Advertising is, fundamentally, an attempt to convince a series of people to buy a product or service using relatively little information about it.
Giving all the technical specifications of what is offered would not only be very expensive in terms of the type of advertising space that would need to be contracted, but it would also not serve to persuade anyone; In any case, it would be boring.
What advertising tries to do is express sensations and ideas through mental shortcuts that awaken interest in what is offered and make it gain a halo of memorable seduction, so that its effects remain during the period that passes between when it is You see the advertising piece and are willing to pay for the product.
And, if there is one area in which these psychological tricks used in marketing to sell things stand out, this is the one about food advertising
There are many types of advertising, and of course there are certain resources that are possible in some cases and not in others. However, many of them are not exclusive to a single class and, in practice, are very common.
Here you can see a review of some of the tricks that advertising uses to sell food products.
1. Strategically placed water drops
How to make a food look much fresher than it really is? Simply by making the food that appears on the screen have strategically placed water drops, especially in the case of fruits and vegetables.
If it is such an effective measure, it is precisely because We don’t stop to think why there is so much water in the food Simply, our brain associates the image of the drops with the concept of “freshness”, a very intuitive relationship between both ideas that means we do not question this mental shortcut.
2. Induction of synesthesia
Synesthesia is a psychological phenomenon that occurs when information that enters through one sense (for example, vision) is experienced at the same time as if it had entered through another (for example, touch).
Advertising uses these resources so that seeing an advertising piece is the closest thing to being about to taste what is being sold For example, amplifying the sound of a cookie or potato chips crunching subtly evokes a tactile sensation. Seeing how a slice of fried bacon bounces when it lands on a hamburger also provides information about its texture.
3. The close-ups
The close-ups show us all the most appetizing details of the food. This food advertising strategy works, first of all, because seeing a food so enlarged makes it let’s think that we have it very close to our eyes and, consequently, close to our mouth
Thus, we already anticipate the flavor that what we are seeing must have and, in some way, the neuroendocrine cycle that has to do with chewing and salivating begins. To reduce the feeling of frustration that would result from interrupting this cycle of physiological activation , we began to think about what we could do to taste that product as soon as possible; That is, hunger is shifted toward a goal in the near future, rather than eliminated.
But, in addition, the close-ups are the perfect excuse to resort to the following advertising strategy.
4. Slow motion
Slow motion is not something that in itself makes us want to buy a product more when used in food advertising, but it allows advertisers to make sure that the audience of a television spot sees what they should see and don’t lose any detail.
Furthermore, there are images, such as what happens when two streams of fruit juice collide with each other in the air, which only make sense if they are shown in slow motion.
5. All kinds of image tricks
The function of the beer mug that appears in an advertisement is to look like it, not be it. Therefore, everything is done to create things that look like food without necessarily being it: The layer of bubbles that crowns the reeds is usually soap foam painted, cosmetic-coated foam is used to create something resembling meat, and many foods are filled with substances injected with syringes to make them appear more voluminous and rounded.
And, of course, all the profitable computer effects have long been used to create three-dimensional models of food.
6. The still life
Everything about food (or pseudo-food created for the occasion) that can and should enter the eyes of the advertisers’ target audience is conveniently presented through a still life. The still life is basically the “showcase” of what you are trying to sell , an image in which the product or set of products appears occupying the entire center of the advertising piece. The idea here is to show the definitive aspect of what has been selling, to have all the relevant details shown at once.
The objective of the still life is to create an image that remains stored in memory and that serves to recognize the product at the point of sale. That is why in the case of television spots it almost always appears at the end, when the viewer’s attention has already been captured and it is time to help them achieve the overall image of the product, instead of a series of fragmented images shown in different plans.
