Business Strategy Review, 2000, Volume 11 Issue 3, pp 17-30
Brands on the Brain:
Neuro-Images of Advertising
Tim Ambler, Andreas Ioannides and Steven Rose
Neuroscience is opening a new chapter of
understanding in many fields. One such
is how advertising works. For the first
time we can directly “see” some effects of
advertisements on the brain’s activity.
This article reports two small-scale
experiments into the differential effects of
advertising’s rational and emotional
components. Advertising has long been
seen as providing reasons to buy, however
subtle. In academic research at least, the
importance of emotion has often been
downplayed. The preliminary experiment
reported here shows how emotional ads
are more likely to be remembered. The
second experiment uses brain imaging to
investigate the part of the brain which
responds to emotionally-engaging
(“affective”) and reason-engaging
(“cognitive”) advertising stimuli. These
are very early days in using brain-imaging
techniques and these experiments are very
exploratory. However, as the three
Commentaries by Simon Broadbent,
Thomas O’Guinn and Larry Percy
suggest, along with other work, they
may point towards a revolution in
advertising research.
Scary as it may sound, if an ad does not modify the
brains of the intended audience, then it has not
worked. The response to advertising (how we encode
the message) matters more than the stimulus (the ad
itself) because the response is what the ad leaves
behind. Of course, different ads communicate different
things in different ways. Most importantly, we get the
same message in different ways and the message is
context dependent: a 19th century French man would
not have had the same take on an ad as a 21st century
American woman does today. But in any given context,
if managers knew how advertisement stimuli were
received and stored by the brain, and how they affect
brand choices at a later date, they could improve
advertising productivity.
Researchers and practitioners have been seeking to
discover how advertising works for a century or more.
For most researchers, ads were thought to work
rationally, though perhaps non-consciously.
Information was thought to be encoded (eg “the
unique selling proposition”) and to work by changing
our thinking (“cognition”) about the brand. The ads
had to be nicely presented so that we would swallow
the information pill. Maybe the scale of production
values (and the implied expenditure) communicated
Autumn 2000
18 Tim Ambler, Andreas Ioannides and Steven Rose
quality – but it was still a cognitive process.
Researchers (especially academics, and not just
economists) tend to be cognitively biased by the nature
of their disciplines and by the way data is gathered,
processed and reported. Consumers are asked what
they think and attitudes have to be put into words, if
not rationalised, before they can be communicated to
the researcher. The data are then manipulated in a
logical fashion, usually within a step-by-step
hierarchical model (Vakratsas and Ambler 1999).
Finally, the researchers report the results to a sceptical
audience. Most marketers, or so the joke goes, believe
small variations in research findings to be sampling
errors and large ones to be wrong.
Many practitioners, however, have long believed
that advertising effects were driven by how well the
Long-term Memory
It is hard to steer between opaque scientific
language, and inaccurate lay approximation, but
essentially we can think of human memory in the
following terms. Basically, there are two memory
systems, that differ mainly in the time scales at
which they operate: short-term memory, which
retains information about 5-6 hours, and long-term
memory, which stores information up to a lifetime.
The process of learning, or memory formation,
consists of transferring information from short-
term to long-term memory.
This process happens at the level of individual brain
cells (neurons). The human brain consists of billions
of neurons, each of which is connected to up to a
thousand others. Within each individual neuron
complicated chemical and electrical processes take
place. The collective activity of these neurons
somehow gives rise to our perceptions, memories,
emotions, etc. The point where two neurons make
contact is called a synapse which may be
understood as a unit of memory. Each of our
individual memories consists of a complex network
of neurons and synapses, typically involving several
areas of the brain.
The process of learning can be brought about by
at least three different mechanisms: (a) a change in
the sensitivity of a neuron at an existing synapse
by a process called long-term potentiation (LTP);
(b) the formation of completely new synapses,
Business Strategy Review
ads triggered emotional (“affective”) responses.
They doubt the relevance of neat academic step-
by-step models.
