This article was very interesting to read. It describes the different ways that advertisements can tug at our emotions. Guilt appeal is a great way to get consumer's attention, and it's used quite a bit in the advertising world. A good example of this is the commercials showing the dying polar bears without ice to live on, or the cute little puppies and kittens without homes. Another classic example of this is the commercials about the children struggling in poor countries, asking you to help them with a "dollar a day." Seeing these commercials evokes an emotional response, and leads the viewer to feel guilty, something advertisers are counting on. The hope is that if you feel guilty about these poor puppies and children, you will give them money to try and help them or "save a life."
Previous research found that mothers were the most likely target and more susceptible to these types of advertising techniques, so it was mothers that were used in this research study. They actually discovered that many times commercials and advertisements that used guilt as a motivational factor to buy the product actually evoked some levels of anger in the participants. This anger acted as a mediator between the guilt and the consumer's attitudes about the product or advertisement. This anger also seemed to affect whether or not the participants reported that they would buy the product or not. Though it may sound surprising that these depressing commercials could evoke anger, think about the last time you saw the Haiti relief commercials? Or the American Christian Children's Fund? Yes, they are all depressing and raise some amount of guilt, but at the same time many Americans feel that things need to change in our own country first. The article also discusses aspects of annoyance, and how the annoyance levels of these commercials can raise levels of anger as well.
Many commercials of the commercials like this act on the principle of relatedness. This aspect is also discussed in the book (Reeve, 161, 2009). Commercials want to make you feel as though you have a connection with the people or animals shown in the advertisement. This may be why they show close ups of big puppy eyes, and probably why they send you a "personalized letter and photo of the child you're saving." The advertisements are attempting to make you feel as though these people and animals are just like you or similar to you, your pets, or your children, and this makes us feel as though we should help them. The letters and pictures that the children's fund sends to you also plays a role in feedback, because these things give you good feelings about your donation, it will reinforce the behavior and allow you to associate donating with good feelings (Reeve, 117).
Using these types of positive reinforcements once they have the consumer to a point where they have made a donation increases the chances that they will make an additional donation in the future. Making people feel good about the things they have done (donating money, volunteering) is a way to provide a reward, and eventually this reward could develop into intrinsic motivations. When someone consistently volunteers and contributes to the community, there are positive feelings associated with the outcomes. This acts as a reinforcement/reward to begin with. As they continue to participate in these types of activities, the reward may evolve into an intrinsic motivation (Reeve, 111) because they are so used to those feelings and actions that they feel a basic internal drive to continue with their good feelings and positive contributions to the community. Along with this, another aspect of intrinsic motivations is the idea of challenge. People who participate in things such as Habitat for Humanity or other volunteer programs many have had feelings of guilt in order to get them started, but then a challenge developed and lead to more intrinsic motivations (Reeve, 111).
These commercials also incorporate the idea of sociability. When we feel as though everyone is donating to these funds (when they say "over a million Americans donate daily," or things of that nature), we don't want to be the only one's not donating. We have a drive to donate just because we hear that there are many other people donating. It's almost as if these commercials are peer pressuring us into donating to their particular fund.
Many aspects of the textbook can be seen in these emotion-provoking commercials. They play off of the fact that human's levels of self-perceptions can change at the drop of a hat (Reeve, 279). When we don't act on these donations, our mind often creates a negative affect from the guilt we experience, which leads us to feel bad about ourselves and could lower our self-esteem (Reeve, 266). The main difficulty here, according to Reeve, is that raising self-esteem is motivational intervention. Adversely, the lowering of self-esteem may also be a motivational intervention if you look at the effects that these commercials have on people. Because these commercials have made people feel bad, it motivates them to donate their money in order to feel good again. Then, every time we donate money and get those good feelings, it reinforces that behavior so that the behavior continues.
There are many other aspects of psychology within these types of commercials. What are some other areas where psychology comes into play within advertisements? What about within the media in general? How do these things affect our everyday lives when we aren't even thinking about them?
Recently in Television Category
How many times have you asked yourself about the goals you want to accomplish before you die? If not, why haven't you? Have you ever heard the quote "Carpe Diem" which means to seize the day. Or even enjoy being a kid while you can, because it goes by too fast. Well the Buried Life guys have, and according to them life moves fast, so we should slow down and enjoy it.
