I’ve never really noticed how few advertisements appeal to you emotionally. As Il Divad commented in his blog post, many advertisements do lack substance. Sure, some of them are funny or entertaining, but they’re not thought provoking enough to stay on your mind.
In my opinion, trying to sell something by eliciting a strong emotional response such as happiness or sadness works much better than just relying on reasoning. Take the Thai Life Insurance ads mentioned in Il Divad‘s blog. Honestly speaking, I’ve watched every single one, and all of them brought tears to my eyes. Let’s just say that if Thai Life Insurance were sold here, I’d probably buy them over other options.
What’s interesting to me, though, is that the ads don’t really connect to to life insurance in some cases. See the advertisement I’ve embedded below:
After reflecting on this commercial, I’ve concluded that it would fit better with safe driving advertisements. In this situation, buying life insurance doesn’t resolve the problem the father has with his son. Sure, the son will receive his father’s life insurance money, but that can’t replace his father, now can it? In fact, it seems like the advertisement is saying that if you weren’t there for your son, he’ll realize that you cared about him once he receives your life insurance payout when you die. Not something you really want to promote, in my opinion.
This next one is even less related to life insurance:
If you asked me what I thought this commercial was for without telling me beforehand, I would never have come up with life insurance.
Despite the differences between what they’re selling and what the advertisements are showing, Thai Life Insurance has done a good job. I mean, they’ve got me interested, and I don’t even live in Thailand.