By directly capturing the brain’s responses to stimuli,
neuroscience now gives us, for the first time, the
opportunity to use the models and technology of
natural science to test the validity of these two
apparently conflicting views on how advertising
works. In fact, there is no suggestion that cognition
and affect are alternative or competitive. Indeed, they
are known to be massively interactive. Nevertheless,
in this article, we are concerned with the differences
between them in terms of how the brain processes
advertising. The experiments reported here suggest
that the advertising practitioners were right all along
and that emotional involvement (affect) is an integral
caused by the growth of new nerve endings; or (c)
the growth of completely new nerve cells, which
mainly takes place during maturation of the
nervous system in the early years of life.
The dual key (chemical and electrical) building of
synapses may explain why we have had so little
success with memory-enhancing drugs. The
importance of this process for us, though, is that
synapses are permanent parts of the body just like an
arm or a leg. They can be deformed or cut off but
they are just as much fixtures albeit greatly smaller.
They can be made to grow, presumably with
repetition and reinforcement, or they can wither a
bit if unused. But they remain in place indefinitely.
A brain area called the hippocampus seems
responsible for short term memory retention, and
also for the transfer of information to long term
memory, which is localised in parts of our neo-
cortex. The hippocampus is the area of the brain
through which the pathways of LTP travel. There
are two types of memories: associative and non-
associative. In both cases, the hippocampus has
specific pathways for varieties of LTP and more
than one pathway must be involved.
Therefore the job of a new brand is to create new
synapses through experience and advertising,
whereas an old brand, no matter how old, simply
needs to refresh synapses already in place.

and immediate part of all response to advertising, as
it is to other stimuli, and an essential feature of
consumer decision-making.
Brand choice, like any human decision, is driven by
what we have in our heads which, direct response
advertising aside, is really long-term memory (see box).
The research reported here relates only to the
immediate response to TV commercials.
The idea that different brain areas have different
functions is far from new but this is the first time that
this particular technology has been applied to moving
TV commercial images. In these early days, the
methodology is cumbersome and expensive. Only a
very few subjects can be recorded and analysed.
However, the technology is improving rapidly.
Our preliminary experiment tested whether affective
TV commercials would be better remembered. β-
blockers (propranolol), which suppress emotion, and
placebos were administered randomly to subjects who
were then exposed to the brand advertising. In the
main experiment, patterns of neural activity were
recorded by magnetoencephalography (MEG) whilst
subjects watched the same advertising stimuli. MEG
is a non-invasive technique which provides brain
images for later analysis.
This article is organised as follows. Previous research
is summarised to provide context and background for
the experiments. We then describe the methodology,
analysis and results. These experiments are small and
exploratory. Their main value is probably in helping
to structure further research since, for reasons of
sample size alone, they do not permit strong
conclusions. The middle part of the article is semi-
technical: readers interested only in the implications
for advertising may prefer to skip from the section on
previous research to the section on limitations and
future research.
Previous Research
Most advertising research has assumed that
consumers have an underlying economic rationality
(Vakratsas and Ambler 1999). Advertising was seen
as providing information and reasons to buy and/
or prefer the brand. The lack of new information
evident in most mass media advertising of consumer
packaged goods was rationalised as information on
brand quality, ie firms signal their belief in their
Brands on the Brain: Neuro-Images of Advertising 19
product quality by greater media expenditures (Davis,
Kay and Star 1991).
Published advertising research has been dominated by
“persuasive hierarchy” or “hierarchy of effects”
models (Holbrook 1986, Meyers-Levy and Malaviya
1999, Vakratsas and Ambler 1999). In these,
advertising is mentally processed sequentially in a
series of stages, with emotional engagement usually
following rational assessment: typically C ! A ! B
(cognition ! affect ! behaviour). Each stage is a gate,
eg an ad rejected by rational analysis will not receive
affective processing.
Neuroscience has also been mainly concerned with
rational processes:
“Neuroscientists have, in modern times, been
especially concerned with the neural basis of
cognitive processes such as perception and
memory. They have for the most part ignored the
brain’s role in emotion.” (LeDoux 1994, p. 32)
However, those neuroscientists engaged with emotion
may challenge LeDoux’s claim and the interest has
grown in both academic and popular media (eg
Greenfield 2000) since he wrote those words. Some
advertising theories, too, focus on the affective
responses, familiarity and feelings that the ads evoke
(see, for example, Aaker et al 1986, Alwitt and Leavitt
1985, Peterson et al 1986). In this model, consumers
form their preferences based on feelings, such as liking,
induced by the ad or familiarity triggered by mere
exposure to the ad, rather than product/brand attribute
information (Batra and Ray 1986, Janisewski and
Warlop 1993, Mitchell and Olson 1981, Shimp 1981,
Srull 1983 and 1990, Stuart et al 1987, Zajonc 1980,
Zajonc and Markus 1982).
