Shocking ad about not skipping school (NSFW)
Thanks to Jessica from ThoughtCatalogue who found this video, I saw it from here first:
http://thoughtcatalog.com/jessica-blankenship/2014/01/this-anti-skipping-school-ad-is-the-most-disturbing-thing-ive-ever-seen/
If you watch it (with discretion), think about how you are feeling after. “Disturbed” is a good word, if not understating it a bit.
This ad is really interesting for its use of three persuasion techniques: sex appeal, fear, and humor. The last one is debatable, but let’s think on this.
Sex appeal is definitely there from the beginning. The actors are attractive young teenagers- they are seen leaving the school for a fun day off. At the beach, they… let’s call it bond. This seems to attempt to reflect what teenagers at school typically think of skipping school to be like.
Sex appeal works in two ways: gathering attention and evoking strong, positive feelings towards a concept or brand (tapping into attraction section of the brain). Here, it seems the focus is to gather attention and to form relevance to the target audience.
Then.. BAM. The mood changes drastically as one teen is blown into bits- gory parts and all. This happens for a few seconds to all the actors. Reaction? Shock and horror.
Fear works again in two ways: attention and strong, negative feeling (tapping into the avoidance sector of the brain). Your basic (some call this reptilian brain) lymbic system activates and readies your body to be ready to run. You have heightened awareness and at the same time associations between skipping school and fear are subconsciously formed. So in this way, it is logical to think the ad seems to achieve what it set out to do.
But wait.. does our mind react that simply to fear? Studies show.. it depends. Actually, our minds are coded such that our reaction to negative arousal is not linear, and there is an optimum “fear level”, past which fear becomes ineffective. Past a certain point, instead of being filled with crippling, paralysing fear- our mind starts blocking it out. This can give an almost opposite reaction: humor or detachment.
In this case, especially with our intended target audience (let’s run with the assumption teenagers are used to graphic images and desensitized to violence), a state of humor may arise. This is also an attraction mechanism, allowing positive feelings towards the ad. It also enables attention- being the primary reason for the rise of viral advertising. Humor can overshadow the use of other persuasion tactics (such as fear), but not always (at least sometimes, fear can exist subconsciously). The extent to which fear is blocked out is thus also important.
So to conclude the effect on the average individual of this ad, we have to wonder to what extent the fear factor is pushed. Remember- it’s not about logic (I doubt teenagers will believe skipping school will cause them to explode), but rather feeling. If the fear has been positioned just right, it will attach itself to the concept of skipping school, making the ad very effective. Humor and Sex appeal makes the ad interesting, and possibly could elevate this to viral status- and as long as the fear is registered subconsciously, the ad would have worked.
Interesting take, http://www.learnforlifewa.org.au/. I am eager to hear your results.
Tags: Advertising, Australia, Explosion, fear, Gore, Graphic Content, Hooky, Humor, Marketing, NSFW, Persuasion Techniques, Sex Appeal, Skipping School, Students, Violence, Viral Advertising