Psychology of Advertising: Altruistic Behavior

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Altruistic Behavior

As I have argued previously, and in my 2006 journal article, altruistic motivations are the strongest basis for sustainable relationships.

The importance of altruistic motives is clearly seen in social relationships, yet altruistic behavior is not commonly recognized when it comes to commercial relationships in the marketplace.

At first, this new John Lewis commercial from the UK seems to be all about the youth and his ardent anticipation of Christmas Day.

We think we understand his motivation, and are surprised to learn he was driven by the motivation to give rather than receive.

This commercial has redefined what holiday advertising can be. In what has become the season of hype, John Lewis has given us all an endearing gift.

1 comment:

McDaveNovember 23, 2011 at 6:02 AM
A lovely turning of expectations. Thanks for posting.
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

Important Readings For You

Eighmey's journal articles on Internet advertising place him among the 10 most widely cited on the subject. His path-making article "Profiling User Responses to Commercial Websites" (see Journal of Advertising Research, March 1997) has been cited in more than 783 scholarly articles and books.

For a conceptual and data-driven analysis of youth values and the propensity to act on values, read Eighmey's article "Why Do Youth Enlist? Identification of Underlying Themes" in Armed Forces & Society, Vol. 32, No. 2, (January, 2006).

Read "Harlow Gale and the Origins of the Psychology of Advertising" in the Journal of Advertising, December 2007 for historical perspective.

For the big picture read "The Psychology of Persuasion: Perspectives for Theory, Research and Application in a Diverse World." A book co-authored with Osei Appiah and published by Cognella, 2011.

For 450 print ads that bring to life Advertising and American History, scroll down to the link featuring the original ad for Oreo cookies. Why not check out all the other links, too.