The Awareness Test

                Situations similar to the one presented are all too common in today's world.  Increasingly, bikers and motorists are sharing the road, and this combination has potential to be deadly.  With all the other things to pay attention to while driving, it's relatively easy for motorcyclists and bicyclists to get lost in the mix.  The most obvious reason for this is their smaller size, enabling them to hide in blind spots and blend in to the surroundings.  Additionally, because drivers are often only on the lookout for other cars, they are simply not paying attention to the fact that cyclists may be present.  This presents a dangerous situation for all involved, and several ad campaigns have begun with the goal to get more drivers to pay attention to potential cyclists.  Transport For London's "Awareness Test" illustrates this situation perfectly, and it really opens the viewer's eyes to the danger of not paying attention out on the road.

The Awareness Test http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSQJP40PcGI

                Upon first view, this commercial seems to be relatively straightforward.  It opens with a shot of two teams, each with four players.  After this, the narrator asks a seemingly simple question, "how many passes does the team in white make?"  Immediately following this, the clip runs for about 20 seconds, with the viewer counting the number of passes made.  However, the real fun begins after this.  Right after finding whether or not they'd counted correctly, the viewer is confronted with a different question, "did you see the moonwalking bear?"  To the viewer who took the bait, this question seemingly comes out of the blue.  However, upon watching the playback of the original clip, the viewer is able to easily recognize the bear dancing in the background given the new information.  After being shown how their attention has a big impact on what they see, the commercial drives the message home for the viewer, stating that, "it's easy to miss something you're not looking for...look out for cyclists."

                Although at first glance this commercial appears to be more comical than scientific, the basic idea for the scene is based on an actual psychological study.

The Original Study http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkn3wRyb9Bk&feature=related

  In 1983, researchers Robert Becklen and Daniel Cervone essentially set up the same scenario.  In their research, they were looking for occurrences when the brain failed to recognize certain stimuli, and based upon these instances they hoped to explain why this happened.  The setup for their experiment was extremely similar to the present day Transport For London commercial; it involved two teams of four players, both teams passed a basketball amongst themselves, and in the middle of it all there was a seemingly random object passing through everything.       

Becklen and Cervone's study, however, seems to put much more stress on the brain to focus intently.  The video seems to show the players as transparent, making it difficult to distinguish one person from another.  In addition, the participant had to press a button every time the ball was passed.  This introduced yet another thing the participant had to pay attention to, further eliminating their capacity to see the "hidden" object.  In the end, however, the results were the same.  Nearly 35% of participants did not see the woman walking through the scene, and when participants were not instructed to count the number of passes, nearly all were able to spot the woman.  The implications from the study are quite amazing.  Given the same stimuli, some participants were able to see the woman with the umbrella, while others were not because they were too focused on other tasks.  So, even though the brain has immense capacity and computing power, it cannot do everything we ask it to do at once.  Thus, as was observed by Becklen and Cervone, some items get lost in the shuffle and are filtered out in order for the brain to perform the task at hand.

I believe that this commercial was done perfectly.  It took the findings from Becklen and Cervone and applied them in a way that appeals to nearly everyone, while at the same time introducing a powerful message.  I want to first look at the significance of the bear, obviously the centerpiece of the whole advertisement.  My first thought when I saw this commercial was "why a moonwalking bear?"  As I thought about it more and more, I realized this had to be strategic.  After viewing a video of Becklen and Cervone's study and seeing the woman with the umbrella, I immediately knew why the advertisers chose the bear.  Although a normal person walking across would have illustrated the same point, introducing a dancing bear has a much greater effect.  Because it is off the wall and random, people feel silly for not noticing such a blatant character.  Had the bear been replaced with a normal person, the viewer could attribute their inattentiveness to the stimulus blending in too much and that it could not have been seen even if they were looking for it.  However, because the moonwalking bear is so ridiculous, the viewer is left with the feeling of "how did I miss that?"  In this way, the issue of inattentional blindness is called to the forefront and the viewer sees its detrimental effects.

Another part of this commercial I love is the ending.  Immediately after being shocked with the revelation of the moonwalking bear, the commercial wastes no time and drives its point home.  Following the replay of the scene, the sound cuts out and the screen turns entirely black.  This sudden shift grabs our attention quickly, and this silence is somewhat disconcerting to us because of our fast-paced society containing a lot of motion and noise.  Finally, the advertiser's message is displayed on screen, leaving the viewer to read it for themselves.  Instead of the message being thrown in our face (as is common with many commercials today), the viewer actually wants to read it because the commercial has caught our attention.  I believe the silence also holds a dual purpose.  In addition to calling our attention to the statement at the end, it also gives us time to think and reflect about what it really means.  This insures that the advertiser's remarks are powerful and have an impact on our thinking.

When I first saw this commercial, I was amazed that I missed the bear.  Since that time, I've shown the clip to several of my friends and family, and each time they've missed it too.  What's even more interesting is what happened to me after seeing the Transport For London commercial the first time.  Immediately after viewing it, I caught a clip of Becklen and Cervone's study, and again I failed to see the hidden body!  This was not even two minutes after watching the commercial for the first time, and yet after knowing the general circumstances of the study and what I "should" be looking for, I still whiffed.  This anecdotal evidence really speaks for the power of perceptual blindness.  Even though something may be conspicuous and out in the open, if we don't pay attention to it, we're not going to see it.  It really is quite amazing how much we can miss if we're not paying attention. 

Overall, I think this commercial was extremely well done.  In addition to introducing some legitimate psychology to prove a point, it also had a humorous side that made it more memorable than otherwise.  The moonwalking bear brought the issue of inattentional blindness to the forefront, and the connection to the disastrous effects of it occurring on the road was established immediately.  At the conclusion of the commercial, the viewer was left with something to think about, and this message was extremely powerful.  So, not only was this commercial funny and informative, I believe it was effective at using psychology to its advantage.