When watching television, I have seen ads that go off topic on what they are trying to sell, but somehow still receive results from their technique, such as the Carl’s Jr. sexual advertisements. The CEO of Carl’s Jr. quoted: "You can say 1,000 times that you have a great burger and no one will listen to you, but if you put a beautiful woman in the ad, they will." This intrigued me in how instead of just selling a burger, the advertisers of Carl’s Jr. inter-graded something not remotely related to burgers, such as sex and still somehow achieve a positive effect on their effort to sell. This type of technique is found in many other advertisements, using things such as violence and cuteness.
I became curious in how much of an effect do certain themes have on the public, and so, I will experiment on this. I will be testing different themes common in advertisements, such as cuteness, sex, violence, savoring (food), and things that make people curious, and see which of the themes will have the most results with people. To do this, I will place a box that can be opened in the public. What I will attempt to do is attract people into opening the box by advertising the box with certain themes, causing them to want to open up the box and see what is inside. The advertising will be done using a sign with the picture that relates with its theme, such as a picture of a sexual woman, or a cute puppy and baby. The sign will say “Open the box”. Every day that the experiment is conducted, a new theme will be chosen for the sign. I will then record the number of people that opens up the box with that day’s theme. From the results, I can figure out what types of advertisement themes are most effective on getting the attention of people.
Day 1
After some thinking about this project, I figured that it will be a lot of work for me to do. To make this work, I will need to make a sort of chest or box. And so, I figure that I will need to buy pieces of cardboard in order to construct a box. I will also need duct tape, construction papers, and markers to decorate it. For the sign, I will find a stand and put a piece of hardboard on it and put “open me” on it. I will also need to find pictures to put on the sign.
Day 2
Since I have school late, I am able to go out and buy the required materials for my experiment. I first went to Michael’s Crafts Store to see if there was anything I could buy. At Michael’s, I bought markers and a poster board. I figured that it will be a lot of work to build a box from just cardboard, so I decided to go and buy my own box to use. After looking around Michael’s, I didn’t see a suitable box, and so, I decided to go to Target and look for a box there. At Target, there were lots of boxes, but they are quite expensive, so I went home to see if there are any usable boxes. When I got home, I dug through the house’s storage and I found a straw box with a hinged lid. It was perfect! So, now I almost have everything I needed to make my experiment work.Day 3
Today, I was supposed to go look for pictures and photos to use for my project’s themes. Yesterday, when walking around Michael’s and Target, I also tried looking for good pictures to use for my project, but I did not find any suitable. I then tried looking online for photos and see if I will be able to but it on the internet. When looking at EBay, I saw that most of the pictures sold were at least 3-5 dollars each. Buying 5 pictures will cost a lot of money, so I decided to risk degrading my project by printing pictures from the internet using my printer. I will post the pictures that I use when I blog about the days that I do the actual experimenting.
Day 4
Today, I began constructing the sign. Since I no longer have to make a box, I only need to worry about the sign. Building the sign wasn’t that bad, although it looked pretty make-shift. I used a stand that I found lying around the house and taped it to the back of the poster board. I when drew and wrote on the poster board, making sure there is still room to put a picture on it.
Day 5
Since I am basically done with buying and building the parts required to make my experiment work, I decided to look it over and see if there is anything I can do to fix it up or make it look better. For today, I mostly fixed up the sign, making it look better and then I decided to put a small sign inside the box, asking the people who open the box to nicely closing the lid after opening it, to make it easier for me, so that I do not have to walk up to the box and close it.
Day 6
Since I have class at 3, I thought that I have some time to go biking around before class starts. I biked to Great Mall to look for a good place to place my box and keep watch. After biking around for a while, I decided on placing it by the bus stops, which is also the path that people usually use to go to the mall when they get off the light rails. There are also benches around that area so I can sit and keep watch of my box. It looks like it is raining this weekend, so hopefully I will be able to do some experiments before it rains.
Day 7 : Blank - Failed
I will start my first part of my experiment today. I have decided before to go to The Great Mall and use it as my experiment area. Today’s experiment will be the control, because I will use a blank theme, not using any pictures, for this first experiment. So I first started off putting everything into my backpack, a roll of duck tape in case something goes wrong, my notebook to record the results, and a pen and permanent marker to mark and write. I do not have my driving license yet, so I have to ask my mom to drop me off at great mall. There was a lot of traffic going to great mall.
When I got there, I went by the VTA bus stop, on the path of the light rail users and began setting up my project. I first put my box up, and then began putting up the sign, when I saw a security guard walk by talking her phone. I thought that she would stop me; however, she saw me and continued talking on her phone. After I finished setting up, she then walked up to me and said that I am not allowed to put the box at that area. She first asked me what I was doing, and so, I began explaining in fully what my project was about. And then the security guard began asking me if I knew about 9-11 and terrorist attacks, trying to tell me that my project's box looks like ”suspicious" package and that I can be cited and thrown in jail for leaving a box here. And so, I had no choice but to pack up and leave the mall with my experiment.