Differences between the rational and affective schools
were put to the test by The ARF Copy Research
Validity Project in which Haley and Baldinger (1991)
showed ad likability to be more correlated with sales
than were persuasion and recall. Their conclusions
have been disputed (Rossiter and Eagelson 1994).
Brain imaging has previously appeared in the
marketing literature: eg Rothschild and Hyun
(1990) and Rothschild et al (1988) used electro-
encephalography (EEG) for memory and emotional
effects respectively. However, EEG is limited to
surface or near-surface readings whereas the newer
Autumn 2000
20 Tim Ambler, Andreas Ioannides and Steven Rose
MEG technology probes deeply into the brain. EEG
is also limited by the high resistivity of the skull
which makes the identification of the generators
difficult. For MEG, the skull is transparent and
hence it is easier to identify the sources in the brain.
Previously, Hansen (1981) suggested that right brain
processing dominates in low-involvement situations,
and left brain in high involvement. His conclusions
for the frequency and complexity of messages may
well be correct but neuroscience has moved a long way
from the simple left/right assumptions of that time.
One of the most interesting neuroscience
applications concerns the way facial expressions
Figure 1
Brain locations relevant to this paper
Frontal lobes
Cingulate gyrus
Ventro-medial
frontal lobes
Amygdala
Hippocampus
What Do These Parts of the Brain Do?
The upper frontal lobes (“prefrontal association
cortex”) deal with cognitive behaviour and action
planning. The lower parts (“limbic association
cortex”) deal with emotion and memory as do the
cingulate gyrus and the region around the
hippocampus. The amygdala and the hippocampus
are involved in the initial registration and
processing of emotional experiences and also the
pathways to and from long-term memory (see
earlier box). For both humans and other animals,
the amygdala together with sites in or near the
ventro-medial frontal lobes (VMFL) is thus
Business Strategy Review
communicate emotions (Ekman and Friesen 1978).
These and other non-verbal methodologies provide
exciting means to bypass the cognitive bias inherent
in conventional copy testing. Hazlett and Hazlett
(1999), for example, showed that facial expressions
measured by EMG (electromyography) were more
strongly correlated with recall than was
conventional copy testing. Furthermore EMG allows
practitioners to identify the effects of a commercial
moment by moment.
The frontal lobe is an important region of the brain
associated with, for example, creativity and sociability.
In particular, Damasio (1994) suggested that one part
Source: Kandel, Schwartz and Jessell 1991
involved in the registration and enhanced memory
retention for emotionally arousing events (Cahill
and McGaugh 1998). However, a meta-analysis
of recent functional neuro-imaging studies
showed that the posterior (righthand side in
figure 1) part of the cingulate is most consistently
activated by emotionally salient stimuli (Maddock
1999). Evidently the processing of emotional
stimuli, and whether they are memorised or not,
depend on a distributed system with key cortical
areas close to the anterior and posterior ends of
the cingulate.

of the frontal lobe, the VMFL, was crucial for decision-
making. His suggestion was that decision-making was
more associated with feelings than thinking and is co-
located with the processing of secondary level
emotions and in the context of past experience.
Damasio’s original work was based on brain lesions,
notably the unfortunate 19th century Phineas P. Gage
who had much of his frontal lobe, including the
VMFL, destroyed after an accidental explosion
propelled a steel bar through his head. Gage’s ability
to reason was undiminished but three characteristics
changed totally: he was unable to make decisions, or
to have feelings, and he lost his social skills. By
“feelings” Damasio means the experience of emotion
(p145). Since the symptoms of the absence of a
component, ie the missing parts of Gage’s brain, are
an unreliable guide to the role of that component,
Damasio’s confirmatory neuro-imaging with healthy
subjects is important (Bechara et al 1999, Damasio
1999, Tranel et al 1998).