You might have met the Buried Life guys if you're a fan of
any shows on MTV. It is likely that you have seen a trailer/shows for the TV
show called The Buried Life. Meet Ben, Dave, Jonnie, Duncan, four guys who
share the same ideas about life and the world around them.
These four guys were originally from the same town, and knew of each other;
however it wasn't until 2006 when they discovered that they had the same goals
and aspirations about their life, focusing on the question "What do you
want to do before you die?" This question led to these four guys
making a list of things they wanted to do before they died, starting out at 50
items. After making this first list, they set out on a journey to complete
these tasks, and making a documentary of it. Along the way, they wanted to help
others cross of things on their lists as well. On their first trip they were
able to cross off 26 items on their list, and help 24 people. This led to the
development of the list with 100 items on it, and the guys decided they did not
want to put a quantity for the number of people they wanted to help, they just
want to help as many people as they can. The Buried life eventually are going
to making a film of their documentary of all of the 100 items they accomplish.
When talking about these guys, we have to go back to the basics of motivation which of course is goals. Their 100 item list is of course their goals. These goals come in a variety of skill level, some more difficult to achieve than others. Along with that, Ben, Dave, Jonnie, and Duncan all have high levels of the need for achievement. You can see this just by looking at how far they have come in achieving all of their goals. These guys first started out just talking about this journey in 2006, and its now 2010, and they have crossed off yet another item on their list "Making a badass TV show" with their show The Buried Life on MTV. Their ultimate goal consists of every item being checked off, and a documentary film to show it all. Along with their goals, they try to help others achieve a goal of theirs. With this, the Buried Life guys are gaining feedback from the people that they help. This feedback is obviously positive, and provides feelings of happiness, joy, and even feeling accomplished.
Although it appears that the Buried Life guys are just
trying to complete a list just to be able to say they did those things, I think
it is something a little more than that. Reeve (2009) talks about the six
dimensions of psychological well-being, including self-acceptance, positive
relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and
personal growth. By pursuing these six dimensions, individuals are ultimately defining
your concept of self. The Buried Life Guys are continuously working on many of
these dimensions. While helping others along their journey to complete their
lists of things to do before they die, the Buried Life Guys are establishing
positive relations with other people. Not only that, they are networking, and
establishing connections which benefit not only themselves, but also the people
that they would like to help. It is evident that these four guys also have high
levels of autonomy because they have chosen to take on these goals, and to go
to great lengths to achieve them despite if others don't believe that they can.
Overall, through everything the Buried Life guys are accomplishing, or going to
accomplish, they are building and figuring their purpose in life, and have high
levels of personal growth. I'm not sure
if the Buried Life Guys would agree, but I would say it seems like their
purpose in life is to help others. It seems like they received a lot of joy and
happiness out of it, and it helps them grow as a person as well.
Ben, Dave, Jonnie, and Duncan have motivated other people to make their own
lists of goals to do before they die. The Buried Life has even influenced a
networking site called The Buried Life
Network. If you're interested in watching their show on MTV or just
learning more about the Buried Life visit these two websites. http://www.theburiedlife.com or http://www.mtv.com/shows/buried_life/episodes.jhtml.
As Ben, Dave, Jonnie and Duncan state, if they ever come to
your town, you better be ready to answer the question "What do you want to do before you die?"
Check out the interview, it's pretty amazing!
http://www.mahalo.com/roger-ebert-oprah
http://www.mtv.com/videos/16-and-pregnant-season-2-ep-1-jenelle/1631955/playlist.jhtml
I'm not much of a TV person, but when I find a show I like, I try to follow it. One in particular has been 16 & Pregnant. I find some of the stories compelling and extremely interesting to watch. But why? I have no desire to be pregnant any time soon nor do I like watching people suffer through hard decisions and break ups. But I found myself recently being angry that I missed the premiere last night of the second season. So I decided to watch it online. Not only did this first episode make me feel embarrassed, but I couldnt help but wonder why these people put themselves out there to be seen by the whole world in these stressful situations. There may be people out there who have a situational interest; maybe themselves or a close friend got pregnant at a young age, or even just pregnant in general. For me, I had an individual interest to watch the second season because the first season had everything-- crazy moms, cute babies, boyfriend mishaps and love. I had seen all of these things and expected something great.
