'Got Milk?' and the Liking Principle of Social Influence

The advertising campaign for 'Got Milk?' has continued to be effective and successful over the past decade by using the Liking Principle of Social Influence. The ads emphasize many factors of the Liking Principle and highlight the brand's positive attributes. The 'Got Milk?' ads have gained a great deal of exposure since they first appeared in 1995 and been named a top commercial ad by USA Today (www.gotmilk.com/), and given new meaning to the slogan with the "Milk Mustache" image.

The brand and ad campaign have become very familiar to the public with a high exposure and repetition, both important factors of the liking principle. The ads have moved from a print ad and into a valued brand with products and merchandise; there are even parodies mocking the popular slogan, which have also increased brand exposure. 

The ads are familiar also because of their consistent brand attributes highlighted through repetition, which include the 'Got Milk?' slogan, a milk mustache, and a creative title or question related to the ad spokesperson.  

The ads also bring good news or emphasize positive information promoting milk and health. The integration of the product, the spokesperson, and the information uses the liking principle to allow viewers to admire a favorite celebrity or athlete while also relating to them in some way.

The ad campaign uses famous athletes, musicians, celebrities, actors, models, superheroes, and many well-liked public figures. Viewers feel similar to those spokespeople if they share an interest and relate through the activity of how the spokesmodel is famous.

Not only do they like sharing an interest with these spokespeople, but they pick physically attractive ones too that will be admired. David Beckham and Heidi Klum are well-liked celebrities not just for their skills, but their beauty. The ads highlight their positive beautiful features and promote that by drinking milk and liking these ads, viewers too can strive to look just like them. The message of the ad is always connecting the viewer to the spokesperson through positive encouragement.

This ad's direct message is, "Drink it in. Pop star? Not exactly. Milk is more my move....so shut up and drink." Viewers are encouraged in a positive message to be just like Rihanna and drink more milk to help teen health, and incorporate one of her songs "Shut up and Drive" into the message as well to connect more with her. Not only is the campaign encouraging the viewer to drink milk, but so is Rihanna because milk is her move too.

And who doesn't want to feel like Rihanna?

SOURCES
http://www.gotmilk.com/


http://www.whygotmilk.com/


http://www.bodybymilk.com/

Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like

Psychology of Advertising: Humor and Ads

The article written by Graeme Galloway in Psychology & Marketing titled, "Humor and Ad Liking" discusses a study conducted to explain why humor is ads are more well-liked and research possible theories to help advertising develop future ad content. "As much as 30% of the billions of dollars spent on advertising in national media each year is used for the placement of humorous ads," said Galloway (pg. 780). Some factors that humor ads are influenced by include attention, comprehension, persuasiveness, attitude towards product, memory, and ad liking. While these factors can be identified, understanding how humor effects ads are not as easily identifiable, leaving advertisers scratching their heads for future effective humorous ads or confused by the failure of past ones.

This study examines the relationship between ad liking with incongruity-resolution humor, sensation seeking, and arousal level. Incongruity resolution is defined as a "structural feature of humor characterized by the introduction of an incongruity which can be completely resolved," (pg. 780). One theory identifies how variables of individual differences and moderating these effects with positive known factors of consumer behavior, such as: mood, need for cognition, attitude toward product category, prior brand evaluation, extroversion/introversion, affect intensity, and self-monitoring. However, with humor ads, other factors must be identified to study the effects, including sex role, sex of consumer, cultural background, and cultural orientation.

Since incongruity resolution is of more relevance to advertising than non-sense humor, messages that are left unresolved or create new absurdities in attempt to resolve, it is important to further examine the incongruity resolution humor effects in relation to arousal and sensation seeking levels. Higher sensation seekers are thought to have a lower level of arousal, which incongruity resolution humor would raise arousal level compared to those which have a lower sensation seeking and a higher arousal base. The study needed to break down the participants to identify their individual differences in order to correctly observe and analyze their reception to the ads they were exposed to. The 42 undergraduate participants were shown 54 ads that were rated for funniness, arousal, and general liking. The results indicted that lower sensation seekers did not like the non-humorous ads and liked the humorous ads, and the higher sensation seekers liked both with humorous ads slightly more negative in ratings.

