Advertising Deceptions

Many people may wonder why certain infomercials really intrigue them, so much so that they end up buying the “magical” product that is supposed to be so amazing but once they get it, they end up never using it again. People who wonder this are not alone, as researchers for the University of South Florida were also wondering the same exact thing. The Assistant Marketing Professor at the University of South Florida, Adam Craig, has begun working alongside of several researchers as a way of figuring how specific advertisements can alter the way that the brain works in terms of manipulation. These infomercials often get people to buy above and beyond what they normally would buy or what they normally would spend on certain products.

With these studies, brain scanners are used as a way of figuring out the behavior of individuals, particularly shoppers and how their brain can be influenced by certain advertisements to the point where they would actually buy the products that are being advertised on the commercials. Craig says that the idea of the study is to basically try out several different methods as a way of determining how and why people choose to buy these particular products, especially if they do not need them and normally would not even buy them. Craig decided to start the studies several years ago, back in 2007, which is when he was still a student at the university. The first ever study that was created was published and was basically a way of analyzing how advertisements work to deceive people and alter their behavior when it comes to how and what they buy and how much the will be willing to spend.

Individuals who chose to voluntarily participate in the study had to lie down in an MRI, which looked very much similar to the beds that they have in a tanning salon. While they were lying down, the individuals saw a number of different advertisements, all of which are considered to be deceptive, and the researchers were using images as a way of studying how the blood flow of the brain would change when viewing these advertisements and images. When images appeared, blood flow seemed to be the most active. Craig believes that the study gives people a good idea of how advertisements can use deception as a way of getting into the consumers head without even ever having to say too much. After spending a lot of time researching the results from the study, it is believed that people who are dealing with lots of stress or are tired and unable to get to sleep are most affected by deceptive advertisements which can cause them to go out and make irrational buying choices.