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understand the old paradigm (emotionsinterfere with rationality) versus the new(emotions guide rationality and causeattention).

Descartes – physician,neurologist, philosopher, 1600sWhy did Damasio call his book Descartes’ Error ?

Simply because that is what it is about:the whole paradigm shift is a change fromDescartes’ premise to a more modernview about the role of emotions.

Descartes postulated that we arerational beings ( Cogito ergo sum – I thinktherefore I am) and that emotions areaffections that make us non-rational andshould be separated from the way westudy how people think. Emotions createirrationality.

Freud – physician, qualifiedneurologist, late 1800sFor 300 years there was no real progress,until Sigmund Freud postulated anumber of theories about how we think.

He said his theories were mere stop-gaps, until more was known about theinner workings of the brain. To an extentthis is what we are seeing 100 years later,

with the changing paradigm regardingthe role of emotions.

Freud is especially known for histheories about the subconscious, as wellas the concept of phobias that live in thesubconscious. A phobia is an irrationalfear – emotion.

Freud explained it thus: he had apatient with an irrational fear of horses.The man rationally knew horses wouldnot attack him, yet he had a phobia hecould not logically explain. Throughprobing and hypnotism Freud discoveredthat, as a boy, the man had been bittenby a horse. Although he retained no con-scious memory of this, the fear remained.

Thus Freud continued the Descartianparadigm that emotions are separatefrom the rational and interfere withrational processes.

We will see how Damassio’s paradigmexplains the phobias Freud observed.

Roger Sperry –neurologist, 1970sSperry performed operations on epilepticpatients whose corpus callosum (theconnection between brain hemispheres)was severed. He observed behaviouraldifferences, which led him to concludethat the two hemispheres had specialised

functions.He concluded that the left hemispherespecialised in verbal and the right invisual stimuli.

This was further interpreted to meanthat the left hemisphere was involved inrational tasks, the right in emotionaltasks.

Thus Sperry was also being Descartian,seeing emotional processes as differentfrom rational processes.

By the end of the 1970s brain scientistsdiscarded the hemispheric theories –

although they persist in pop psychology.Herbert Krugman – marketresearcher, 1970sIn 1977, Krugman (a market researcher atGeneral Electric) attempted to relate

Advertisers’ newinsight into the brain

RECENT NEW INSIGHTS into howthe human brain works are morethan just a breakthrough: they

involve a paradigm shift. It is tantamountto our having a new set of spectacles tounderstand the consumer, advertisingand marketing, and to review the mass of data we hold.

However, we need to be careful not toconfuse the availability of new technolo-gies with which to see into the brain withthe paradigm shift that is happening.

It is true that new scanning techniquesallow us to peek into a functional humanbrain. It is also true that the two people(Joseph LeDoux and Antonio Damasio)most credited with the shifting paradigmabout the role of emotions in the work-ings of our brains are neurologists. Buttheir work is not derived from the newscanning abilities. It is totally coinciden-tal that breakthroughs in scanningoccurred at the time their theories aboutemotion were published.

What happens when paradigms shifthas some common features.1. The world does not change, but theway we understand it changes (Darwin-ism did not create evolution, the worldwas just better understood throughDarwin’s spectacles).2. The instruments we use to measure theworld have not changed – they often guidedthe shifting paradigm. (Astronomerscould predict the planets’ paths quite well,even using the old spectacles of the earthas centre of the universe.)3. The data we have is better understoodwhen the world is viewed through newspectacles. (Small unexplained variationsin the planets’ paths were explainedwhen the spectacle of the sun as centre of their paths was used.)4. There is no turning back. Once a

paradigm shift has occurred and the logicalsense the new one makes has beenaccepted, there is only a small group of conservatives clinging to the old paradigm.

To appreciate the implications foradvertising practices, one must

Brain science is revolutionising advertising thinking and research. Millward Brown’sErik du Plessis explains the implications for advertisers

‘To appreciate theimplications foradvertising practices,one mustunderstand the oldparadigm (emotionsinterfere withrationality) versusthe new (emotionsguide rationality andcause attention)’

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And:8. right hemisphere specialises in

images9. TV advertising uses images10. therefore it is processed in the right

hemisphere11. recognition measures use images12. therefore recognition accesses the

right hemisphere13. therefore recognition should be used

to measure TV advertising14. Krugman called this Low Involve-

ment Processing.Besides the obvious circularity in this

argument, based on no empiricalresearch, one can see how the Cartesianrational versus emotional paradigmpersisted.

LeDoux and Damasio –neurologists, 2000These two neurologists proposed the newparadigm about the role of emotion.

Damasio’s book, Descartes’ Error , setsthe new paradigm directly againstDescartes’ paradigm, which persisted inthe theories of Freud and Sperry (andKrugman regarding advertising).

It has long been known that emotionsemanate from the limbic system (situatedin the lower part of the brain – also

known as the reptilian brain) and mani-fest themselves as autonomic reactions(reactions the conscious mind has littlecontrol over). When an observation isbeing interpreted, it is only half interpretedby the time it reaches the limbic system,but already emotional memory is part of the interpretation and might cause thelimbic system to react – before any rationalinterpretation.

The new paradigm is as follows.1. LeDoux: emotions cause attention toshift towards the stimulus that causes an

emotion, as a result of the limbic system’sautonomic reaction.2. Damasio: emotions create a ‘soma’ forthe developing perception, which sets thebackground against which logical inter-pretation of the perception (cognition, or

rational thinking) happens. (By soma hemeans the memory of how the body feltpreviously when it experienced what isbeing observed.)

The following quote from the flyleaf of Damasio’s book explains the secondpoint: ‘Far from interfering with rational-ity, the absence of emotion and feelingcan break down rationality and makewise decision-making almost impossible.’

In essence, the new paradigm explainswhy emotions are vital to our survival,why emotions exist in organisms mucholder than us on the Darwinian scale andwhy evolution favours emotions.

Let us review how this would apply tothe Freudian concepts of phobias and thesubconscious. When the horse bit theman as a child, he would have learned tofear horses (emotion). Subsequently, eachtime he saw a horse he would have givenit unreasonable attention and his reactionwould have been negative. Over time hewould have forgotten the reason, butthe emotional reaction would haveremained – and strengthened each timehe saw a horse. There is nothing sub-conscious about this, just natural survivalbehaviour.

Closed philosophical systems

The things Descartes, Freud and peoplelike LeDoux and Damasio concern them-selves with are the subject matter of philosophy: Why are we? How are we?What we are?

Philosophical paradigms are eitheropen systems that can be verified bydirect observation and measurement, orclosed systems , implying that you canonly measure them if you believe inthem. Freudian and Jungian belief systems are closed. Christianity is a closedsystem: if you are a believer, you see the

hand of God in everything; if not, you seethe hand of God in nothing.At this stage, the systems of LeDoux

and Damasio are still closed. What theypropose about the brain is driven by theirknowledge of brain systems, their

Sperry’s neurological theories to the wayadvertising should be measured.

At the time, the major debate in the USwas whether one should use recall orrecognition to measure advertising, adebate largely ignored by the UKresearch community – fortunately forthem. This debate continued into the1990s, with contributors like HubertZielske, Larry Gibson, Esther Thorsenand Joel Dubow.

Krugman’s sole mission was to explain

why recognition should be used tomeasure TV ad awareness and recall forprint ad awareness. He was not reallyinterested in explaining how advertisingmight work.

His argument was:1. left hemisphere specialises in words

and logic2. print advertising uses words and

logic3. therefore it is processed in the left

hemisphere4. recall measures use words.

5. therefore recall accesses the lefthemisphere6. therefore recall should be used to

measure print advertising.7. Krugman called this High Involve-

ment Processing.

Erik du Plessis is CEO ofMillward Brown, South Africa,

and formerly ran his owncompany, Impact, also in

South Africa. Both MillwardBrown and Impact are well

known for their expertise inbrand and advertising

research.

‘The major debate inthe US was whetherone should userecall or recognitionto measureadvertising, a debatelargely ignored bythe UK researchcommunity –fortunately for them’

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experiences with brain-damaged people

and some common sense. Since 1994 noone has challenged their views and theyare quoted in most books about the brainor emotions.

The main reason for their systemsstill being closed is a lack of funds tostudy large samples of people reacting tostimuli under normal circumstances.Market researchers and advertisers haveextensive databases that report onexactly that: normal people reacting tonormal stimuli. We even have a fewdesigned by the industry to avoid anypartiality. As an industry we can add a lotof value to developing insights about themind.

My book The Advertised Mind (1)devotes a section to inspecting well-known industry database results (onlyone of these from Millward Brown) to seewhether they refute or endorse theLeDoux and Damasio hypotheses.

There can be little doubt the advertis-ing and market research industriessupply immense evidence for the newparadigm, and will be major contributorsto opening the LeDoux–Damasio system.

The only other author trying to bringempirical evidence to bear on the newparadigm is Robert Heath, who haspresented award-winning work at theMarket Research Society Conference (2).He interpreted his results using theKrugmanian spectacles of low versushigh-involvement processing, implyingthat one should use either recall orrecognition, depending on whether theadvertisement is intended as a low-attention process or a high-attentionprocess. I believe his results can also be

interpreted using LeDoux–Damasiospectacles.Emotions are generally seen to have

two dimensions.1. Direction towards or away from(‘motivate’, ‘emotion’ and ‘move’ allderive from ‘ movere ’)2. Urgency do it quickly, or take yourtime, or not important.