The possibility that three brain activities – the ability
to make decisions and to have feelings and social skills
– are physically juxtaposed in the brain could have
immense importance for marketing. Practitioners and
some academics have long recognised the significance
of feelings and social relationships for brand choice.
For example, Ritson and Elliott (1999) have shown
that advertising plays a role within social contexts in
its own right and not just as a promoter of goods and
services. Kover et al (1995) showed that creative and
effective advertising resonated with viewers’ self-
images in a very positive way.
If better remembering (see the earlier box on long-
term memory) is also associated with affect, then
advertising which stimulates those parts of the brain
may well be more effective, ie increase subsequent
choice of that brand. There is now evidence that
affective material is better remembered than cognitive.
This enhanced recall occurs partly as a result of
changes in body state as a consequence of the affective
experience, and notably release of the hormone
adrenalin and the selected neurotransmitter
noradrenalin.
The brain effects of adrenalin can be inhibited by the
group of drugs known as β-blockers, conventionally
used as anti-depressants or stress relievers, which
reduce affective responses to stimuli (Greenblatt et al
1993). β-blockers selectively impair long-term (one
Brands on the Brain: Neuro-Images of Advertising 21
week) memory for emotionally-arousing short stories
(Cahill et al 1994). Cahill et al (1995) reported a
patient (“B.P.”), with normal cognitive functions but
damage to the amygdaloid complex, who did not have
the enhanced memory for the emotional part of the
story that normal controls had. Memory for the non-
emotional part of the story was normal. In a later
study, Cahill et al (1996) showed two videos, each
with 12 film clips, to eight subjects. The more
emotionally-arousing films were significantly
(p<0.05) better recalled, than the emotionally-
neutral videos, three weeks after viewing.
Furthermore, the increased recall for the emotionally
arousing videos was correlated with increased
activation of the right amygdala, as indicated by
positron emission tomography (PET). McGaugh et
al (1996, p13,512 ) concluded:
“The findings of our studies using human
subjects are consistent with those of our other
studies using animal subjects in indicating that
memory storage is influenced by activation of
β-adrenergic systems and the amygdala.”
Thus prior research suggests that it is likely that
affective advertisements will be both better recognised
and better recalled than purely cognitive ads.
Two Experiments
Our preliminary experiment tested these conclusions
with conventional methods before using
pharmacological treatments (β-blockers) to see
whether reducing the impact of affect also reduced
the difference between recall and recognition of the
two types of advertising. The second experiment used
MEG in an exploratory fashion with just three subjects
to investigate whether there would be space- and time-
distinguishable brain activation patterns between
observing affective and cognitive advertising. We
expected that the differences would be more
pronounced in the areas around the anterior and
posterior end of the cingulate gyrus (see figure 1).
In the preliminary experiment, recall and recognition
were significantly stronger for affective ads for controls
and the placebo group. The recall differences were
diminished between the propranolol subjects on the
one hand and the placebo and controls on the other
as expected but the results for recognition were not
definitive. The suggestion by Singh et al (1988) that
recognition was a more sensitive discriminator than
recall was not supported by these results.
Autumn 2000
22 Tim Ambler, Andreas Ioannides and Steven Rose
Methodology
Subjects viewed a video consisting of a 24-minute
module referred to as the background material, and
six minutes of advertisements separated into two
blocks of four TV ads. The background material
concerned the ecology of rain forests, and was
similar in style and level of stimulation to an
educational TV program. The ad blocks, at
approximately 8-11 and 19-22 minutes, resembled
regular commercial breaks. Four well-known (UK)
brands, all frequently purchased goods or services,
were selected on a convenience basis: a fast food
restaurant (FFR), a retail bank, a beer and an oil
company. Two ads were acquired for each brand.
To minimise any primacy/recency effects, two
versions of the video were made with the pairs
reversed.
Subjects, randomly assigned, were unaware
of which treatment they had received
(propranolol or placebo) and of the purpose of
the experiment. An independent group of
subjects (“controls”) had previously followed the
protocol without either drug or placebo. All were
instructed not to make written notes but to relax
and watch the video as if they were watching
television in their own homes.
