Social Engineering Blogs

Personal care brand Dove has kick- started a campaign to promote beauty between mothers and daughters. After their award- winning “Real Beauty Sketches” project, the Dove Legacy campaign is the next creation to boost self- confidence in women. The short film begins by asking a small group of mothers how they felt about their body. The responses were overwhelmingly negative, ranging from “my eyes are wonky” to “I have very big legs.” This is relatively expected, as recent statistics have shown that 61% of women in the US, 87% in China and a staggering 96% in the UK feel anxious about the way they look. To see how this has impacted their children, the filmmakers then continue to ask their daughters the same question. Unfortunately, yet unsurprisingly, the mothers and daughters’ answers were close to identical. When the mothers were asked to read out their child’s list, comments such as “we both don’t like our nose” and “she doesn’t like her arms either” quickly made the mothers realise “she really picks up on a lot of my ways.” It becomes evident throughout the film clip that the complaints mothers have about their own bodies, will soon be applied to their young daughters too. The short film clip and campaign have raised an awareness for mothers to boost their daughters’ confidence, by first displaying their own self- confidence.You can view the campaign here: The success of the campaign is largely due to the underlying message Dove has cleverly devised. Modelling is a psychological phenomenon referring to the imitation of an individual, in this instance the mother, by another individual, the daughter. Resultantly new behaviours and skills can be developed. The relationship between mothers and daughters is a highly researched area of psychology, due to the natural maternal instinct present since birth. A recent study by Diedrichs et at (2016) investigated the effect of a mothers’ body image on their daughters self- reflected body image. It was found that mothers who participated in the Dove Self Esteem Project Website for Parents reported significantly higher self- esteem post exposure. Consequently, the daughters of these mothers also had a correlated higher self- esteem and reduced negative affect after a six week follow up. This study evidences a clear link between how a mother views their body image, and how it significantly impacts the body image of their daughter. The Dove campaign, along with critical research, highlights the importance of a positive female role model on a young girls’ self- esteem. Such views on body image are passed down generations and can continue throughout an individual’s lifetime. The take home message from the Legacy campaign encourages mothers and female role models to display self- confidence, to inspire young girls to do the same. References:                Diedrichs, P. C., Atkinson, M. J., Garbett, K. M., Williamson, H., Halliwell, E., Rumsey, N., & Barlow, F. K. (2016). Randomized controlled trial of an online mother- daughter body image and well- being intervention. Health Psychology: Official Journal Of The Division Of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association, 35(9), 996-1006.

     It is shameful to say, but my home country South Korea’s suicide rate remains highest among members of the OECD and this is also apparent among students. In fact, suicide is the leading cause of death among South Korean teenagers. Statistics Korea (2014) reported that suicide was the number one cause of death among people aged 10 to 39. As teenagers are emotionally unstable and are susceptible to other people’s behavior, they are largely influenced by media coverage of suicides. The influence maximizes when the report is about a celebrity’s suicide. Consequence could be as serious as more teenagers committing suicides, following what they’ve seen in the media. Such increase of copycat suicides after a “widely publicized suicide” is called Werther effect.    Monthly total number of suicides (South Korea 2005-2008). Arrows indicate points of celebrity suicides.      There were seven cases of celebrity suicides from 2005 to 2008 in South Korea, and each one of them produced numerous follow-up reports on all kinds of media including newspaper and television. An analysis of subsequent suicides revealed that they definitely induced copycat suicides (Jang, Sung, Park, & Jeon, 2016). There was a great increase in the number of suicides, especially among people of the same gender, and many of them used the same method. The Korean Association for Suicide Prevention suggested a “recommendation for media reports on suicide” in 2004, yet substantial media coverage has still been reported. Stronger regulations are needed for better media reporting of suicides. For instance, specific depiction of the suicide method should be restricted. In addition to stricter measures to media coverage, there has to be an effective system within the society ready to cope with potential copycat suicides.References Jang, S. A., Sung, J. M., Park, J. Y., & Jeon, W. T. (2016). Copycat suicide induced by entertainment celebrity suicides in South Korea. Psychiatry investigation, 13(1), 74-81. Ji, N. J., Lee, W. Y., Noh, M. S., & Yip, P. S. (2014). The impact of indiscriminate media coverage of a celebrity suicide on a society with a high suicide rate: epidemiological findings on copycat suicides from South Korea. Journal of affective disorders, 156, 56-61. Korea, S. (2014). Cause of death statistics of Korea. Stack, S. (1987). Celebrities and suicide: A taxonomy and analysis, 1948-1983. American sociological review, 401-412.

