US companies spend around $170 billion dollars on advertising yearly, so they seem to think it does.

美國的企業每年斥資約 1700 億美元的預算來製作廣告，所以看來他們相信廣告是有用的。

Successful advertising uses a variety of tricks and techniques to influence the consumer.

一個成功的廣告會用各種手法來影響消費者。

They evoke positive memories and emotions that affect our behaviour over time and prompt us to buy something at a later date.

比如運用正面的印象及情感來影響我們的行為，刺激我們之後去消費。

Marketing needs to reach the subconscious levels of the brain in order for it to work.

只要你的廣告成功植入消費者的潛意識中，你就成功了。

People don’t like to think that they’re easily influenced.

消費者不想承認他們的腦波弱。

Humans instinctively look at something that someone else is looking at, so ads often include a model looking right at the main target or message.

人們會下意識地去看別人在看的東西，因此廣告中的模特兒常會看向商品或標語。

It’s best to use happy faces in ads because we have mirror neurons that prompt us to mimic the expression of a person we’re looking at.

廣告中的人物通常都笑臉迎人，因為我們腦中的鏡像神經元會刺激我們去模仿眼前人的表情。

People find faces with dilated pupils more attractive.

研究發現擁有大瞳孔的人更具吸引力。

Most major advertisers increase the pupil size of their models in Photoshop.

因此大多數廣告商會用修圖軟體將模特兒的瞳孔修得更大。

If you position your product toward a viewer’s dominant hand in an ad, it heightens to imagine product gives.

另外，如果讓廣告模特兒以慣用手拿產品，將有助於刺激觀眾產生與產品的連結。

Researchers experimenting with images of cups, bowls and sandwiches encountered the greatest success when appealing to the right-hand side.

學者用杯子、碗和三明治的影像做實驗，發現用右手拿產品的廣告都非常成功。

Colors have powerful associations in ads.

配色的挑選也對廣告的效果有極大影響。

Brands choose the colors of their logos based on what they’re trying to convey.

品牌商會基於想傳達的訊息而選擇商標顏色。

Red connotes action, excitement, and youth. Green implies freshness, growth, and health. Blue shows trust, confidence, and security.

紅色代表行動、興奮和年輕；綠色代表新鮮、成長和健康，藍色則表示信任、信心和安全。

Ads often prime the consumer by naming a higher price beforehand so their price is not so bad in comparison.

商人經常在廣告中展示比較高的價格，再給出折扣，用對比的效果讓價錢看起來沒那麼高。

To persuade the consumer that their product is superior, advertisers use techniques like the weasel claim.

廣告商也經常用話術來營造所宣傳產品優於競品的感覺。

It’s vague and ambiguous but sounds true enough that consumers believe the claim.

他們的言辭既模糊又模棱兩可，但聽起來又有幾分真實，有些消費者因此上勾。

The unfinished claim which argues that the product is better or has more of something but does not finish the comparison.

廣告商還會用「不完整比較」手法，去比較所宣傳的產品和競品，宣稱產品優於其他同類型產品，但卻只做局部比較，沒有提供充分的資訊讓消費者判斷何者更適合自己。

The endorsement or testimonial where celebrity or authority claims to use the product when they often don’t.

常見招數還有請名人或權威人士背書推薦他們根本沒用過的產品。

In the 70s, Miller Lite commercials featured sports legends and celebrities and their beer sales increased from 7 million barrels to 31 million.

70 年代的米勒淡啤酒請來著名運動員和明星當代言人，銷量從 700 萬桶一下暴增到 3100 萬桶。

And the rhetorical question which demands a response in such a way that validates the products’ merits.

有些廣告標語會運用「修辭性疑問句」來強調產品優點。

After the launch of Got Milk, sales of milk in California rose 7 percent in just one year.

在「來杯牛奶嗎？」的廣告推出後，加州牛奶銷量在短短一年內上升了 7%。

So what do you think?

看完這些廣告的幕後秘密，你覺得如何呢？

Got brainwashed?

覺得被洗腦了嗎？