MEG measures the minute magnetic fields
around a subject’s head generated as a result of
the electrical activity going on inside the brain. The
fields are measured by an array of sensors, each
coupled to its own supersensitive detector: a
superconducting quantum interference device
(SQUID) which operates at the cryogenic
temperature of liquid helium. To achieve this,
the sensor array, with its SQUIDs, is immersed
in liquid helium housed in a thermos flask
(dewar). The sensors are arranged at the bottom
of the dewar which is shaped like a helmet which
the subject wears as s/he sits in a magnetically
shielded room (see picture).
Because any muscular activity, such as eye
movement and the regular activity of the heart,
creates a relatively large magnetic signal, the
subject must be fitted with electrodes to monitor
these unwanted processes and allow later noise
elimination. In addition, it is necessary to perform
a digital mapping of the subject’s head to determine
its position and orientation with respect to the
sensors and to fit them to anatomical images.
Business Strategy Review
© Low Tempature Laboratory, Helsinki University
of Technology
Before and after the actual measurement, so called
“noise runs” are made first with no subject and
then with the subject in place but with no stimuli
delivered. These noise runs provide the “baseline”
for the “live” measurements. Even a simple
experiment, with the actual “live” part where the
subject views a screen and/or manipulates a joystick
for only a few minutes, can easily take the greater
part of a day, when all preparation, noise
measurements, briefing and de-briefing are done.
This project used two days of laboratory time for
each subject.
Despite generous allocation of the MEG
hardware time, preparation for the experiment and
complex subsequent analysis, only three native
English speakers (right-handed males, 44-50 years
old) could be fully imaged and analysed. Subjects
were asked to view the video in as relaxed a manner
as they could manage while being imaged. Since
the seating in the MEG machine is comfortable and
the background material surrounding the
advertisements was neither demanding nor
stimulating, the conditions for routine TV watching
were reproduced as closely as possible.
The MEG signals were recorded using the BTi
whole head system (148 channels), together with
electro-oculogram (EOG) and electrocardiogram
(ECG) channels to monitor eye blinks and
heartbeats. Two continuous recordings were made;
each included either the affective or cognitive block
of four advertisements and two minutes of the
ecology program before and after.

In the second experiment, the signals were analysed
using magnetic field tomography (MFT) (Ioannides
1994, Ioannides et al 1990, Taylor et al 1999) to
compute the current density vector independently for
every other timeslice (1.96 ms) throughout the brain.
From previous trials, six frames were identified in the
video; three corresponded to points of high affective
content and the other three to high cognitive content.
For further technical discussion of the analysis see
Ioannides et al (2000).
As would be expected, we found significant activations
in the primary and association visual areas as well as
in areas known to be involved in object recognition.
The locations of these activations were in agreement
with other neuro-imaging studies (eg Sergent et al
1992); the timing of activations (ie the interval between
stimulus onset and activation) was also consistent with
what is known from animal experiments.
The responses to affective and cognitive blocks were
compared subject by subject. Significant differences
Figure 2
Brands on the Brain: Neuro-Images of Advertising 23
between the activations corresponding to the affective
and cognitive segments were identified in all three
subjects. The loci of differential activations were at
the anterior and posterior ends of the cingulate
gyrus, but with considerable variability between
subjects. In addition a general decrease in activation
in superior brain areas was observed for all subjects
while viewing the affective compared to the
cognitive segments we had analysed. The activation
in the areas associated with early visual processing
was identified in all segments and this consistency is
reassuring in taking the differences between the
affective and cognitive images to be genuine and not
driven by confounding factors.
Figure 2 shows the main result for the first subject
(S1) with the most consistent Day 1 activations across
the three affective and three cognitive segments
analysed. Each figurine shows the integral of the MFT
intensity over two seconds. At the axial slice used for
the display, along the base of the brain, there are two
activations at the threshold used: at the primary visual
Autumn 2000
24 Tim Ambler, Andreas Ioannides and Steven Rose
Figure 3
cortex and at the VFML. As a visual aid a polygon
and an oval shape, proportional to activation size, are
displayed for the visual and frontal activations
respectively. Note the similarity within the affective
segments (left column) and cognitive segments (right
column) but also the clear differences between them.
