Marketing promotion: How are brainwashing advertisements made?

The main reason why brainwashing advertisements can exist is the existence of compulsory media, and due to their own nature, they can only be transmitted in one direction.

The swallows dance, the swallows dance, with each song comes a feeling of love; the swallows dance, the swallows dance, with each song comes a feeling of love.

This was the slogan for the Yanwu brand tape recorder's television advertisement in the 1980s.

It can be said to be the earliest brainwash advertisement in China.

Instead of talking about the product's efficacy, the brand was repeatedly promoted through singing, which was very avant-garde at the time.

After the advertisement was broadcast, the effect was very good. Overnight, Yanwu tape recorder became a famous brand in the industry. At that time, the quality of Yanwu's products was not top-notch in the industry, but after the advertisement was broadcast, many consumers naturally regarded Yanwu as the representative of the industry.

Yanwu has tasted the sweetness, and many brands have taken note.

This is where the repetitive and even brainwashing advertising began.

At the beginning of 1997, Shi Yuzhu was already in the financial crisis of Giant Building. He ran around to raise funds and borrow money, but failed to borrow any. Public opinion was rife and the media reported extensively on the financial crisis of the Giant Building.

Before this, Shi Yuzhu had already made health care products and made a lot of money from them. The decision to rob Peter to pay Paul eventually caused Shi Yuzhu to lose his health care products business and his real estate business failed to take off.

That winter, Shi Yuzhu gathered more than 20 "close" employees and held the "Taiping Lake Conference" to determine the "Meibaijin" product.

Melatonin started in Wuxi and grew very fast. In just one and a half years, it expanded into the national market.

The sentence: "I will not accept any gifts this year, and the only gift I will accept is Melatonin" is imprinted in almost everyone's mind.

Shi Yuzhu later said: When he was conceiving the advertising idea, he gathered dozens of employees and thought of hundreds of ideas. In the end, he improved on one employee's proposal and changed it to this sentence.

The advertisement for Melatonin has been bombarded repeatedly for many years and has been rated as the "worst advertisement" for ten consecutive years. It is the pinnacle of brainwashing advertising.

After that, Hengyuanxiang and Lanxiang could not surpass it even if they copied its tactics.

1. Curse

China's advertising has been developing for nearly 40 years, and this type of brainwashing advertising has always existed.

But I grew up under the criticism.

Melatonin brought this type of advertising to the top, so naturally it also received the most criticism. In those years, both the advertising circle and the school teaching circle used this type of advertisement as a negative example.

The teachers in the school all used this as a counterexample.

They say that this type of advertising is not aesthetically pleasing, annoying, illogical, creative, etc.

During the World Cup last year, three brainwashing advertisements were released. They exploded in the advertising circle as soon as they were released and became a hot topic in the advertising circle. Some big self-media accounts even wrote articles specifically to criticize them.

Ye Maozhong, who took two of the photos, was pushed to the top of the wave.

Even if you have been working in the industry for many years and have accumulated fame over the years, you still can't escape it.

I actually never really understood why I was scolded by my peers.

Each of them runs their own business, each of them does what they think is right, and each of them wins customers with their own abilities. They should not interfere with each other, so why are some people scolding each other?

2. Right and Wrong

Let’s analyze the rights and wrongs of this type of advertising.

Where is the right:

1. Brainwash advertising utilizes repetitive communication strategies.

There is no doubt that brainwash advertising itself is intended to make consumers remember the brand and the slogan. Therefore, repetition is emphasized in both advertising content and frequency of delivery.

Many classic books on advertising and communication on the market emphasize one point: repetition.

The greatest function of repetition is that it can fight against forgetting, allowing information to be stored in the brain even as permanent memory.

This is one of the most basic communication strategies of advertising and also a very good means of publicity. If you have the opportunity to repeat it but don’t use it, it will be a loss of communication.

2. A highly condensed and powerful sales statement.

For example, regarding Melatonin, the policy is: I will not accept any gifts this year, and the only gift I will accept is Melatonin. This sentence can directly stimulate consumer behavior. When this sentence is imprinted in the mind and the corresponding demand is generated, it will naturally stimulate consumers to choose the product.

