Sylvia L. Harvey

How can emotion be an advertiser’s weapon you ask? Emotional advertising basically kills the viewer’s intention to purchase any other product or service other than the specific one for which an advertisement is made. These types of ads are sentimental, not informative or rational. The problem with emotional advertising is that instead of focusing on logic, it simply appeals to the emotional desires or needs of a customer and can be misleading.

Companies use emotional advertising to improve the impression of its brand and value by tapping into our feelings.

An example is GM Corporations’ advertisement of Chevrolet vehicles as an “American Revolution”. When I was a kid, my Dad owned a baby blue Chevrolet Silverado. He thought Chevrolet was a brand that stood for tough, resilient American made vehicles for the American citizen. He would talk of his truck with a sense of pride and trust of the Chevrolet brand to make a quality vehicle for the American driver.

Fast forward five years later when he was stationed overseas and happens to glance at an advertisement in India of how the Chevrolet brand represented the Indian tradition. Anger and disappointment cannot express how my Dad felt when he realized that his beloved Chevrolet vehicle—that supposedly stood for all things American—was marketed to Indian customers in much the same way.

He felt that GM’s advertising was misleading and that GM played upon his emotions to get another sale. At that moment, my Dad didn’t want anything else to do with Chevrolet.

In the end, my Dad’s emotional feelings and attachment he felt for his Silverado and how reliable the brand was to him overshadowed his initial reaction of being mislead. So when he saw an advertisement for the 2010 Chevy Avalanche, it stirred up all of the positive emotional feelings he had for that brand, threw logic to the wind and purchased a new ruby red Chevy Avalanche. This is what emotional advertising is all about, simply loving a brand.

So I ask is this weapon of emotional advertising misleading? . But the important question is does it work?

Graphic Credit:
animationfactory.com