Psychology and advertising.

After a very slow start this morning, we left the house at just before 12.30pm and didn't get home until nearly 7 o'clock, all three of us rather worn out.

This afternoon we went to Nottingham University for the first of two visits for each of the girls to take part in a research project about concentration at the School of Psychology.  We've been there on a number of occasions in the past, although most recently it's only been K taking part, M being outside of the desired age range and consequently extremely put out at not being allowed to join in.  K was happy to let M go first and have her turn in a couple of weeks' time when we return.  So while M disappeared with the researchers, K & I had a little room to ourselves and got out the games we'd brought with us.  We played The Game of Life and Phase 10 and K did some colouring from one of the books that were there.  I had a look at a poster about the history of experimental psychology that was on the wall and pointed out to K that it mentioned the Stroop Effect, something we've come across previously, when finding out about the senses if I recall correctly.  We got on to the topic of advertising and spent quite a long time talking about this.  It was mostly me talking, but K, who was colouring at the time, was clearly interested, as she kept prompting me to continue.  So when K said that she wouldn't buy something that has an annoying advert, I told her that advertising has two main aims, selling the product being one, but making people aware of the brand being the other and annoying adverts that get stuck in your head are very good at the latter.  We also talked about adverts 'selling a lifestyle' or creating a desire or need for a product, before giving the idea that you 'need' their product in order to have fulfil that desire or need or attain that lifestyle.  Using the example of a particular formula advert, I explained about how language is very important.  The advert in question talks about 'moving on' from breastfeeding, as opposed to 'giving up' or 'stopping' because that makes it sound like a positive choice rather than a negative one, it also makes it sound as though that's the normal thing to do.  The same advert has a breastfeeding mother in a gloomy room in winter when it talks about breastfeeding being the best start, then the room becomes bright and sunny when the picture changes to the mother, now having 'moved on', bottlefeeding in spring. 

We continued the conversation in the car on the way home, talking about how adverts for children are targeting two very different groups of people, the children and the parents, and how they might try to do this and why.  Parents are generally the ones who buy the products in question, but it's often because the children have been persuaded to ask or indeed pester their parents to make the purchase.  K in particular is very keen to find out more about advertising, so we'll have a look at some links I've found tomorrow and watch some television adverts and find some print ones to compare and analyse.

M seemed very happy with what she'd been up to, which from what she's told me, was various games, mostly on the computer with a load of sensors on a sort of hairnet on her head for most of the time.  I wasn't allowed to take a photo of her, which is a shame!

Having left the university, having had the foresight to take ballet and swimming things with us just in case we didn't have time to come home first, we went straight to take K to ballet, then M to swimming, then I dashed back to pick K up and then back again to get M before we all came home together for tea!  That's the last time we'll have to do that fortunately, as it's K's ballet exam a week on Saturday and we can't make it next Wednesday, so it'll just be her usual lesson on Friday next week.