Friday, May 22, 2015

Food advertisements: do they make you feel hungry, sexy or greedy?

Sex sells, we all know that. Marketing strategists have been using sexually arousing images and messages in advertisements for over decades, most likely having found its roots on tobacco packages in 1885. Food ads often contain sexual elements. Frequently, these ads promote fast foods, such as the ad by Burger King in 2014, but sometimes also healthy products such as the ad for Coca Cola’s new milk Fairlife  (2014). Sexual elements are used in advertisements because they are believed to catch our attention and make us feel positive towards the advertised brand. More importantly, they increase our arousal and thereby motivate us to obtain the advertised product (Reichter, 2002). 


Source: http://articulateyouth.blogspot.be/2014/12/if-you-pitch-it-they-will-eat-it.html

Arousing advertisements induce us to consume more


Hot and cold cognitions influence consumer decision-making. Consumption in a “hot state” is driven by emotional motives (e.g. through feelings of hunger) and in a “cold state” by reflective processes (e.g. thoughts about a food allergy). Seeing, smelling, or touching a desired object can create a “hot state”. In such a state we experience an increased heart rate, blood pressure and sensory alertness; factors that motivate us to satisfy the urge associated with the arousal (Loewenstein, 1996).

This does not mean that viewing a sexually tinted advertisement makes us hit on the first person we come across on the street. In fact, neurological findings suggest that our brain processes different rewarding objects in a similar manner. Arousal can thus make us seek rewards in more than one area, regardless of the source of the arousal. Many studies provide evidence that sexual arousal, hunger or money deprivation can guide behavior to obtain rewards in any of these areas (Wyer & Xu, 2010). For instance, Festjens, Bruyneel, and Dewitte (2013) showed that touching men’s boxer shorts made females more willing to risk money to obtain chocolates and money.

Sexual stimuli can make you feel sexy, hungry and greedy. It is thus not surprising that advertisers use arousing images to promote their products. The use of sex in advertisements is often criticized as portraying women in a sexist manner. However, what is overlooked is that, perhaps not sex, but money is the factor that has most influence on human consumption behavior.

How money motivates behavior

Besides hunger and sexual arousal, money is an important motivator of human behavior. Lea and Webley (2006) describe money as a drug, saying that it mimics the neural, behavioral and psychological action of a chemical drug. It motivates humans in the same way as food and sex do. Psychological and behavioral economic research show that the desire for money motivates people to consume food, and that feeling hungry makes people less likely to spend money (e.g. Briers, Pandelaere, Dewitte, & Warlop, 2006).

Consumption goals can even be activated indirectly. For instance, Chen and Lurie (2012) investigated whether the state of a product can trigger people towards seeking rewards. They presented participants an image showing either a full or an empty iPhone battery. The participants were then asked to answer some unrelated questions about the iPhone’s design. After answering these questions they were offered a participant bonus of either money or cookies. They had to indicate how much of the bonus they would like to keep to themselves, and how much of it they would share with another participant. When participants had seen a picture of a low iPhone battery, their behavior was consistent with resource scarcity: they took more money and cookies for themselves.
Source: Chen and Lurie (2012)

Does money influence consumption?


Research on the motivational power of rewarding stimuli is not merely interesting for publicists who want to stimulate product sales. It is important that, as a consumer, we become aware of the influential nature of advertisements. While we might obsess about the unfairness of using sex in publicity, the mention of money and prices can have profound influences on us: making us eat more food and even motivating sexual behaviors. Marketing strategists know how to manipulate emotions to influence our consumption. For instance, a Dutch campaign promoting New York pizza as a “cheap and healthy alternative to students unhealthy eating habits”, used bodypainted nude women to hand out free pizza.

However, it is not yet exactly clear how money primes influence consumer behavior. Some psychological studies actually report contradicting findings, namely: that thinking of money leads to healthier and money-saving decisions. For instance, Tong, Zheng, and Zhao (2013) found that when people were primed with money, they more often chose a utilitarian product over a hedonic product (e.g. batteries over chocolate cake). A possible reason for this discrepancy is that money can trigger both positive and negative cognitions. If money makes us think about wealth or its buying capacity, it can trigger feelings of autonomy, confidence and strength and incite us to spend more money. However, if it activates thoughts related to a lack of money or our unpaid bills, it can trigger feelings such as weakness and distress, and in fact decrease our consumption.