3. Deeply understand the time value of TV commercials.

For example, a 15-second ad can have a maximum of 60 words. When you spend tens of millions on advertising, every word and every frame of the picture is worth a thousand dollars. At this time, if you are the boss who pays the money, you will also ask the brand to be read more times, show the brand logo more times, or even show it bigger.

As an advertiser, if you want to make full use of these short ten seconds, you must make rational trade-offs, and repetition becomes a natural choice.

So what’s wrong with brainwashing advertisements?

The first is excessive repetition.

Many brainwashing advertisements only capture the form of some classic advertisements but fail to capture their soul. There is no other way, I can only repeat it mindlessly, reading it many times in a short period of time.

But the slogan itself has little power. No matter how many times you repeat it, there will be no effect when the advertising period ends.

Moreover, when the repetition reaches a certain number of times, people will become bored. At this time, advertising may be having a counterproductive effect.

When we watch some classic and effective TV commercials, we will find that many of them have slight plots. People remember the entire advertisement unconsciously, and they do not feel disgusted even though it is repeated many times.

The second is some scenes in brainwashing advertisements, which are purely for the sake of brainwashing. For example, the two advertisements of Boss Direct Hire and Earl are too much.

Overall, the brainwash advertising routine is effective and the overall strategy is feasible.

But when you go too far and brainwash just for the sake of brainwashing, it will cause public disgust, and at this time the advertising will bring negative effects to the brand.

3. What is consumed is the medium

Since there are consumers who are disgusted, someone must bear the annoying negative consequences.

The bearer is the medium.

The media itself is a value entity, and consumers also have psychological impressions of differentiating and evaluating various media.

Different media leave completely different impressions on consumers. For example, Hunan Satellite TV and Shandong Satellite TV leave different impressions on consumers; Mimi Meng and People's Daily also leave different impressions on consumers.

This is determined by the content that the media publishes over a long period of time.

When a medium undertakes brainwashing advertisements for a long time, the value of the medium itself will decrease. For example, when Hunan Satellite TV broadcasts brainwashing advertisements every day, the impression this TV station conveys to the general public will become worse and worse, and its own value will gradually be lost.

So you will see that some local TV stations and local media always take advertisements for health products and traditional Chinese medicine. These local media will also continue to lose value with these advertisements. This is a negative cycle.

All they can provide is the number of people they can reach, which cannot generate a media premium at all.

Brainwash advertising has little negative impact on the advertising industry and consumers.

The real biggest victims are the media that undertake brainwashing advertisements, which is directly linked to interests.

4. Compulsory Media

The nature of brainwashing determines that it can only be spread in one direction, that is, by using some rigid and compulsory media.

For example: pre-show advertisements on TV, elevators, outdoor screens, and cinemas.

These media themselves are mandatory and do not require the consumer's consent. They are played to you repeatedly.

If brainwashing advertisements are put on the Internet, it is conceivable that, firstly, there will be no forwarding or dissemination, and secondly, many people will skip them directly and will not watch the advertisements.

The main reason why brainwashing advertising can exist is the existence of compulsory media, which provides opportunities for this form of advertising.

Compulsory media is hard media, and the advertising strategies used in compulsory media are very different from those used in Internet advertising.

Media like elevator media, which traps people inside and repeatedly broadcasts propaganda, is the pinnacle of compulsory media.

What is controversial is that these media outlets profit from brainwashing advertisements, but it is the consumers who are really annoyed, and these media outlets have not won the consent of the consumers.

Summarize

Brainwashing advertisements consume the value of media. Especially some media that people can choose, some high-quality media will not undertake this type of advertising.

But because of the existence of some compulsory media, even excessive brainwashing advertisements still have a place to be placed, so there will still be a market.

People who do this kind of advertising essentially want to help the brand, it just depends on how well they grasp the scale. No tests have been conducted to determine what number of repetitions and delivery times are most effective.

Is there a suitable line in the middle, crossing which will bring negative consequences?

Source: Jiatao Jiatao (ID: jiataojiatao789)