"Advertising is criticised on the ground that it can manipulate consumers to follow the will of the advertiser. The weight of evidence denies this ability. Instead, evidence supports the position that advertising, to be successful, must understand or anticipate basic human needs and wants and interpret available goods and services in terms of their want-satisfying abilities. This is the very opposite of manipulation."
- Charles H. Sandage, Some Institutional Aspects of Advertising, 1972.
Do you really think that adverts can hypnotise people into buying things that they do not want?
During my research into quotes on advertising, I found that the bulk of comments written against advertising, were written in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This was before the rules and regulations were placed upon advertisers to ensure that all advertising is 'legal, decent, honest and truthful'. Yet despite all evidence to the contrary they still remain a popular myth.
I don't doubt that many of my clients would wish that I could wave a magic wand and make everyone buy from their businesses. Unfortunately this form of magic does not exist. What we do have, is many years of experience, study, research and testing, leading to an understanding of the market. Ideally we would be called in at the conception of a product or service to carryout market research and test marketing. We would advise on the demand for the product, the design, packaging and presentation. Sadly all to often, we are only consulted when a business is already failing. Sometimes we can pull it around, but miracles are not something we can guarantee to deliver.
Having established that we are neither magicians nor miracle workers. We can say that we do have knowledge and experience that would not be available to you should you try and do it yourselves. Please keep in mind that if you are not using an advertising agency, your more successful competitors probably are. The time you spend trying to understand our business is time that you are not spending on your business. Get it right and advertising can more than pay for itself. Get it wrong? Well, that is a subject that nightmares are made of.
Back to the title, Hypnosis in advertising, or 'using the techniques of hypnosis and linguistic programming in advertising'. As you will have seen in the quote above, these techniques have long since been discredited. To ease public feeling on the subject they have also been banned under the ruling against the use of subliminal advertising.
So don't take the risk of using discredited and illegal practices, just pick up the phone and talk to someone who has made this area of business their speciality and who can guide you in making you advertising and marketing really work.
Gavin Bryan-Tansley Owner Vid-FX+