Although this commercial was never actually used by Bridgestone as they did not feel it represented them appropriately, it racked up millions views on YouTube and ended up being their most viewed commercial. Worked out well for Bridgestone as they got free worldwide advertising!There are three ways we could explain why this commercial had so much success compared to perhaps more generic ads. Firstly of course; humour. There is a lot to be said about the effect humour has in advertising. Although humour may not always be universal because of language barriers for example, there are generally widely accepted topics that everyone can agree are amusing. This commercial plays with this idea as not one word is spoken but the video still shares an idea that everyone can understand. Sternthal and Craig (1973) explain how humorous messages attract attention, which distracts the audience and which in turn leads to a reduction in criticism and an increase in persuasion. Clearly this works in the commercials favour, as it would increase the likelihood for someone to buy Bridgestone tyres. Additionally, the fact that the ad is now in your mind means when you come to choose which new tyres you want for your car, the availability heuristic will ensure they are Bridgestone tyres.https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/Elm-diagram.jpg/406px-Elm-diagram.jpg Another way to look at the persuasive power of this ad is through the heuristic-systematic model of information processing (Chaiken, 1980), which explains how people receive and process persuasive messages. HSM allows both systematic and heuristic processing to occur; heuristic processing requires minimal cognitive effort on the part of the audience, basically like a mental short-cut whereas systematic processing requires more comprehensive and analytical thinking. Depending on the audience’s involvement in the message content, heuristic and systematic processing can occur independently or at the same time. Specifically, Lancendorfer, Atkin and Reece (2008) found that people processed ads with dogs more heuristically, and if people process more heuristically then ad liking increases. He explains that the presence of the dog in the ad suppresses the systematic processing and increases the heuristic processing, ultimately leading to an increased positive attitude towards the ad. Overall, the accepted belief is that animals in commercials instigate good feelings and subsequently a positive view of the brand. This process is similar to the elaboration-likelihood model (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986), where there are also two routes to process information, depending on how much cognitive effort the audience is willing to use. They will take the central route if a lot of cognitive effort is used, just like systematic processing.  Whereas the peripheral route will be taken when there is less cognitive effort such as in heuristic processing. This shows how the audience would be more persuaded by a commercial containing a dog as it requires less cognitive effort to process and is thus more pleasant for the viewer. I previously mentioned the use of humour in this commercial, but what really makes it that funny? An important aspect to look at is the use of anthropomorphism, which is the practice of giving human characteristics to non-human things such as animals or inanimate objects. A successful ad elicits a physiological response in the viewer, which makes them connect with the content subsequently making the message harder to forget. The commercial becomes relatable through the use of anthropomorphism, as even though they are animals the emotions they feel are human. Additionally, it was found that people actually prefer animals in advertising when they are presented anthropomorphically (Connel, 2013). As explained above, the use of animals already increases the commercial appeal and by anthropomorphising the dog it makes it even more persuasive.So basically if you want a successful commercial, include a dog acting like a human.References Chaiken, S. (1980). Heuristic versus systematic information processing and the use of source versus message cues in persuasion. Journal of personality and social psychology, 39(5), 752.Connell, P. (2013). The role of baseline physical similarity to humans in consumer responses to anthropomorphic animal images. Cass Knowledge.Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Macmillan.Lancendorfer, K. M., Atkin, J. L., & Reece, B. B. (2008). Animals in advertising: Love dogs? Love the ad!. Journal of Business Research, 61(5), 384-391.Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. In Communication and persuasion (pp. 1-24). Springer New York.Sternthal, B., & Craig, C. S. (1973). Humor in advertising. The Journal of Marketing, 12-18.