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This is your brain on a Super Bowl ad
February 7, 2006
And the other winner of the Super Bowl is...Coke. That's according to brain experts, who for the second time in two years, have studied the neurons firing inside people's gray matter while they watched Super Bowl commercials. FKF Applied Research, with the help of UCLA's Ahmanson Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, said that Coca-Cola's "Video Game" ad--a 60-second animated spot that promotes random acts of kindness--scored this year because it elicited the most positive emotions in subjects' brains.
"Coke's ad did well because it engaged a full range of emotions, including the mirror region, which is associated with connection and empathy," said Joshua Freedman, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at UCLA and co-founder of FKF Applied Research. "Asking someone what is going on in their brain is in some ways like asking them what is going on in their heart."
FKF studied 10 men and women ages 18 to 34 by using UCLA's functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) brain-imaging system. fMRI is a relatively new technology used to analyze activity, or blood flow, in various centers of the brain that govern people's desires, fears and other cognitive control centers. When specific areas of the brain are active, blood circulation and oxygen increase in those regions, and the imaging technology can detect that activity.
Aside from the relative triviality of Super Bowl ad responses, the technology is fueling a revolution in scientific understanding of the brain and human emotions. In the last five years, fMRI has helped neuroscientists study human choices and behavior, laying the groundwork for the understanding of how people make decisions. Freedman said that the science is now also informing other academic fields like economics, sociology and, of course, marketing.
Through brain imaging, for example, FKF has found that people typically ignore between a third and half of all commercials. And while the Super Bowl is known for its standout and pricey commercials (advertisers reportedly dropped $2.6 million on 30-second spots this year), the 2007 Super Bowl was no exception. "The majority (of ads) elicited very little response," Freedman said.
Top-ranking ads
Coca-Cola: "Video Game"
Doritos: "Live the Flavor"
Bud Light: "Hitchhiker"
Worst-ranking ads
Emerald Nuts: "Robert Goulet"
Honda: "CRV Crave"
Sprint: "Connectile Dysfunction"
Source: FKF Applied Research
The commercials that did fire up people's neurons were largely playing on human fears and anxieties, according to Freedman. That's a recipe for bad marketing, he said, because people typically filter out such commercials after their first viewing.
"This clearly was the year of the amygdala, the brain's 'threat detector,'" he said.
As a result, the big losers were ads like GM's "Robot," which shows a carmaking robot that becomes depressed when it loses its factory job. Another low scorer was Sprint's "Connectile Dysfunction"--a play on erectile dysfunction ads, but for broadband.
The worst commercial, according to FKF, was Emerald Nuts' commercial, which shows entertainer Robert Goulet messing with office workers' stuff while they're asleep.
So if these commercials spark anxiety so well, why aren't they more successful? Freedman said that the brain works in a modular fashion, and a person can be like the CEO of many little brains, weighing various responses in the background like, "Does this make me feel safe? Is this something I want? Will this make me more desirable?" In general, when people are anxious, they will push away whatever is making them feel that way.
In the positive column, FKF found that Doritos' "Live the Flavor" commercial ran neck and neck with Coca-Cola. Doritos' 30-second spot depicted two people--a guy in a car and a girl on the street (each with a bag of Doritos)--who become instantly smitten and then fumble around until they meet.
There's something to be said for chemistry.
See more CNET content tagged:
Super Bowl, brain, Coca-Cola Co., emotion, robot
--mark d.
http://www.summitpost.org/user_page.php?user_id=26307
Here is their skit.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7817230440629685181
Personally my favourite, if you can have a favourite ad, was the one with the dog - and I can't even remember what the product was.
water can be associated with "positive" emotion...makes me want to
soak my pancreas in it... OY!
Anyway, everybody knows the Superbowl's a big waste of time. All American sport is.
Disturbing.
And yet the real violence...the actual football game...where people are routinely injured, many times permanently...goes without comment.
Rita, come on. If you're such a delicate flower that those commercial bother you, then you certainly shouldn't be watching the actual football game in which these commercials are shown.
Give us a break.
I dont think there were too many I found funny at all.
The Taco Bell one with the lions saying "how do my teeth look?" Then ask for sour cream... that made me chuckle. (I love lions)
The "rock, paper scissors" wasn't half bad - but instead of bouncing the rock off the guys head...i was expecting someone else to come and take it. So, maybe I chuckled there too.... The 'depressed robot' Oh please... that was really bad.
all in all, the commercials were terrible this year.
One that I thought was really cute, though it wasn't new -- was it Sports Channel?? With all 3 Mannings and the 2 boys acting like "kids"
Now that was cute.... but it I'd seen it weeks ago.
"Hey, let's have two ugly burly guys going down on a big Snickers until they kiss. Then embarrassed and ashamed, each will rip out chest hair to prove he's not gay."
"Yeah. That will be great! We can offend gay people AND repulse straight people with just one commercial."
Amazing.
Seriously, you're the moron. I suggest you consult a dictionary and/or a psychologist.
Picture a day farther in the future when a students lessons are tailored from second to second. Is the student getting board? change stuff up. Does the student not understand what you are saying? rephrase it.
Picture a day when a terrorist has planted a bomb. No one knows where it is. Show him a map and some pictures of different places. When you show him the place the bomb is, you will know.
Are there ways that this can and will be abused? Yes, but keeping this in the public view vs some closed lab somewhere will make it harder to use in a bad way.
This "Scientific" endeaver ranks right up there with stem cell researcher Hwang Woo-suk.
How many fMRI machines were used on how many people?
This seems to be a plug for Joshua Freedman's Nexus EQ Change Mangement. It's not worth Six Seconds. With Brother Tom Freedman, they founded FKF Applied Research(Freedman Knapp & Freedman I assume).
Now do they own the MRI machines or do their Non-Profit Org. get to use U.C.L.A equipment. Are UCLA Students really interns for these guys? Is Stepanie Olsen just a front newsperson for connected P.R. Statements? We deserve a crumb of good hard data if we have to eat this intellectual hooey.
For the first time in a long time, the game was the only thing worth watching.
I love Snickers, but I don't think I could eat a big Snickers after watching that. What was their ad agency thinking?
"Hey, let's have two ugly burly guys going down on a big Snickers until they kiss. Then embarrassed and ashamed, each will rip out chest hair to prove he's not gay."
"Yeah. That will be great! We can offend gay people AND repulse straight people with just one commercial."
Amazing.
I liked the Coke GTA ad though.
Americans can't "do" sport. Simple as.
wasn't the most clever, creative, and funny ad during the
broadcast.
No contest.
And no one over 27 understood the GTA Coke commercial.
- I can't for the life of me figure out...
- by extinctone February 8, 2007 11:34 AM PST
- why people get so excited about bowling.
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