The use of pseudoscience and experimentation as a persuasive resource in new advertising communication trends

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2018-1315

Keywords:

Creativity, advertising, pseudoscience, sociological experiment, viral advertising, experiential advertising

Abstract

Over the years, advertising communication has sought to use creativity to differentiate products and brands; using all possible resources available and with no hesitation in absorbing techniques and methods from different disciplines for the symbolic creation of values and perceptions. With the technological changes and developments in the last 15 years, advertising communication has evolved substantially to adapt to the new media arising in the digital environment. Thus not only the media have transformed but, consubstantially, the means of communicating, objectives and ways have evolved. This scenario has led to the emergence of various, apparently antagonistic, advertising trends. We can see the rise in new vintage trends that recover what is artisan and handmade, while campaigns are developed with increasingly technological applications (bots and new artificial intelligence, for example). These include a great tendency towards scientific and pseudoscientific justification. This not only involves applying neuromarketing to sales environments, but rather recovering old product demonstrations with brand values or understanding the insights applied to a creative concept. Advertising creativity recovered old psychological experiments used in the ‘60s and ‘70s, such as the marshmallow experiment, applying them to new creative proposals in special actions. In this way, psychological and sociological advertising experiments find a new way of using the product “demonstration”, or a “scientific” argument for the purchase, creating a brand image or promoting a change in attitude. This text analyses the most representative examples of this recently extended practice in order to analyze their characteristics, conceptualization and audiovisual production, so as to better understand the mechanisms used by the advertising sector to persuade and convince about certain changes in attitude.

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Author Biography

Begoña Moreno López, European University of Madrid

She currently works as a professor at the School of Arts and Communication, Universidad Europea de Madrid, teaching subjects related to creativity, creative thinking and art direction. She has collaborated on the Zinkproject! Master’s Degree in Creativity, on the Master’s Degree in Cultural Engineering at La Fábrica and the Master’s Degree in Communication for Social Purposes at UVA.

She specializes in guerrilla advertising and new liquid advertising and has given various lectures at prestigious universities such as the National College of Arts in Dublin, Staffordshire University, Hogeschool van Amsterdam or Hogeschool van Maastricht.

Her main lines of research are related to creativity, innovation and migrants. This has led her to work as a researcher at the Grupo I.K. on the research project “Gender and Communication”, and she is currently part of IN-MIGRA2-CM, “The migrant population of the Autonomous Community of Madrid: multidisciplinary study and tools for socio-linguistic integration” and the “Communication and migrations” project.

On a professional level, she has worked as Art Director at agencies such as McCann-Erickson, Delvico Bates and 210Publicidad. She is Creative Director at Pitching Minds, winning over 20 awards with her teams. She has directed and organized the El Cencerro Rural Ad Festival and is Creative Director at Maldita Studio.

Publications

MORENO, B. (2017) El uso creativo de la pseudociencia y la experimentación en las nuevas tendencias de comunicación publicitaria. Sociedad Latina de Comunicación Social 2017

MORENO, B. (2012) Los showcases como nuevo formato publicitario al servicio de la marca. Sociedad Latina de Comunicación Social 2012

MORENO, B. (2012)Inspiración, casualidad o copia. La confluencia entre el Street art y el Street advertising. Studies on art and social communication. Cuadernos Artesanos de Latina, 20. 2012

MORENO, B. (2011)Acciones de guerrilla. Cuando la publicidad es noticia. Nuevos Medios, Nueva Comunicación. Congreso Comunicación 3.0 2011

MORENO, B. (2008)Campaña de lanzamiento: Compañía universitaria de teatro. Estudiar comunicación en la sociedad del conocimiento. Educational projects. 2008

Scientific work management

International Congress of Mayors. Segovia. (2017)
Innovation Seminars. UEM (2015-2017)
Multiseminar Skills Training Seminar
National College of Arts. Dublin. 2014
Universidad de Comillas. Madrid 2013
III Strategic Planners Congress. UEM (2013)
Universidad de Valladolid.  Summer Course, New Work Culture from Communication. 2012
Universidad de Valladolid. Master in Communication with Social Purposes, 2011-2012
Communication 3.0. Universidad de Salamanca (2011)
Hogeschool van Amsterdam. Amsterdam 2011
Zinkproject! Master Madrid 2011
Universidad de Valladolid. Publicatessen Seminars. 2011
La Fábrica. Master's in Cultural Engineering. Madrid 2011
Popular and mass literature in the Hispanic area. CSIC (2010)
Digital Branding. Zinkproject! (2009)
Staffordshire University. Staffordshire 2009
Hogeschool Zyud Maastrich. Maastricht 2009
Universidad de Valladolid. Master's in Communication with Social Purposes. 2008-2009

Panels and awards.
Director at Pitching Minds (since 2011). Teams of students to take part in Advertising Festivals. Main awards: Gold Sun, 2011; Merit D&AD 2012; Gold and Silver at JCDecaux 2012; Gold, Silver and Bronze at Cinespot (2012); Gold at El Chupete (2013); Gold at Cinespot (2013); Gold at El Chupete (2014); Gold for Young Talent at Smile (2015); Gold for Film at Smile (2015); Gold at El Chupete (2015); Gold for Graphics at Smile (2016); Gold for Illustration at Smile (2016); Gold for Film at Smile (2016); Gold for Young Talent at Publifestival (2016); Gold for Group Talent at Publifestival (2016); Gold at JCDecaux (2016); Gold at El Chupete (2016); Gold for Viral at Smile (2017); Gold for Film at Smile (2017); Gold at Educafestival (2017)

Graduation Project Defense Panel Member (since 2011).
Panel. Smile Festival. European Advertising and Humor Festival. 2015
Panel. Young Lions Awards. Cannes International Advertising Festival. 2011

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Published

2018-11-08

How to Cite

Moreno López, B. . (2018). The use of pseudoscience and experimentation as a persuasive resource in new advertising communication trends. Revista Latina De Comunicación Social, (73), 1428–1444. https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2018-1315

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Miscellaneous

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