For the affective segments, the activations are strongest
in the VMFL area.
Figure 3 shows the summated result across the three
affective segments (top left) and across the three
cognitive segments (top right). The difference between
the two is shown at the bottom, where the positive
difference is highlighted by the white area (activity
greater in the affective condition) and the dark area
for negative (cognitive activity higher than affective).
A mid-sagittal slice is displayed, showing clearly the
increased VFML activity for affective condition.
Business Strategy Review
The comparison between brain activations showed
differences in the posterior parietal and prefrontal
areas. In all three subjects, the cognitive ads produced
stronger activity in posterior parietal area and superior
prefrontal cortex, as expected from an increase in
working memory and executive control demands. In
contrast, affective ads produced more variable
activations across subjects, but these were generally
restricted to modulation of activity in orbitofrontal
and retrospenial cortex, amygdala and brainstem.
Our findings provide further evidence for the
association of activity in areas anterior and inferior
of the anterior cingulate and around the posterior
cingulate in the processing of affect-related stimuli.
Our results show how this activity can be followed in
real time and that what appears as activation of
different brain areas may be just a small change in the

activation of these areas across conditions. That is,
the areas which are more pronounced in the affect-
loaded segments are also activated in the cognitive
segments, but just a little less. The decreased activity
in the most superior axial slices around the motor and
SMA regions are intriguing and they provide further
support for a wider role for this area than simply
motoric duties (Carpenter et al 1999).
Limitations and Future Research
Since we were not testing a theory but merely showing
that this type of research is feasible and produces
results consistent with prior research, we did not seek
to control the many potentially-confounding factors.
For example, the selection of the ads for
experimentation in future research should bring
together existing copy testing and non-verbal
techniques to establish convergence of methodologies
and find the most extreme examples of affective and
cognitive ads using the emotional dimensions noted
by Hazlett and Hazlett (1999). It would be interesting
to compare the facial measures using EMG with brain
images: that may help establish the optimal timeslices
for this kind of research.
The ads used as stimuli were regular commercials.
Whilst we used the preliminary experiment to separate
them into cognitive and affective categories, all the
ads had elements of both. Purely cognitive and purely
affective ads would be difficult to obtain even for
experimental purposes, but by identifying the
emotional time-slices as noted above, more precise
analysis may be possible.
Clearly three subjects are insufficient to draw any
generalisations and the sample in the preliminary
experiment was also small.
Future research of this type might investigate what
brain images can tell us about ad reception: whether
it varies according to how familiar the ads are, prior
brand experience, involvement with the category and
the respondent characteristics (age, sex etc).
Conclusions
This paper did not set out to prove new empirical
generalisations. We employed just three subjects to
open the door a little wider to the use of neuroscience
in the understanding of how advertising works. Four
phases have to be considered: the original reception
of the ad, storage and then how it impacts brand
Brands on the Brain: Neuro-Images of Advertising 25
choice and usage. Presumably, brand choice and
usage experience then feed back to the way future
ads are received.
Whether through higher memorability or simply
liking, practitioners are looking to the balance
between affect and cognition in ad effectiveness. It
seems likely that the ideal balance will be dictated
by context; a new brand may need to communicate
news when an old brand may be seeking refreshment.
As an early exploratory step, however, this research
set out to examine the different impact of affective
and cognitive advertisements in two ways. In the
preliminary experiment we used β-blockers to test
the impact of affect on recall and recognition. This
proved, as expected, broadly positive. The second
experiment used MEG to explore how brain
activations differ.
The research was exploratory and small in scope. We
were looking at the front end of advertising processing,
how the brain receives it, rather than the consequences,
ie how decisions are affected. Nor did we consider
how advertising is stored between reception and
decision-making.
Nevertheless these experiments were consistent with
earlier neurobiological studies on responses to affective
and cognitive stimuli. There were clear differences in
the brain signals derived from affective and cognitive
ads during viewing the video; the affective ads
generated a greater focal activation in the
ventromedial frontal lobes (VMFL). Since this area
has been found to be associated with decision-making
and social sensitivity, it may have great significance
for advertising researchers and practitioners.