References

Briers, B., Pandelaere, M., Dewitte, S., & Warlop, L. (2006). Hungry for money:  The desire for caloric resources increases the desire for financial resources and vice versa. Psychological Science, 17, 939-943.
Chen, Z., & Lurie, N. H. (2012). Low batteries Make You Greedy: The effect of product states on human behavior. Advances in Consumer Research, 40, 761-762.
Festjens, A., Bruyneel, S., & Dewitte, S. (2013). What a feeling! Touching sexually laden stimuli makes women seek rewards. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 24, 387-393.
Lea, S. E., & Webley, P. (2006). Money as tool, money as drug: The biological psychology of a strong incentive. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 29, 161-209.
Loewenstein, G. (1996). Out of control: Visceral influences on behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 65, 272–292.
Reichert, T. (2002). Sex in advertising research: A review of content, effects, and functions of sexual information in consumer advertising. Annual Review of Sex Research, 13, 241-273.
Tong, L., Zheng, Y., & Zhao, P. (2013). Is money really the root of all evil? The impact of priming money on consumer choice. Marketing Letters, 24, 119-129.
Wyer, R. S., & Xu, A. J. (2010). The role of behavioral mind-sets in goal-directed activity: Conceptual underpinnings and empirical evidence. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 20, 107-125.

Almudena Classen is a PhD. student in the ULB Research Center for Social and Cultural Psychology. Her Ph.D. is funded by the Food4Gut project. 

11 comments:

  1. Murphy continues, these efforts to control children’s diets are giving them exactly the wrong attitude about food. Best Food Truck In LA

    ReplyDelete
  2. This blog is really helpful regarding all educational knowledge I earned. It covered a great area of subject which can assist a lot of needy people. Everything mentioned here is clear and very useful.ขอใบอนุญาตโฆษณาอาหาร

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nature always helps a writer to learn from its elements. Nature always try to teach new lessons and a writer transform its experience into words. He can transform even silence into words. This blog taught me a lesson.
    ขอ ฆอ

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's a good and useful article to come together to like reading your article. It's really great for anyone interested. I like your article....
    อเมริกาเหนือ-ใต้

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is the first time I came to this blog and I found some relevant stuff here. Basically I keen to know new parameters of writing every-time and sometime it become really very hard to find such kind of platform.
    ใบอนุญาตโฆษณาอาหาร

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is really nice to read content of this blog. A is very extensive and vast knowledgeable platform has been given by this blog. I really appreciate this blog to has such kind of educational knowledge.
    ขอโฆษณา

    ReplyDelete
  7. This blog is truly useful to convey overhauled instructive undertakings over web which is truly examination. I discovered one fruitful case of this truth through this blog. I will utilize such data now.
    เครื่อง เชื่อม co2

    ReplyDelete
  8. It is especially decent, though look into the tips during this home address. bb13

    ReplyDelete
  9. That’s what I was looking for. I am talking about all topics bundled in this blog. They all are really very useful for me as well as for my team. We are definitely going to use its highlighted information.
    Produits alimentaires marocains au Canada

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thank you because you have been willing to share information with us. we will always appreciate all you have done here because I know you are very concerned with our. estilo de vida

    ReplyDelete
  11. All thanks to Mr Anderson for helping with my profits and making my fifth withdrawal possible. I'm here to share an amazing life changing opportunity with you. its called Bitcoin / Forex trading options. it is a highly lucrative business which can earn you as much as $2,570 in a week from an initial investment of just $200. I am living proof of this great business opportunity. If anyone is interested in trading on bitcoin or any cryptocurrency and want a successful trade without losing notify Mr Anderson now.Whatsapp: (+447883246472 )
    Email: tdameritrade077@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete