attention and advertising

How are properties of attention exploited in advertising?

Some properties of attention are exploited in advertising in a very effective way. In many commercials the experts often grab our attention in an outstanding way, and we are often not even aware of that.

There are many factors used so that we (the potential customers for example), focus our attention on the specific advertised product/good and/or service. While watching an add on the TV we can often observe many cognitive factors (intention of looking, preferences) but also film features such as appropriate camera angle with an appropriate background. Lighting is also an extremely important factor. Top-down factors such as social cues (hands, faces, eyes etc. Human action can also be a factor in grabing our attention so that we focus on a particular person for that split second. Bottom-up factors (very effective) the most important in my opinion. Different contrasts used within the add. Luminance changes, changing of colours (in order to highlight some important messages on the screen, that will stand out). Apparent motion, abrupt disappearance and motion onset.

The usage of camera direction can also make us focus our attention on a particular important feature in the advertisement. They often direct our eyes on a specific product by using different camera angle, frog/bird perspective, left to right/right to left movement but also joint attention (when we focus our attention on what people in the scene focus their attention; cued by different body movements).

Whenever I see a car advertisement I spot that almost all the techniques mentioned are used. In order to highlight the speed of that car there is an usage of left to right camera direction. However when they want us to focus on the beauty (colour and other features) a camera directs the scene from right to left, which creates a slow motion effect. This again is a property of attention exploitation in advertising.