Image: When You Are Engulfed in Flames, David Sedaris
The TV commercial was gruesome: A group of skeletons sitting around a table, chatting and smoking. As they gestured, globs of fat splattered around, illustrating the consequences of smoking for heart, lungs, and arteries. And after watching the ad, a group of smokers in a focus group dutifully reported that yes, the ads were persuasive and made them less likely to smoke.
But they were lying. Or rationalizing. Or just indulging in a little wishful thinking. Because while they were watching the ads, they were hooked up to a device that was scanning their brain activity. These scans revealed a very different truth: when the smokers saw other people smoke, no matter what warning messages accompanied the image, they wanted to smoke, too.
This study was a very expensive scientific confirmation of two old sayings: “monkey see, monkey do, and “a picture is worth a thousand words.” And the study was no breakthrough, either. It was just a high-tech corroboration of a hefty body of research that concludes that humans — hairless upright monkeys that we are — imitate behavior that we see others doing.
In the conservation field, we often make this mistake: We show people some behavior and tell them it’s wrong. It’s a mistake because the showing is so much more powerful than the telling. Take a look at this ad here: A giant picture of a guy washing his car the wrong way, and a tiny bit of text explaining what the right way is. Which message comes through louder?
Click here to see the full sized ad.
Because a picture is worth a thousand words, I have a whole new section on this website about how to avoid mistakes like this. It’s called “Foolproof Photos.”
Enjoy!
P.S. Some shout outs for this post. The image of the smoking skeleton is from the cover of David Sedaris’ book “When You Are Engulfed in Flames.” It’s perfect for the post, but not really connected to the actual commercial. The story of the smoking skeleton commercial comes from “buy*ology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy,” by Martin Lindstrom. The car wash ad appears on the website of the Massachusetts DEP, but I’ve seen it in other places. Finally, a hat tip to Kelly at the Black River Action Team for sending me the carwash ad, and congrats on the nice new website.
Subscribe via RSS
Fan Our Facebook Page
Connect on LinkedIn
excellent piece…made me think & made me smile…thanks
I think the reason this car-washing ad sticks with me is because I saw it and immediately went “WHOA! TELL me he’s not really doing that?!?!?” It was an immediate reaction of “You wouldn’t wash your car IN the lake; washing it next to the lake or a storm drain is just as bad!” But I heartily agree that visuals stick with us far more readily than text messages, and showing someone what to do is far more meaningful than telling them — let alone showing them the wrong way but telling them the right way. That conflicts. This ad might work if there was a big red “X” through the image…maybe.
I’d be interested in comments on another aspect of this photo. Look at the washer, the black socks, the plaid shorts. It screams, this guys a geek, with the hoped for response that I don’t want to be like him. Is this sort of message seen as effective?
I totally agree with the main points Eric is making, but I would like to defend be carwash ad, which personally I find quite memorable and effective. I would suggest that the carwash ad is not really an example of showing people the wrong thing to do. If the guy was washing the car in his driveway, that would show people the wrong thing to do. But he’s washing his car in the middle of the LAKE, which is an impossible thing to do and therefore funny and attention-getting — it makes you look twice, and makes you think. The point of the ad is not that washing a car is bad per se (and therefore I take issue with Eric’s comment that the picture shows “a guy washing his car the wrong way”) — the point is, it matters WHERE you wash the car. And the most important point is “Driveway = Lake” — which I think comes across quite powerfully, because the image is both jarring and funny.
I agree with Ellie’s take on the car washing ad, but I think that the rest of the post is great. Props too for managing to integrate David Sedaris into a blog about environmental marketing. He’s hilarious and should be featured everywhere.