On Sunday night, at UCLA, an fMRI machine, neuroscientists and a handful of volunteers used the Superbowl commercials to test brain responses to advertising.
Who won the Super Bowl ads competition? If a good indicator of a successful ad is activity in brain areas concerned with reward and empathy, two winners seem to be the 'I am going to Disney' ad and the Bud 'office' ad. In contrast, two big floppers seem to be the Bud 'secret fridge' ad and the Aleve ad. What is quite surprising, is the strong disconnect that can be seen between what people say and what their brain activity seem to suggest. In some cases, people singled out ads that elicited very little brain responses in emotional, reward-related, and empathy-related areas.
fMRI data on Superbowl commercials
Update: meta sent me a link to a MindHacks post which effectively debunks the conclusions these 'scientists' have come up with.
Leave a comment