Reverse Convincer Strategies

I am a huge football fan and have followed the Rams since they were playing in Anaheim in the early 80’s. So although I’m disappointed that we are not participating in the play offs I am enjoying the games nevertheless. It is great to see New Orleans and the Saints fans enjoying a great run and I hope they can take it all the way to the Superbowl in Miami and lift the Lombardi Trophy. The City and the people deserve to catch a break and have their moment of glory.
 
I must admit though that my enjoyment of the games has been tempered somewhat by the relentless barrage of TV advertisements. Although the amount of TV adverts in the UK has increased in recent years there are still a significant amount less than here in the US, in fact the BBC still does not have any advertising whatsoever, a refreshing change.
 
I reckon that I have seen some of these ‘messages’ over 20 times this weekend, in fact some of them I could probably quote verbatim and quite frankly I am sick to death of them. I am actually starting to dislike the products they are promoting simply because I am having them rammed down my throat and associating them (Ford, Wendy’s & Toyota are the main culprits) with misery rather than any sense of pleasure or wanting.
 
There is a Meta Program in NLP called a convincer strategy and it is something that marketers have hung their hats on, not without reason I hasten to add, with gusto. The Program suggests that different people have different internal strategies for making their minds up about things. Some people may need to see an advert only once to know that they wish to buy the product or service, whereas others may need to see it a certain amount of times while yet others need it to be repeated over and over again at regular intervals. I think I saw once that they average amount of times is actually 7 although I have no idea how somebody came to that conclusion.
 
So as I am watching the games and letting these products wash over me I started to wonder if there is a reverse convincer strategy, a tipping point if you will where the effect starts to go the other way and people associate the products they are hearing about with the banal and the irritating. I certainly know that I do that and I don’t think I am that unusual. In a world where we are supposed to be exposed to upwards of 1,000 advertisements per day is it any wonder that people are getting jaded and cynical? I for one hope that there is a reverse convincer strategy and it forces marketers to be more subtle and TV companies start to realize that we can actually manage to watch more than 12 minutes of TV before needing a break. I am looking forward to the start of 24 tonight although I suspect that I will be squirming with annoyance by the end.
 

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