These findings did not solve the lack of understanding why humor works, but can be utilized by advertisers in understanding the psychology of humor ads. Lower sensation seekers had a significant increase when viewing humorous ads and high sensation seekers still had a higher rating of humor ads although it was less than the non humorous ads. Advertisers should keep in mind that incongruity resolution humor is more important in evaluating the ad since arousal levels and sensation seeking are different.

Some successful funny ads that use incongruity resolution humor are the Old Spice commercials, where viewers of both sexes can identify with the images with the end message of what a man should smell like.


This ad targets both lower and higher sensation seekers because the arousal level is increased but not to an unpleasant level, which then a higher sensation seeker would evaluate this ad to be negative. The humor of this ad becomes more resolved as the commercial evolves and that increases the likeliness and arousal level for lower sensation seeker, as the study examined. The messages of both the Old Spice ads use a balanced arousal induction humor that targets both sensation seeking levels.


SOURCES:
Galloway, Graeme (2009), "Humor and Ad Liking: Evidence That Sensation Seeking Moderates the Effects of Incongruity-Resolution Humor," Psychology & Marketing, Volume 26(9): 779-792.

Old Spice Commercial, "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE

Old Spice Ad http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/old-spice-commercial-roundup/

Allstate TV Ad: Pink SUV Mayhem

Allstate Insurance is not only for famous for their slogan "Are you in Good Hands?” but also for the deep, authoritative voice of spokesperson Dennis Haysbert. However, suddenly a new figure was brought to the attention of television viewers by adding a villain, Dean Winters, to incorporate a little “Mayhem.”

The televisions ads demonstrate a humorous approach to typical incidents, where the character Mayhem portrays everyday accidents that may not be covered by regular insurance. Some examples include driving into a deer, branches hitting your car during a storm, staring a “hot babe out jogging” and hitting a curb light, and a dog chewing up the inside of your car. Allstate added “Mayhem is Everywhere. Protect Yourself. Are you in Good Hands?” to their slogans and created a Facebook for Mayhem fans to share their stories and view the advertisements.

One of my personal favorites is the ad that has Mayhem as a sixteen year old driver and sports a pink SUV, trendy sunglasses, and texting on a cell phone that has little pink accessories attached. He is mad at his “BFF Becky” because she made out with Johnny, whom is of interest. “Now I’m emotional compromising…(hits another car) Whoopsies! And if you’ve got cut rate car insurance, you could be paying for this yourself,” says Mayhem.

In my opinion, this ad campaign is successful due to many advertising concepts that the ads use. One concept that the ads use is repetition, always using similar ads to gain recognition and by adding the new Mayhem to the lineup increased brand recognition. Allstate continues to air or print a variety of the ads at the same time while continuously introducing new ones into the mix. Now with two spokespeople, the repetition has increased because of the two variations in the type of ads. The ads also use image advertising where the ads increase awareness of Allstate against competitive brands, and the Mayhem ads allow viewers to think twice about incidents and whether or not they are covered, and question their choice of insurance.

The user images of the Mayhem ads are everyday people, families, teenagers, CEO figures, and car or home owners that are involved in accidents created by Mayhem. The brand is advertising the car or home owner not being protected against these situational occurrences, and if you have Allstate, then you do not have to worry. The fun part about these ads is that there is an incident, or even multiple, that we can all relate to from past experiences. For example, my sister is a sloppy 16 year old driver that is portrayed exactly how the ad did.

The Mayhem ads also use emotions to drive the brand’s message and use negatively charges features in the commercial to reposition the opposition. They highlight the benefits by of insuring their car with Allstate and see accidents that may not be covered by other insurance companies, and cause viewers to question their current coverage.

Also by using the famous actor of Dean Winters, the advertising ads create perceived popularity of the company because of the A-list star of their campaign. This may in end lead to a bandwagon effect with the new Allstate character and cause younger people without a lot of prior knowledge of insurance companies, and join because they enjoy the star and his new role in the campaigns. The ads communicate the popularity as well by Allstate creating a Facebook and Twitter where fans can visit and share stories with Mayhem. Either way, the addition seems to be a success for Allstate and currently post the newest funny clips on their YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter pages.

I am mad for Mayhem!

SOURCES
Mayhem Ad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-Sjld5yy3Q
Allstate Website http://www.allstate.com/mayhem-is-everywhere.aspx
Mayhem Facebook http://www.facebook.com/mayhemhere#!/mayhemhere?v=wall