Starbucks coffee can meet physiological needs (food/drink), safety needs (pain avoidance from hunger/thirst), belonging needs (social interaction at work) and even esteem needs (the singers telling Glen that hes's "the man").

This is definately relationg to our sensations. Pretty much all of us know what each other those items in the commercial feels like. The commercial is relating something we do every day, like grip things, and how our brain works with our bodies to how a car system works. Each of us trust our brains and bodies to make the right decision, like how hard to grip. This commercial appeals to that by telling us (indirectly) to trust our car and its system to make the right deicisons like we trust our brain and body.

I agree that this commercial is all about the self-esteem boosting. But I think that is just what we get at the surface level. They tap into many common stressors and insecurities that almost anyone in the working world can relate to. They send the message that the Starbucks Double Shot will give you what you need to not only face your day but conquer it as well. They really focus in on the working world-specifically the white collar workers. The general schema for white collar work is long hours, long meetings, intense days, difficult bosses, wanting to advance in the company but not accomplishing that etc... It appears that the drink itself provides you with what you to cope and deal with all of those things. He opens the double shot and Instantly his own little band appears. They are singing to him and motivating him for his day. They help him feel like he is in control and he is ready to face his day. They also provide social support for him which plays a very important role in stress levels. In general, people feel less "stressed" if they feel like they have support from others. As long as they perceive that they are supported, they will most likely be less stressed than if they didn't perceive that support. A study in Alameda County California concluded that strong social ties generally produce lower mortality rates when compared to weak social ties. It also concluded that middle-aged men who struggled with financial difficulties but felt like they had strong social support lived longer than rich men without that support (Justice, 2000). So once Glen drank his double shot, he had instant social support in the form of his motivator band. This is exactly what Glen needed to put a little spring in his step- now he believes in himself and can face his day. Also, I agree that they definitely chose "The Eye of the Tiger" on purpose- it's so well known as a "pump-up" song and the familiarity of the song helps people remember the commercial.

Source:
Justice, Blair. Who Gets Sick. Houston, TX: Peak Press, 2000.

I think the self-esteem boost is exactly the message they are sending in this commercial. They really make it seem like the Starbucks double shot will change not only your day but possibly your career. They really play on our schemas of white collar workers- we think of long meetings, difficult bosses, ridiculous hours, and lots and lots of stress. Starbucks wants to change that. They want to show you that all of that stress can go away. This drink can give you the "boost" you need to face your day with an optimistic outlook. With this drink you don't just face your day-you conquer. They make this clear with the slogan at the end- "Bring on the Day" The song they use is not mistake. The Eye of the Tiger is such a popular widely recognized song- and as stated before it is often used as a "Pump up" song. They changed to words to be motivating and supportive of Glen. Speaking of the song- how awesome to would it be to have your own little motivation band?? Once Glen drinks the double shot- he gets an instant source of social support in the form of his own personal band. They provide him with the support he needs to cope with the stress from his job. They really play on our needs for support, or our needs to perceive that we have support. A study in Alameda County, California concluded that strong social ties generally produce lower mortality rates when compared to weak social ties. It also concluded that middle aged men who struggled with financial difficulties but felt they had strong social support, lived longer than rich men without that support (Justice, 2000). It is a generally accepted fact that perceived social support is very important in coping with stress. Starbucks really capitalized on this more than any other aspect of stress. They show you that the double shot provided Glen with social support which eventually helped him not only face his day- but possibly eventually helped him advance in his company.- which is something that millions of people can relate to.

Justice, Blair. Who Gets Sick. Houston, TX: Peak Press, 2000.