Music, Attention, Affect
• Background music
– Expectations about future outcomes
– Enhance/reduce affective impact of activities
• Affective reactions
• Cognitive processing activities
– Memory recall
Music and Activity
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Foreshadowing or accompanying
Congruent or incongruent
Expectation of events
Memory of events
Commonly used in film, theatre, opera, etc.
Effectiveness
• Thayer & Levenson (1983)
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Background music and behavioural effect
Monitored physiological (GSR) reaction
Film on industrial accident
Relaxing “documentary” or “horror” music
Higher physiological arousal with horror music
• Music alters degree of internal arousal
Effectiveness
• Marshall & Cohen (1988)
– Film of moving geometric figures (2 triangles &
circle)
• Personality traits associated with figures (Heider &
Simmel, 1944)
– Affective impressions of figures changed with
background music
• e.g., large triangle more “agitated and aggressive” with
louder, more active music; smaller triangle more salient
with “weak” music
– Mood dimensions of music direct viewers’
attention to figures’ activity levels
Boltz, Schulkind & Kantra (1991)
• Background music and film scenes
• Music either:
– Accompanied scene’s outcome
• Accentuated affective meaning
– Foreshadowed the scene
• Created expectations about future course of events
– Congruent or incongruent with events of scene
Memory Recall
• Expectancy violations from moodincongruent relations --> better recall in
foreshadowing condition
• Mood-congruent relations --> better recall
in accompanying condition
• Selective-attending processes
Memory Assistance
• Scenes not recalled on recognition task
• Details recalled when cued by background
music
Perceptual Processing
• Pre-attentive processing
– Break perceptual input into units
– Direct attention to relevant stimuli
• Gestalt psychology
• Applicable to audiovisual objects
– Music paired with visuals
Music in Commercials
• Contextualizing element
• Interpret images in ways consistent with
music
• Help organize complex imagery
– Extract salient details from background “noise”
Teaser Ads
• Television ads
• Highly visual
– Limited explanatory content
– Rely on imagery to induce attitude to brand
• “Mickey-mousing”
– Film scoring technique
– Visual action mirrored/paired with auditory
track
Hung (2001)
• 30 sec. TV ad for upscale Singapore
shopping mall (Raffles)
– Attractive young men & women, formal dress,
in studio settings
• Paired with one of two music tracks
– Vivaldi’s L’Amoroso in E-major or Garbage’s
Supervixen
Results
• Music produced differences in affective
state
– Questionnaires for image and emotion scale
• Vivaldi
– “Successful”, “imaginative”, “calm”
• Garbage
– “Daring”, “annoying”, “boring”
• Music affects meaning perceptions
Focus Group Discussion
• Raffles-Vivaldi
– Upscale & exclusive; darker; designer boutiques
• Raffles-Garbage
– Youth, “in mall” for 20-30 year olds; brighter
• Music tempo
– Same for Vivaldi and Garbage
– But Garbage perceived to be faster
– Carried over to RG commercial; scene cuts perceived as
quicker
Knowledge Attribution
• Vivaldi = Baroque, Garbage = Brit pop
• Association source?
– Vivaldi due to music or subjects’ (18-22 year
olds) conditioned expectations?
– e.g., Classical music “old and stuffy”
• Hung suggests two music selections should
come from same genre
Sexual Appeals
• Overt sexual information
• Images and/or verbal elements (US)
– Nudity, behaviour, physical attractiveness,
double entendre, etc.
• Evokes sexual thoughts, physiological
response, and/or affect (UR --> CR)
Picking Your Target Audience
• Difficult to utilize sex appeal across sexes
in same ad
• e.g., female
• e.g., male
Perceptual Processing
• Sexual content reduces viewers’ perception
and/or processing of brand
• Attention directed at sexual content
• Ad does attract attention, just not focused
on the product
Emotional Impact
• Positive correlation between positive
arousal from sexual content and ad
evaluation
• Influencing factors
– Gender, explicitness of appeal
• Attitudes influenced by relevance of sexual
content to product
Elaboration Likelihood Model
• ELM used to understand role of sexual
appeals in persuasion
• Persuasion along a continuum of elaboration
• Central route processing
– Persuasion from extensive issue-relevant thinking
– Sexual content distracts from effortful elaboration
– Lack of consideration of brand
Highly Attractive Models
• Studies show humans prefer attractive to
unattractive people
– Attractiveness as US
• But, research on the effectiveness of HAMs
in advertisement is inconsistent
Convergence
• Convergence of product and message
communicated by model’s image
• Model-product match-up
• Traditional view: HAMs most effectively
matched with attractiveness-relevant products
• But: different types of attractiveness-relevant
products may not all work with HAMs
Methodologies
• Older studies
– HAMs vs. unattractive models (UMs)
• More realistic, ecologically valid approach
– HAMs vs. normally attractive models (NAMs)
Bower & Landreth (2001)
• HAMS and NAMs
• Different types of attractiveness-relevant
products
Topics of Investigation
• Beautiful people perceived as having better,
trouble-free lives
– NAMS may fit better with problem-solving
attractiveness-relevant products
• Does model-product matching influence ad
effectiveness through product argument or
from model credibility?
Issues
• Model attractiveness and trustworthiness
• Model expertise for attractivenessenhancing vs. problem-solving products
• Matching model with product information
Design
• Lipstick and jewelry as enhancing products
• Acne medication as problem-solving
product
• HAM and NAM photographs
• 250 female subjects
• Survey forms
Results
• HAMs well suited to pairings with
attractiveness-enhancing products
• HAMs and NAMs equally effective in ads
for problem-solving products
– Kahle & Homer (1985) showed attractive
celebrities more effective for selling razors
– Confound?
