Classical Conditioning in Marketing

Businesses and special interest groups use classical conditioning to advertise all different types of products.  Classical conditioning is implemented in hopes of attaining a positive or a negative response to a stimulus. In order to attain a reaction, the advertisement often uses an unconditioned stimulus to provoke a conditioned response to their product, or conditioned stimulus. This unconditioned stimulus automatically elicits an innate response.  The conditioned response is a reaction to a new stimulus that must be learned.

Fast food companies are a common source of misleading advertisement that uses classical conditioning.  The picture to the below shows the difference between the advertised product and the actual product. There is an obvious difference between each picture:


-The advertised Burger King Whopper is nicely put together with fresh lettuce, tomatoes, and onion whereas the actual burger seems to be slopped together with less lettuce and tomato.

-The advertised McDonalds Angus Deluxe has a large burger patty and cheese that melts over the side of the burger. The actual product has a much smaller patty and the cheese is too small to even be visible.

-The advertised Taco Bell Crunchy Taco is filled to the top and contains an abundance of meat, whereas the actual product contains less taco filling and the meat is not at all visible
http://idaconcpts.com/2010/10/07/false-advertisement-of-fast-food

These fast food companies know that their customers are attracted to fresh foods that give them the most for their money, so that is what they show us.  We are naturally attracted to food that looks fresh, healthy, and filling; this is an unconditioned stimulus. These companies know that we will have a positive conditioned response to this new conditioned stimulus if they include the use of unconditioned stimulus. In other words, they advertise well-liked food in order to encourage us to try their new product which includes these known foods. It is important to be aware of this dishonest use of advertisement.  What you see in the pictures may not be what you get.  A fast food restaurant's goal is to sell food quickly, not to sell healthy or filling food.

Political campaign advertisement also uses classical conditioning to influence viewers.  These advertisements use many misleading images to influence voters' opinions. The advertisement to the right depicts and elderly man, a teacher, a firefighter, and Mitt Romney.  The pictures of the elderly man, the teacher, and the fire fighter are the unconditioned stimulus in this case.  This advertisement's target audience will automatically have a positive reaction to these three pictures. Mitt Romney represents the conditioned stimulus; he is a new person that the audience has yet to form a completely negative or positive opinion towards. The use of the unconditioned and conditioned stimulus will cause the audience to form a conditioned response to Mitt Romney.  In Romney's quote the phrase, "those people" is implied to refer to the elderly, teachers, and firefighters.  The audience will respond negatively to Mitt Romney, because they do not agree with his disregard for people that they respect. The add implies that Mitt Romney said that he does not care about elderly, teachers, or firefighters.  Whether or not he does, Mitt Romney never said that he did not care about these people. The "47 percent" that Mitt Romney referred to may include some elderly, teachers, and firefighters, but it is unlikely that every single elderly person, teacher, and firefighter in America falls within this percentage of people.

It is important to think about the strategies that advertisers use in order to influence viewers' decisions and opinions.  When viewing an advertisement, make sure that you really know what you are looking at.  Be aware of the images and of how they make you feel.  Advertisers use these images because they already know how the images will affect the audience.