LeDoux based his views especially onthe emotion of fear, which translatesinto: move away from, urgently. Inadvertising, we seldom use fear as a moti-

vating emotion. Advertisers tend to use itsopposite – love or like. In The Advertised Mind , I show this measure of adliking behaves as the LeDoux–Damasiohypothesis suggests – positive, emotionalresponse leads to better recall.

What the new paradigm impliesfor advertising and research1. The emotional and rational are nottwo conflicting things in the brain, butwork together towards the survival of theorganism:

emotions direct attention, so that theorganism recognises things it shouldavoid or approach.emotions set the soma against whichobservation is rationally interpreted.

2. Emotion is a physiological reactionthat occurs autonomously in the limbicsystem as part of the interpretation of observations, prior to the interpretedobservation being used in the rationalfrontal lobes.

3. An emotion has two dimensions.Direction towards or away from whatis observed.Intensity .

In consumer language this is reflected bya scale ranging from hate, fear to dislike,irritate, antipathy to like to love. Thisscale combines direction and urgency.

4. While positive emotions in advertis-ing are not a pre-requisite for effectiveadvertising, indications from both theSPOT study in Holland (TV) and Sanomamagazines’ STOP/WATCH study inBelgium (print) are that emotionsaccount for more than 40% of the effec-tiveness of advertisements.

5. The best surrogate measure for theautonomic emotional reaction appears tobe ad liking.

6. Emotions attract attention to the ad(which enhances memory laydown),

and this is reflected in awareness meas-

ures like recall. Recall measures favouremotional advertising, rather thanpenalise it as Krugman hypothesised.Esther Thorsen was the first to show thisempirically.

7. Positive emotions create a positive‘soma’ against which the ad is experi-enced, created by, among other things:

humouraspirationsnew information, relevant to theviewer, about the brandreminders of positive experiences withthe brand.

8. Negative emotions still attract atten-tion, but create a negative soma, causedby anything in the ad that irritates people.

9. People will not give attention to adsthat are deemed familiar (just another ad),or that they find confusing.

10. There is a general belief among UKadvertisers that US advertising attemptsto be brash and intrusive in an effort tograb attention. UK advertising agenciesascribe this to US advertisers beingenamoured of recall measures in the1970s. The LeDoux–Damasio paradigmargues that to achieve attention it is agood idea to use positive emotions inadvertising, rather than shout or irritateto grab attention. Brash advertising leadsto a negative soma, and will undo thebenefits to creative advertising of usingemotions in a positive way.

It seems logical that if advertisers usepositive emotions in their ads to attract

attention, people will generally likeadvertising and be less inclined to opt fordevices to avoid it.

The new paradigm favours UK-typecreativity over US-type creativity.

11. The new paradigm about the roleof emotions does not require newmetrics to measure advertising, but leadsto better understanding of the outputfrom existing metrics.

12. Most large-scale industry-sponsored

studies, like the ARF’s CRVP study, theDutch SPOT study, the Millward BrownADTRACK database, the BelgianSTOP/WATCH print study, all provideempirical evidence that supports the newparadigm.

‘It seems logical thatif advertisers usepositive emotions intheir ads to attractattention, people will

generally likeadvertising and beless inclined to optfor devices to avoid it’

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13. Most of what humans do is at a low-

attentive level. Nature protects us frombeing highly attentive, or emotional, orhighly aroused all the time, because thiswould lead to the human system burningout.

Advertising will seldom be consumedin a high-attentive level. However, viewsthat advertising works in low-attentiveways and therefore requires recognitionmeasures to be measured are Krugman-ian and part of old-spectacles thinking.

The function of emotion in advertisingis merely to shift the attention given to anad slightly up the scale.

14. Recall and recognition are comple-mentary measures.

Recognition approximates campaignreach and is time insensitive.Recall measures awareness and brandlinkage.The difference between the two (recog-nition minus recall) measures attentionand also brand linkage. It is an impor-tant (and dynamic) metric affecting themedia planning for an ad campaign.Using recognition alone will mostlylead to an under-spending media plan,penalising frequency – to the extentthat even an effective advertisementmight be made non-effective.

15. Understanding emotions in an adcampaign is largely an issue of develop-mental work and input into the creativeprocess, probably involving more qualita-tive than quantitative research. Pre-testingshould be mainly concerned with whetherthe desired emotions are created and couldbe enhanced. Post-tracking only needs to

verify that the emotional component of the advertisement is not wearing out.

16. It is important for multi-nationaladvertising to recognise that all culturesexperience the same emotions, but whatgives rise to those emotions can bedifferent. Some executions that creategreat positive emotions in one culturemay create no emotional reaction, or evena negative reaction, in another. ■

1. E du Plessis: The Advertised Mind: Ground- breaking Insights into How Our Brains Respond to Advertising. Kogan Page, 2005.

2. R Heath and P Hyder: Measuring the hidden power of emotive advertising. Market Research Society Conference, 2004.

Erik@impact.co.za