Are You Immune To Advertising? Probably Not

Most of us like to think that Madison Avenue's best efforts roll off us like water off a duck's back. But don't bet on it. New research says advertising has a way of seducing our brains.

After all, it's one thing to go out and buy a new washing machine after the old one exploded, quite another to impulse-buy that 246-inch flat screen TV that just maybe, in hindsight, you didn't really need.

Advertisers come at you in two ways. There is the just-the-facts type of ad, called "logical persuasion," or LP. “Buy this car because it gets 42 miles to the gallon” can be pretty effective when prices at the pump are nearing $4 a gallon.

Then there are the ads that circumvent conscious awareness, called "non-rational influence," or NI. A sultry music track and a beautiful woman draped over a car is a classic example.

Different ads provoke different brain responses

Despite research surrounding the notion of neuromaketing, which studies consumers' cognitive responses to marketing stimuli, the impact on brain function of these types of real-world advertisements was unknown. Now, researchers at UCLA and George Washington University have shown that different types of advertisements evoke different levels of brain activity, depending on whether they use elements of logical persuasion or non-rational influence.

Reporting in the current online edition of the Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics, Dr. Ian Cook, a professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, and colleagues found that brain regions involved in decision-making and emotional processing were more active when individuals viewed ads that used logical persuasion than when they viewed ads that used non-rational influence.

Brain activity is good

This brain activity is helpful. We want our brains to work when we're faced with buying decisions. The researchers says these brain regions help us inhibit our responses to certain stimuli. In other words, they help us maintain some self control.

"Watch your brain and watch your wallet," Cook said. "These results suggest that the lower levels of brain activity from ads employing NI images could lead to less behavioral inhibition, which could translate to less restraint when it comes to buying products depicted in the NI advertisements."