Difficulty: Summiteer (Level 3)
A catchy tune. A flash of colours. Then, kids with the brightest smiles on their faces point at a brand new toy. They shout: “I need that!”
This is a very common sight in advertisements.
Avis Ngan is a registered clinical psychologist in Hong Kong and the founder of mental health clinic Mindsight.
“Advertisers are essentially emotional architects,” he said. “They don’t just sell you a product – they sell you a feeling, and then they attach the product to it.”
Tricks of the trade
Advertisers use different elements to grab your attention and make products appealing to you. These can include bright colours, catchy music and even specific numbers.
“Colour is the fastest emotional signal the brain can process,” Ngan explained. “Bright, saturated colours activate the brain’s reward and attention systems more intensely. Younger people are particularly responsive to this.”
Everything is competing for a few seconds of our attention. Have you ever noticed that music in commercials is usually fast and loud?
Ngan said high-energy music can raise our heart rates and attention. This increases dopamine, the “happy” brain chemical, which builds excitement. This transfers onto whatever products we’re looking at.
Fear of missing out
The way advertisements are displayed can trigger different emotions in us. Most ads are trying to give you a fear of missing out.
Lines like “Only three left in stock!” and “Limited edition!” create a sense of artificial scarcity.
According to psychologists, this feels like the pain of losing something, and the feeling of missing out on something is about two times as powerful as the pleasure of gaining it.
Ngan explained that feeling “you might lose this deal” hits harder than “you could enjoy this product”.
Advertisers also try to make things feel urgent with lines like “1,200 people are looking at this right now.”
This creates a stressful and competitive situation with time limits – and you feel you must rush to keep up.
How to control yourself
If you find yourself falling into the above traps when you shop, don’t worry! The good news is you can take back control. Ngan suggested a technique called the 24-hour pause, where you wait a full day before asking your parents to buy something you saw in an ad or a shop.
“You’d be amazed how many ‘must-have’ items feel completely uninteresting the next morning,” he said.
Another tip is to take notice when an ad makes you feel insecure or left out and then say to yourself, “That feeling of scarcity is artificial.”
This simple act makes you think rather than react.
Finally, the next time a commercial makes you feel desperate to have something you have never thought about before, remember to think and ask yourself if it is something you really need.
