Why Good Advertising Works

Why Good Advertising Works (Even When You Think It Doesn't)
- Nigel Hollis

Central Argument: Advertisements, or rather marketers, do influence the behavior of people as they are imbedded somewhere in our memory which is the main goal for advertisements, and hopefully get the people to act.

No matter what you do, whether it is watching TV, walking down the street, reading the daily newspaper, you are bound to encounter an advertisement of some product or the other, a job opportunity, a concert or something along those lines in which the reader has a choice to purchase the product, attend the show or interview. In the 21st century no company will get anywhere without the use of advertisements as the competitive market is just too large. To catch the attention of the buyers, marketers make sure to include “images, jingles, and stories to focus attention on the brand.” Many a times, we, as the buyers, overlook these advertisements and think that they have no affect on us. However, this perspective we have, is refuted by Nigel Hollis in this article as he says that the main goal of an advertisement is to leave a lasting, hopefully positive, impression of the brand if not the product, on the audience and get them to act.
At a very early age, I started to have a weird obsession of watching TV, I knew every cartoon possible and I enjoyed everything the TV had to offer on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. However, there was one thing that I despised, and I still do – even after I have overcome my TV obsession – were the commercial breaks. Those two minute breaks seemed like forever to me back then but I would impatiently watch all the commercials like waiting. This one commercial on Maggi, Indian instant noodles, did influence me. Two children, tired and hungry, would be walking back from school to find two bowls of Maggi sitting on the dinner table. As they rush towards the table and start gobbling up the food, a woman appears and smiles lovingly as she sits in between the two children. The way the children ate made the noodles look so much better than it actually is. As I come from Nepal, the most popular noodle is WaiWai and I knew nothing about Maggi besides what I saw on TV. When I came to India where the most popular noodle is Maggi, I thought about the commercial and how delicious the noodles looked. This thought led me to buying the product and enjoying eating every bit of it, even though it did not look as good as the commercial.
Advertisements tend to stay in our memory even though we do not really focus on them due to the number of times we see them. Through studies, it is evident that repetition of things will remain in our memory sooner and for a longer period of time. This is especially true in TV commercials as the commercials are repeated two-to-four times during a single break! By the third break, the person watching TV is bound to know the product that is being advertised and more or less everything about it. To make it more memorable, advertisements usually have a significant person – an actor or famous athlete – or something unique about it. This makes it stand out more and is easier to remember it.
Through personal experience and the scientific reasons, it is evident that commercials do influence people. Though it may not get us, the audience, to act immediately, it is in our memory and certain things may just trigger that memory.