Having an adverts effect

WE ALL know about the power of advertising to influence the way we think - or we should do by now. But to actually change our memories? Surely not. That, however, is precisely what a team of researchers from the United States claim adverts can do.

The team, led by Professor Elizabeth Loftus, of the University of Washington in Seattle, claim they were able to successfully 'plant' false memories in the minds of volunteers by showing them make-believe adverts.

After watching one 'advert' in which Disney World visitors shake hands with a Bugs Bunny character, some volunteers were left convinced they had done the same themselves at Disney World as children - even though Bugs Bunny isn't a Disney character and they would never have been able to see him there.

Researchers believe the phenomenon is widespread. Stewart's, the makers of a popular American root beer, for example, found many adults appeared to remember growing up drinking their beer from bottles - an impossibility, because the company only began full-scale distribution ten years ago.

Researchers think the mistaken belief may have been caused by the fact the bottles are adorned with slogans such as "original", "old fashioned" and "since 1924" - which conjure up rose-tinted images of times gone by.

It's all rather alarming. If our memories are really so susceptible to manipulation by persuasive imagery and advertising, how are we supposed to know what's true and what isn't? Did my mum really used to cut me thick, crumbly slices of Hovis when I was a lad and feed them to me smothered in creamy butter, or have I simply been watching too many of those evocative bread adverts?

Come to think of it, that idyllic childhood I remember in rural Herefordshire, climbing trees and dipping for frogspawn in the village pond - was that mine or simply some clever adman's vision of a perfect England that never was? In fact, is my name really Stephen Lewis at all?

Listening to Professor Loftus, whose research was presented yesterday at the British Association's annual science festival at Glasgow University, I begin to doubt it.

"In some sense, life is a continual memory alteration experiment where memories are continually shaped by new, incoming information," she says. "This brings forth ethical considerations. Is it OK for marketers to knowingly manipulate a consumer's past?"

Well, you would have thought probably not. The trouble is, says Prof Loftus, our memories can be affected by the content of an ad whether or not that was the intention of the advertiser.

"Given the reconstructive nature of recall," her report says, "... the alteration in memory will occur whether or not that was the intent of the marketer.

"On the other hand, there are ways in which the marketer can enhance the likelihood consumer memories will be consistent with their advertising messages. At the very least, consumers ought to be aware of that power."

It all sounds rather sinister - like the plot from one of the early Avengers episodes in which a mad adman is out to change history by manipulating our memories of it.

Patrick Murphy, former ad man turned film and TV lecturer at Ripon and York College, believes it doesn't go that far.

There is no doubt, he admits, that people readily 'buy into' the myth the adman is selling. "Advertising does work. They are selling dreams through stories and images and people will buy into that."

But, at least since subliminal advertising was banned, he doesn't believe admen are doing anything as sinister as implanting false memories: more that they are providing an image of a certain way of life or a certain kind of person that a consumer wants to be associated with.

The power of that technique is certainly impressive - and it may lead us to have confused ideas of self-image.

"Look at the Coke ads," he says. "That's one of the most blatant forms of it. They're aimed at young people wanting to be seen as hip and with it. They're all about this notion of individuality and freedom - but if you think about it, all the people in those adverts look the same, they all wear their hats the wrong way round!"

But, manipulative as it may be, that's not the same as altering our memories of the past. And anyway, says Patrick, most people are better at filtering out what's true from what's not than most admen may like to believe.

Ad man Nigel Parry isn't so sure. Nigel, an account director with ad agency Goldtempest Ltd in York, is the first to admit his business is about manipulation. "And actually, it is so simple to convince people to buy a product that they don't really need," he says.

Nigel is an adman with a conscience. He admits the business has become more aggressive and competitive in recent years - and that he does sometimes have qualms.

But it won't stop him doing his best for a client because that's the business he is in.

He admits to disliking mobile phones. Would he run adverts for a mobile phone company if asked to do so? "Yes!" he says, like a shot. "Business is business!"

Spoken like a true adman.

Updated: 10:35 Wednesday, September 05, 2001