Human Instincts in Advertising

 There are millions of advertisements all over the world. Portraying different emotions and feeling, some ads carry a message while others don't. Through this article, I'm going to show 11 emotions that are commonly seen in advertisements. Although hard to explain with words, I am going to take the help of ads.

Dharma or righteousness is the first emotion. To explain it further, I have used an ad by Ariel which spreads the message 'Share the Load.'


This ad has beautifully captured the equality that has to be shown between a daughter and a son. No matter who, they have to learn to handle the responsibilities at home and #ShareTheLoad.

Prema or love is a feeling that everybody is familiar with. A very easy feeling to play with, most of the ad directors use it to showcase their product as one that is filled with love. 


Silk by Dairy Milk has forever been a product associated with love and cuteness. Almost all of their use the emotion of love and affection to promote their products, delciousness. Their jingle is also very famous and catchy. 

Satya or truth is the next instinct I am going to take. Some advertisements use truth as their central figure and the whole story shown in the ad revolves around the same. 



Dettol's ads are always of protection and security. This particular ad shows the little boy telling his mother the truth on why he destroyed his piggy bank. He doesn't lie to his mother and tells the truth in his own innocent way.

Shanti or peace being the next emotion, is not one that is used very often in advertisements. But, whenever it is used, it is used to show the calmness the product advertised brings about. 

Although this advertisement faced a lot of backlash, this ad has captured the secularism that is much needed in India. Be it any religion you are from, all religions are equal. And, this ad has shown the peace within which people from 2 religions live. 

Non-violence or ahimsa is a very famous instinct that was propagated by Mahatma Gandhi. Though many people in the world still prefer violence over it's counterpart, non-violence is an important concept that people still are yet to understand. 


Maggi's ad shows a mother and a daughter on separate pole about the fact that the daughter is moving out. A situation that could have escalated into a fight fizzles into nothing because of Maggi. Maggi diffuses the tension in the air and the ad ends when the mother feels proud of her daughter because of her cooking. 

Coming to the next emotion, it is nothing other kama or lust. A feeling that is closely associated with perfumes and deodrants, it shows the man or woman seducing each other.



This advertisement by Set Wet Zatak shows a teacher losing all control and becoming sensuous when she smells the perfume that one of her students were wearing. What has to be understood is that most of these products use kama to spread word.

Krodha or anger is the next emotion. Here, the emotion may not be shown directly. It can also be shown in an indirect way as well. 


This ad by a cream for solving the problem of itchiness shows a PT teacher having a hard time training his students. Due to the constant itching that he has, he becomes irritated and angry. He ends up not being able to teach the children. His anger only goes away when he gets rid of the problem.

Lobha which also means greed or narrow-mindedness is the next instinct. Very frequently used emotion in fairness ads, it manages to annoy the viewer. 


There is a series by Blue Imperial with the tagline 'Men will be men.' It shows the narrow-mindedness men have when they see a woman. They start behaving ridiculously to impress the girl. These advertisements show a very narrow-minded idea that no matter who they are, when a man sees a woman, they will always be the same. 

Moha means the delusions or the emotional attachment you have towards a person or thing. It can be any kind of moha. It need not necessarily be towards a person, it can also be towards one thing or the other. 


In this ad, the very famous actor Ranveer Singh can be seen risking his life for something. And, what is it for? A thumbs up. He almost ends up dying but he doesn't care as all he wants is just the thumbs up. He's set his eyes on the prize and for him, that's the soft drink.

The next instinct is mada or ego.An emotion that every person carries deep within them, it can be used to the best of an advertiser's creativity. No matter what product they advertise or the connection it has with ego and pride, it is an emotion that is often used. 


Here, we can see that the crocodile is behind her just to eat the toffee. The toffee is a matter of pride for the crocodile as it feels very happy and wholesome after he eats the chocolate. We can see the instinct of mada being portrayed here in a different way. 

The last instinct I'll be showing here is matsarya, which simply means competition. Most of the brands that are employed in dishwashing and cleaning employ the concept of competition to sell their ads. 

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Almost all of these ads by Vim show their cleaning bar to be better than the others. With better speed, smell, and cleanliness, the bar is supposed to be greater than it's competitors. The ad is shown in such a way that this bar is supposedly good than the other brands that are out there in the market. 


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