• No correlation between trustworthiness and
attractiveness
Laneige
• Advertisement
• Comment?
Baker & Churchill (1977)
• Model/product match-up
• Mock print ads
• Variables
– Male & female models
– Coffee vs. perfume/cologne
– Subjects’ sex
Results
• For female subjects
– Product type and physical attractiveness had no
effect on purchase intention
• For male subjects
– Affected by female model attractiveness
– Moderated by product type
• Attractiveness-unrelated (coffee), unattractive female
model --> higher purchase intention
• Attractiveness-related (cologne), attractive female
model --> higher purchase intention
Decorative Models
• Model irrelevant/unnecessary
• Smith & Engle (1968)
– Sexy vs. unsexy model with automobile
– Sexy model makes male and female subjects rate
car as more:
• Appealing, lively, youthful, faster
• Steadman (1969)
– Mock advertisements with erotic/non-erotic
models
– Erotic ads inhibited delayed recall (7 days)
Match-up?
• Paris Hilton
HAMs in Marketing
• Negative consequences?
• Body image issues
– Negative feelings
Do Women Care?
• Richins (1991)
– Young adult females
• Half compare themselves frequently with models in
clothing & cosmetics ads
• One third report the ads produce personal
dissatisfaction with their own appearance
• Ingrassia (1995)
– ~90% of white junior & high school girls have
some level of dissatisfaction with weight
Transfer?
• Negative feelings from HAMs
• Affect on brand?
– Transfer?
• Female consumers have complained of
HAM use
– Special K models
– Calvin Klein jean ad use of Kate Moss
– Culture jamming (Ad Busters)
Social Comparison Jealously
(SCJ)
• Jealousy and envy produced by comparison
to perceived superior
• Negative effects
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Depression
Helplessness
Desire for revenge
Frustration
Anxiety
Behavioural Consequences
• Derogation/disparaging of comparison other
• Attempt to preserve self-esteem
“What is Beautiful is Good”
• Dion et al. (1972)
– College men and women
– Physically attractive people have more socially
desirable traits
– e.g., strength, sexual warmth, sensitivity,
kindness, poise, modesty, better character
• Belief: beautiful people lead better lives
• SCJ may attenuate this belief
HAM Derogation & Endorser
Effectiveness
• Negative feelings from SCJ
• Impact on HAM effectiveness?
• Derogation of HAM at:
– Individual level
– Effectiveness as persuader
• HAM works on product via:
– Spokesperson expertise and/or
– Product effectiveness argument
Bower (2001)
• Hypothesized effects of negative affect from
HAM SCJ
Model
expertise
Negative
affect
Product
evaluation
Product
Argument
evaluation
Product
intention
Study 1
• 130 undergraduate women
• HAM and treadmill photo
• Measures for
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Model beauty
Subject comparison
Negative affect
HAM expertise
Product assessment
Derogatory assessment
Comparator/Non-comparator
• Does the subject compare herself to HAM?
• If yes
– Increased negative affect
– Decreased evaluation of HAM as credible
spokesperson & product argument
• If no
– No SCJ effect
Study 2
• Treadmill might have biased toward body
image
• 110 undergraduate women
• HAM and hair highlighting kit photo
• Relative few comparators
– Comparators find model more attractive than
themselves and show negative affect
– Not significant effect on product vs. noncomparators
Conclusions
• Comparator/non-comparator important
• If comparator, SCJ of HAM has negative
impact on brand
• Should be somewhat cautious of results
– Model type
– Product
– Race of subject and model
Societal Marketing
• Social causes
– e.g., Conservation, equal rights, etc.
• Public service announcement (PSA)
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Increase public awareness
Change beliefs, attitudes, behaviours
Observed by large cross-section of population
“Help-self” (use fear) or “help-other” PSAs
PSAs and Sexual Content
• Sexual content increases attention to ad but
interferes with product knowledge
• PSAs poorly remembered and often ignored
• Can sexual content increase attention to
PSAs?
PSA and Sexual Content
• Israeli beach
Reichert, Heckler & Jackson (2001)
• Sexual and non-sexual PSAs for 13 social
marketing topics
– e.g., healthy eating, reading, HIV prevention
• Mock print ads
– Dominant visual, headline, core message
– Images of heterosexual couples from photo
archives
– Sexual or non-sexual visual and headline
Measures
• Questionnaires
• Thoughts and cognitions
– Free responding immediately after viewing
each PSA
• Persuasion and communication
– Attitude, belief, and behavioural intention
scales
– Measures of attention, interest, impact on
thinking about topic
Results
• Sexual PSAs generate more favourable executionrelated thoughts than non-sexual PSAs
• Sexual and non-sexual PSAs generated same level
of message-related thoughts
• Sexual PSAs stimulated less elaboration (e.g.,
additional thoughts on topic) than non-sexual
PSAs
• Subjects were more likely to agree with PSAs
using sexual appeals
Conclusions
• Sexual appeals persuasive for social marketing
campaigns
– Best when sexual appeal relevant to topic
– Long term persuasion due to cognitive processes, so
sexual PSAs’ effectiveness may be temporary
• Sexual appeals are attention getting, likeable,
dynamic, and focus interest on ad’s topic
– Good in saturated market
• Sexual appeal decreases elaboration of message
content
PSA
• Guardian Angel