a selling point, he may turn to irrelevancies. For instance, the ibuprofen-based pain reliever Nuprin is touted as being "Little. Yellow. Different." Obviously, such characteristics have nothing to do with the effectiveness of the product, and yet it has been a successful ad campaign.
The fact that ads like the latter are effective is best explained by the fact that the commercials main appeal is an emotional rather than a rational one. Indeed, the dominant trend in the eighties has been toward commercials with a specifically emotional impact, also called "image ads." Image ads do not concern themselves with petty things like product benefits or selling points; they often don't even bother to clearly identify what the product is until the end of the commercial (Cone 226). A typical case is a currently running spot on network television which shows a number of stylish young women in varying states of dishabille lounging around in starkly furnished rooms. Only at the very last moment is the viewer informed that this is, in fact, an advertisement for Lamps Plus.
Many image ads are so confusing that the viewer has to stare at the screen just to figure out what is going on - which is exactly the intended effect. Confusion, produced by unsteady camera work and unclear messages, grabs people's attention (Freedman 5). Advertisers have also learned that flashing images on the screen so quickly that they barely register is another good attentiongetting gimmick. The scientific reason for this is that sudden changes in scene cause an involuntary increase in brain activity and this increased activity is linked to the ability to remember a commercial better. Pontiac's most recent ads took this "flash" technique to an extreme. The longest shot in them is one and a half seconds, and the shortest shots are only one-quarter of a second long. Surveys of test audiences showed that these commercials had a much higher than average rate ...