And You Think Advertising Doesn’t Work?

Advertising is powerful. It works.

But most people think it doesn’t, or misunderstand what is happening when they encounter ads.

” I don’t get up off the sofa and go and buy a Mars Bar”. Nope, that is not the way it works.

So let’s have a look at breakfast.

I was doing a talk to around 40 people a couple of years ago, and I asked how many had sat down to breakfast that morning. One hand went up. No surprise there.

Then I asked how many would have when they were young, and almost everyone raised their hands. So what has changed, I enquired. Lifestyle was the most common response. But when I interrogated that we realised it hasn’t changed that much, and as these were people in the public sector, most had flexitime and could set a breakfast table if they wanted.

The next question was how many cereal ads did they remember seeing before the arrival of media diversity, Netflix, Prime etc? How often would their parents have been sitting in front of the ads when there were four channels and no remote controls? There were hundreds seen those days, months and years. Kellogg’s had multiple products, there was Weetabix, Shredded Wheat, and come winter, Quaker and Scott’s porridge as well as Ready Brek.

Where were a huge number of these ads were set? Around the breakfast table. The audience were able to tell me where everyone sat, with Dad at the head of the table and the 2.4 children opposite the camera. And Mum? She didn’t get to sit, she was making sure everyone else was happy, like a good mum should in adland. The final question? What was the colour of the milk jug? And I got the right answer, blue and white stripes.

I stopped and let people think about breakfast cereal for a moment, remembering their childhood, their parents, and then I asked, how many ads have you seen for any of those brands in the last few months?

There was metaphorical head scratching. Mmmm. Come to think of it, I can’t remember seeing one. One. Not one. Ad for breakfast cereal.

So, I finished, now do you understand why you don’t sit at the breakfast table as a family any more?

“No, that can’t be it!” was the general consensus of the audience. Except it was. There is no such thing as breakfast cereal. There is a food that the manufacturers told us was best for eating at the start of the day, mainly Kellogg’s. In other countries it is not the norm, in France the croissant is king, in Japan and across Asia the cereal is not a staple.

Here is what the ads are doing. Telling you when to eat the product, how to serve it (adding sugar was part of the ad in the past), where everyone should sit, the way to set the table, and that Mum is the waitress. But the behavioural influences are wider ranging, impacting on the person shopping (Mum again). So when she is in the supermarket and walks down the cereal aisle she is reminded of the brand and the products, but also that to be a good Mum, she needs to buy the right one. To keep the kids and Dad happy.

And you thought it was a simple ad to make you go out and buy a product and you didn’t so it hadn’t worked?

This is how communication works, the impact is has on all of us (admen are not immune) and why all types of messaging can make a change to our behaviour.

It is why product placement is now one of the tools, why influencers make a difference, why we believe some things and not others. Marketing and communication.

It works.