Her mothers actions made me uncomfortable just as I sat and watched by myself. I wanted to yell at both her mother and her for how they were handling this situation. I dont believe I would want my life videotaped through such a dramatic experience- I can only imagine how embarrassed I would be if it actually WERE me.
Janelle and her mother both had the same goals in mind throughout her pregnancy; they wanted the best for her baby... at least I think that's what they both were. Janelle's mother made it clear that the baby was most important, while Janelle made it clear she would not give up her social life. Janelle's mother even suggested if she couldn't take care of the baby maybe she should give the child up for adoption. Of course Janelle found this crazy and kept reassuring her mother that she could do it. There are many hidden costs to having this little boy (the reward) that Janelle hasn't come to see yet. Janelle is stuck in the world of a 16 year old, when in reality she has a child and needs to take on the role of a mother. Janelle's mother, on the other hand, babysat the child as Janelle went out.
IJanelle needs to realize what her life is now and see that she needs to take on these 'hidden costs' for having this child. While still in school (which is great), she continuallly went out on the evenings leaving her mother to care for her baby. Something needs to change in this mother-daughter relationship before "Grandma" becomes more of a mom than 'Mom' does.
I have talked to my younger cousin about off the wall text messaging that younger teens are spreading through text messages within her school. She says everyone knows who you have a crush on, or if you are mad at a friend, and with everyone knowing those kind of things; uncalled words are being said and the texting is getting out of hand. I read one of her text messages that someone said to her and it said "____ said that you are too skinny and you should eat lol" Now for a young girl in middle school that could harm her self-esteem and feel as thought no one likes her, and the way she is isn't good enough, even though she is a beautiful petite young girl who is only in 7th garde.
When watching T.V. the commercial of teens getting abused by other teens via text messaging comes up a lot, especially on MTV. When is it becoming too of athinline for young teens with their text messaging? The website (athinline.org) helps teens cope with abused text messaging, such as sexting, constant messaging, spying, digital disprespect, and cruelty. This website definitely is taking a step to help out teens who feel as though they can't say anything to anyone, because if they do they will be called a nark or taddle tail.
It's very alarming how many teens are getting abused or are doing the abuse over text messaging. When I was in middle school I was'nt allowed a cell phone, unless I went to a movie and needed to call for my parents to pick me up. Now a days all I see is young kids with cell phones in their hands walking in the mall or down the street. It's no wonder why the text messaging abuse is becoming so popular.
Athinline.org is definitely a big step for helping teens with this abusive problem via text messaging. Pass it along to friends and family who you know that have been abused or are the abuser.
While working out the other day, I was reading Star magazine and I came across an article called, "The Biggest Loser's Dirty Little Secret. This article discussed the secrets behind the weight loss for the participants. The show wants big, dramatic results and unfortunately the participants are at risk. The contestants participate in extremely intense workouts and are on restricted diets. Along with exercising and dieting, participants intentionally dehydrate themselves before weigh-ins to have a better outcome. According to contestants, the morning of weigh-ins was the most intense.
They would go to the gym and the heat would be cranked up to over 100 degrees F, they would wear layers of clothing, and work out for 2-3 hours without consuming water. There is also nothing safe about having 500-lb contestants working out to that extent. According to Star magazine, all participants signed a contract realizing the life-threatening reality of the show. Those over 400-lbs also had to feel they were "in excellent physical, emotional, psychological, and mental health."
Another problem with the show was they claimed to provide a psychologist for support for the participants mental and physical breakdowns; however, contestants stated they never knew where to find him. A woman contestant, Kai, who appeared on the show in 2006, says she began developing an eating disorder, her hair was falling out, and her body was covered in bruises. According to the article, her trainer would not let her see a counselor and forced her to continue working out. Kai also stated, producers would create drama and untrustworthiness on the show by deliberatly saying their friends were possibly saying horrible things behind their back.
This article was shocking to me. I realize that the Biggest Loser is a show and wants to create dramatic effect; however, putting people's physical and mental well-being in danger is not safe. I feel each contestant should have had their own counselor to continually talk to them and support them through this process.
What does everyone else think about this article? Is anyone else surprised by this article? Should the participants be allowed access to a solid support system? Should contestants to be deliberatly placed in a hot room without AC and no water in order to lose the most weight possible?
Here's the link to the website. It's not the whole article but you can get the main point of it!http://www.starmagazine.com/news/16415
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