In the ad world, the most common technique used to manipulate anxiety is to use the fear of rejection and anxiety as a reason to sell. If you’ve never worked in advertising before, this is a good place to start – most of the techniques you’ll see in a typical ad are designed to manipulate anxiety.
In my opinion, the more effective techniques are really ones that exploit the consumer’s sense of insecurity. The reason is because we constantly have little things to be afraid of that we can’t really control. We’re always worried about the people we don’t like, we’re always afraid of the people we do like, and we’re always afraid of the people we care about. These fears are what make us feel insecure and therefore it has a direct correlation to the way you feel about a brand.
One way to see this is by taking a look at how you feel about a brand when you think of it. If you think of a brand as some kind of a friend you can talk with about all sorts of things, those things tend to be things you enjoy. If you think of a brand as some kind of a foe, you will have problems dealing with it. You can see this in the advertising world in how brands are often portrayed as an enemy.
One example of this is the ad campaign for the new Apple iPhone. A consumer who is feeling insecure about the brand of the iPhone can see it as a foe in the way the brand has the power to make him feel insecure. This is the same way that the ad campaign for the new Nintendo Wii was created when consumers were feeling insecure about the Wii.
However, in this sense, the problem isn’t that Apple’s ad campaign is manipulative. The problem is that the ad campaign is exploitative. Apple’s campaign is using the consumer as a means of promoting its own products. There is a difference between showing a product and showing that product as a way of thinking about the product. The ad campaign for the iPhone specifically shows it as a way of thinking about the iPhone. However, this is why the ad campaign for the Wii was so successful.
It is true that consumers are more insecure than ever, but they are also more aware than ever about their lack of control over their own lives. In a way, this is what makes the ad campaign so effective. The ad campaign is exploiting the consumer’s sense of insecurity.
What makes these ads effective is that consumers know that they would be better off if they were convinced they were in control of their lives. That being said, I think that the success of the ad campaigns for the iPhone and Wii is due to exploiting the consumers sense of insecurity. The iPhone is a relatively new product and therefore is not as highly targeted as the other two products. The Wii is a relatively new product and therefore was not as highly targeted as the other two toys.
The more things change the more they stay the same. And the more things change the more they stay the same. Which is why it’s important to always remember that the things we think we know with certainty are always wrong. You can’t be sure you won’t be killed in a car crash. You can’t say you’re going to be in an accident, but you can know that it’s not going to happen.
This is the thing that I find most frustrating about the advertising world. The only person I know who uses this excuse is my old boss, the ad exec. Yes, the same exec who has been the main proponent of the ‘it’s just a game’ argument, and who has been telling us about the Wii for years. But that is the thing that makes him the most infuriating.
The ad exec says, “I’m a business guy, I just don’t like to get hurt.” I have never met an exec who likes to get hurt. I’ve met people who were actually terrified of getting hurt. Like, maybe terrified enough to make death look like a more enticing prospect than it actually is.
