Sunday BS #5: 26.09.21
Something on advertising
Sunday BSers,
The best behavioural science is often counter-intuitive. Apparently, Kampala policeman identify drunk drivers, not by those who are swerving recklessly, but by those who drive in a straight line. For those who aren't lurching left and right, clearly aren't avoiding the potholes.
Luckily in the UK, our roads are nudge central with their torrents of encouragement. It can be confusing. You might have seen the red circle with nothing in it. How to know if one should decelerate for an oncoming hula hoop party or indeed if no vehicles except bicycles being pushed can pass (the correct answer)?
If you are en route home and have failed to resist a third swig of Tia Maria as it circulates the table, hopefully the speed humps accelerate your digestion only and keep you out of harm's way.
Talking of self-control problems...
1) Chips are as dangerous as cocaine
I presume you too have had to forcefully push the crisp bowl perpendicular to divert temptation, minimise overnight Tyrrells guilt (that is not an academic term) and keep appetite in check. It's not surprising based on research from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center suggesting that ghrelin, the hormone that your body secretes when you are hungry, might also act on the brain, influencing the hedonic aspects of eating behaviour. Similar studies have linked ghrelin levels with the pleasurable feelings one gets from alcohol and cocaine.
Forget the bloody sugar tax. We're getting close to condemning Quavers as a Class A drug. Of course, we can blame our urge to overindulge on our evolutionary ancestry. The human body and our subconscious mind have evolved to perceive weight gain as a success. Who has it easier then than the diet industry, surely?
Our daily lives are riddled with self-control problems. Another which interests me is gambling. Casinos use chips to play with (ok, there's the segue I was looking for) rather than cash. And it's not uncommon for gamblers to differentiate between house money (their winnings) and their own original stash, holding each in different pockets despite their equivalent fungibility.
We are all guilty of illogical mental accounting. In Last Vegas a few years ago, my colleague and I were dragging our bags through the hotel to depart for the airport. As we inevitably walked through the casino, my colleague rustled in his pocket and found $80 remaining.
This was the last of his winnings and so he thought he may as well have one last throw of the dice. He lost it all in three minutes at the black jack table and seemed blasé. I was struck by this Las Vegas delusion of non-fungibility. It was somehow incomputable, in the moment, that this very $80 could have equally afforded a new pair of shoes or a lovely meal. Well, it was the house's money anyway.
And further, this was overt risk seeking behaviour, not to avert a loss, but to build on a gain. What have you got to say for yourself Prospect Theory?
2) Keep your mouth shut
I'll aim to provide a more conventional arc to this story than my first effort. This sign in Pisa airport struck me as a rather insightful behavioural nudge, despite some Twitterati belittling it by reminding everyone that it was unnecessary with the overarching rule to wear a mask at all times.
Logically this may be true. But fyi, we break rules and are self-serving creatures; especially at the airport where stress levels are often heightened because it's an airport. And if one is dragging children and luggage with both hands, surely the mouth is the only remaining respectable receptacle to present one's medical history and identification from?
Certainly since check-in staff kindly ask you to remove your mask at the desk, the temptation in the melee to stuff your gob with the family passport collection is high. Hence, when limbs and mind may be tired, this signposting is thoughtful and timely.
"Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness." (Astra Seneca)
3) Don't Get Vaccinated
That advertising can't simply request action from prospective customers is axiomatic. As ad man Rory Sutherland says in his book 'Alchemy', a little less logical thinking creates alchemical, brilliant solutions. The best ideas are often counter-intuitive, most humans don't respond to persuasion like silver backed economists who live in a world of perfect information and trust, where indeed advertising would have no function. With no deviation, they know what they want and how much they're prepared to pay.
Homo economicus’s preferences are defined purely by what they choose and that's the end of the matter. Back in the real world, we behave less logically. Putting the price up sometimes sells more; discouraging people from doing something can have an opposite effect.
When we think about the global challenge to vaccinate the population and convince the sceptics, it serves to reflect on the Brexit Remain campaign. It doesn't work to scare people into action, nor to ignore the more consequential if tangential reservations. Have a look at this irreverent and brilliant advertisement for Wilmore Funeral Home to encourage vaccinations.
Ad agency Boone Oakley in Charlotte, North Carolina created this hoax billboard on wheels to deliver an effective pro-vaccination message with a twist. Check out this short video where agency owner David Oakley tells the story. And click through to Wilmore Funeral Home for the potent punchline.
This is what Rory might call benign bullshit. He questions whether “advertising actually exists to persuade or is there a necessary level of bullshit that we need to generate before our unconscious can be primed to trust something?" If we trusted everything and everyone, advertising would be a lesser industry. Here's hoping funeral homes don't have the last laugh.
Till next time.
This BS community is starting to pick up steam and the membership is growing faster than I could have hoped. Thank you for being a part of it. I put longer than I imagined into my writing and podcasts!
Referral is the most powerful recommendation. 65% of you are here via a ‘share’. If you liked this, why not share on Twitter or with a friend? It’s a kindness I always appreciate 😃
Have a great week!
Daniel