If I may so bold as to post on a topic other than financial meltdown, I would like to take a moment to respond to a question about TV advertising. Well, not a question as much as something someone said in a comments section of a web site, and not TV as much as the TV-show portal Hulu.com—a.k.a. the best web site ever. (If you’re one of those people who lives without a TV, Hulu is your main link to the outside world.)
Before you watch a TV show on Hulu, you sit through an ad, and often that ad is this public service announcement-style thing that tells you “Hulu users are proud to support Unicef.” Or “Hulu users are proud to support Big Brothers Big Sisters.” The comment I saw was made by someone who was annoyed at that construction. Why can’t they just say “Hulu supports blah blah blah”?!
Well, because they’re too smart for that. This is an example of social norms marketing, which plays on our tendency to do what other people like us are doing. Hulu users are supporting Unicef? Wait a second, I’m a Hulu user… where’s my checkbook?
The most talked-about application of social norms marketing is getting college kids to drink less by telling them that their peers don’t drink that much.
There was a big, six-year-long study at the University of Virginia published over the summer that demonstrated how well it works. By posting ads like this…
… the university was able to get students to act more prudently. The researchers found that thousands fewer students did things like drive under the influence, get hurt in alcohol-related events and engage in unprotected sex after they’d been drinking.
Of course, marketers have been doing this less blatantly since the beginning of time—everyone who drinks Bud Light is so beautiful—but I still think it’s cool to see people working for the public good catch on to the idea that we can be led to do their bidding by playing on our deep desire to conform.
Barbara!