Behaviorism

3 Commentsby   |  04.02.13  |  Student Posts

If you’ve ever watch an Ax, or Tag, or any cologne commercial you know that they all pretty much work the same. Wear our spray, hot girl likes our spray, get hot girl. What we’re seeing here is classic signs of behavioral conditioning. By introducing the potential for a favorable reward (hot girl) we are more likely to achieve the desired behavioral outcome (buy and wear our spray). This particular add is a personal favorite of mine. Here, not only are men being promised the potential for hot girls, they are also being promised that this spray will turn them into astronaut reminiscent beings. This same idea governs the motives behind hot girls in beer commercials and virtually all other forms of advertising. Body Spray Commercial

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3 Comments

  1. Avia Gray
    10:47 pm, 04.02.13

    Perfect example! On the flip side, women’s perfume commercials almost always involve a beautiful women in some foreign country romantically involved with a gorgeous man. Sometimes, I feel like they think were stupid, but if conditioning works as well as it is thought to be, maybe those commercials do have some affect.

  2. Katie Clouse
    10:19 pm, 04.03.13

    I liked your example of behaviorism as seen through advertising. I agree that those type of commercials do imply certain promises.

  3. MaryLynn Kemp
    11:16 pm, 04.03.13

    I think it is really interesting how culture has trained us to view the world as if these impossibly ridiculous things aren’t stupid! I’m not saying we think commercials are documentaries, but the more we see them the less we realize how incredibly fake they are, and the more we are duped by them into buying things we would not otherwise want. Brainwashing, one thirty-second interruption of the superbowl at a time!

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