Emotion

A few years ago, a video (Exhibit 12.9) featuring an ordinary family enacting a driving accident in their living room went viral. No words were uttered in this slow motion 88-second clip, yet it left a profound emotional impact on nearly 20 million viewers, serving as a powerful reminder to wear their seat belts.

The tagline “Embrace life!” may take a moment or two to fully appreciate, but its beauty is undeniable. The seatbelt saves lives as it embraces the driver. Furthermore, nothing could more powerfully symbolize this embrace than the loving arms of one’s wife and daughter.

The campaign by The Sussex Safer Roads Partnership taps into our emotions to stimulate and arouse attention. The intensity of the emotional charge leaves images and feelings that penetrate our long-term memory. Metaphors and symbols exalt the seat belt. And the depiction of ordinary folk in an ordinary home, combined with the simplicity of the plot, make viewers relate with ease.

As humans we experience a wide range of emotions that affect our mood, disposition and motivation. According to David Meyers, emotions fundamentally involve “physiological arousal, expressive behaviours, and conscious experience”. They could be basic, such as happiness, security and love; or social, such as success, pride, guilt or envy.

Advertising taps these diverse emotions to penetrate our memory associating brands with positive or negative emotional states. The embrace life ad for instance, taps into feelings of love, tenderness, caring, fear, anxiety, shock and relief. The Liril girl advertisement (exhibits 12.0 and 12.1) evokes the sense of freedom, hedonism and pleasure. Some advertisements reflect ecstasy and euphoria. Others dwell on fear or sorrow. Historical advertisements of Bajaj (“Hamara Bajaj”), the Indian scooter brand, and the Australian icon, Vegemite (“He’s doing his bit for his Dad …” [wartime ad]), tap into viewers’ sense of national pride.

By infusing deep feelings, these advertisements build emotional bonds that greatly increase consumers’ affinity towards the brand. It is a form of classical conditioning; the brand starts to represent those moods, feelings or emotions that it is associated with through advertising.