Tim Ambler is a Senior Fellow at London Business
School, Andreas Ioannides is at the Laboratory for
Human Brain Dynamics at the Brain Science
Institute, Riken, Japan, and Steven Rose is a
Professor in the Department of Biology, Open
University, UK. This research was funded by
four companies which asked to remain
anonymous. We are grateful to the laboratories
at Julich, Germany, and Riken, Japan, for the
machine time and computational analyses. We
particularly thank Tom Burne, Jürgen Dammers,
Lichan Liu, and Dionyssios Theofilou.
Autumn 2000
26 Tim Ambler, Andreas Ioannides and Steven Rose
References
Note: for a full list of references, please go to the Business
Strategy Review Website at www.london.edu/bsr.
Ambler, Tim and Tom Burne (1999) The Impact of
Affect on Memory of Advertising Journal of
Advertising Research 39, 25—34
Bechara A, Hannah Damasio, Antonio R. Damasio,
G.P. Lee (1999) Different contributions of the human
amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex to
decision-making Journal of Neuroscience, 19 (13),
5473-5481.
Cahill, Larry and James L. McGaugh (1998)
Mechanisms of emotional arousal and lasting
declarative memory, TINS 21, 294-299
Damasio, Antonio R. (1994) Descartes’ Error:
Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain, London:
Papermac (Macmillan).
Commentary
Challenge to Advertising Research Methods
Simon Broadbent
Professionals find nothing new in contrasting thinking
and emotion. What is novel to us is the neurological
discovery of physical evidence for these two reactions to
the world around us, and clues about their relationship.
So “Brands on the Brain” is not only the description
of a second experiment on the reaction of laboratory
subjects to advertising. It is part of a reassessment, by
a few pioneers, of many facets of advertising research.
Some previously accepted ideas are now crumbling;
others are given a sounder basis. The landscape is
changing before our eyes, with possible effects over
the next ten years it is hard to exaggerate. I find this
revolution the most exciting I have lived through in
this field.
So far, psychology has queened it over qualitative
advertising research; rational thought has been the
order of the day. The two disciplines agree on the
importance of non-conscious processing, but then
differ. Du Plessis puts it like this: “Neurology postulates
that you first react emotionally and this might be your
total reaction. Psychology says that the subconscious
Business Strategy Review
Ioannides, Andreas A., Liu Lichan, Dionyssios
Theofilou, Jurgen Dammers, Tom Burne, Tim Ambler,
and Steven P.R. Rose (2000 forthcoming) Real time
processing of affective and cognitive stimuli in the
human brain extracted from MEG signals, Brain
Topography (in press)
Kandel, Eric R., James H. Schwartz and Thomas M.
Jessell (eds.) (1991) Principles of Neural Science,
Norwalk, CT: Appleton and Lange, Figures 21-14 and
47-3A, 308 and 738.
LeDoux, Joseph E. (1994) The Emotional Brain, New
York: Simon and Schuster.
Rose, Steven P.R. (1993) The Making of Memory,
London: Bantam Books.
Vakratsas, Demetrios and Tim Ambler (1999) “How
Advertising Works: What Do We Really Know?”
Journal of Marketing 63, January, 26-43.
always processes input, but at a deep level.” Tim
Ambler once summed it up like this: “Rationalists have
been trying to explain emotion as some cunning covert
cognition, when all along it is simply emotion.”
Further, “emotional reaction not only sets the context
for rational processing, but it acts as a gateway to
attentioning”, “unless a perception is emotionally
encoded it will not be rationally useful” (Du Plessis).
“Advertisements with high affective components will
have better recall following a single presentation”,
because “affect (feeling, emotion) rather than cognition
(perception, absorbing information, thinking) may be
the key” (Ambler and Burne). “Brand decisions tend
to be made intuitively rather than rationally, and most
advertising is processed at very low attention levels
using low involvement process” (Heath).
As well as these distinctions, the importance of another
is more obvious: “One of the biggest problems… is
that brand meanings (images) are almost exclusively
described in words – while they are probably present
in our memories on a primarily visual, auditive and
symbolic basis” (Franzen and Bouwman).