I wasted about an hour at the mall. And so, my main idea of a place to do my project was ruined, I had to quickly think up of a new area to conduct my experiment, and had to go with the poor choice of going to Cataldhi Park and conduct my experiment there. I did not want to conduct my project at the park because there are mainly little children, old adults, and weary adults. There is not a very good broad range of ages at the park. After going back home, I had no time to go to the park today, so I will leave it to another day.
Day 8 : Blank
For the first ten minutes, no one would approach the box. I was getting worried that my experiment would turn into a failure. People and passersby would just look at the box and then continue on. However, eventually two senior Asian couples, who were taking a jog, approached the box. At first they stopped and stared at the box for a while, and then came up and opened it. Because there was not anything in the box, they continued one, leaving the box opened. I had to walk up to the box and close the lid. While closing the lid, a Caucasian jogger who was passing by stopped and asked me what it was. Then again, I had to explain what my project was about. The jogger told me good luck and continued on. For the next hour, I continued recording. I arrived at the park at around 4:30pm, and the sun began to set. When it became slightly dark and people were obviously leaving the park, I packed up and went home.
My Results were less than what I had hoped for:
Female Child : two Male Child : none
Female Teen : one Male Teen: one
Female Adult: one Male Adult : two
Female Senior: one Male Senior: one
In this part of my experiment, it does not only serve as a control, but it also serves as a test for people’s curiosity. The only reason why people would open the box is because they want to know what is inside.
Day 9 : Cute
Although cold, today was sunny. Because yesterday I started conducting my experiment late, it became dark. I decided to go to the park earlier today. I printed out a picture of cute puppies and attached it to the sign and set off to the park. I arrived at the park at 2:30pm and began recording. I decided to start at 2:30 so that I may be able to include students who were walking home from school. As always, I would get some people who would ask whose box this was. One person attempted to move the box away, and I had to run up to the person and explain to them what I was doing. Today, I had better results than yesterday because of the time I choose to do it. There were a few of middle school students and a few high school students who took interest in the box.People who opened the box:
Female Child: three Male Child: one
Female Teen: four Male Teen: two
Female Adult: two Male Adult: one
Female Senior: one Male Senior: none
I believed that cuteness would attract a lot of people because cuteness creates a feeling of comfort with other people. The feeling of comfort makes people feel more familiar with the object, attracting them.
Day 10 : Sexy
The weather channel said that it was going to be raining today. Around noon, it was not raining, and so I decided to go to Noble Library to conduct the next part of my experiment. For this part, I will print out a picture of a woman and put it on my sign. I arrived at Noble library at 12:30 when it finally stopped raining, and began setting up my experiment. Luckily the people from the nearby middle and high schools get out early today, and many of them go to the library. Doing this part of the experiment with the sexual woman was quite embarrassing. Many students who walk by would laugh at the sign and push each other into opening the box. One kid kicked my box and so, it is slightly dented. I found that it is interesting how it was mostly males who opened the box, even if they were in a group of both male and females, it was the male who opened the box. It began pouring later, and so, I had to pack up and leave.People who opened the box:
Female Child : none Male Child : one
Female Teen : three Male Teen : seven
Female Adult: two Male Adult : one
Female Senior: none Male Senior: none
Sex sells. That is there is to it. However, the point of this theme was ruined because the students took it jokingly and opened the box thinking of it as something funny.
Day 11: Savory
People who opened the box:
Female Child : one Male Child : one
Female Teen : five Male Teen : three
Female Adult: four Male Adult : two
Female Senior: three Male Senior: none
We all eat. So, why wouldn’t food attract people? Although for this theme, I may have possibly have the highest amount of people opening the box, it was because I conducted the experiment at a crowded place.
Day 12: Mysterious
Today is Black Friday, and I decided to go back to Valleyfair Mall again, since yesterday was such a success. . For this part, I will print out a picture of a impossible cube and put it on my sign. Once again, I was able to park close to the entrance. It was even more crowded than yesterday. The mall was hectic. Since there was the black Friday sale going on, the mall was full of people trying to get bargains. This was a perfect day to do my experiment. This time, I set my box up near the parking structure, by the entrance to the mall. Like always, people would ask me what I am doing. Nothing that has not happened today happened. Once again, my results were good; however it is because of the location I did my project at. The results were lower than what I had yesterday though.People who opened the box:
Female Child : one Male Child : none
Female Teen : three Male Teen : two
Female Adult: two Male Adult : three
Female Senior: three Male Senior: one
I believe that this topic is very much like the blank topic. Because this topic has almost have nothing to do with people’s interests because it is nonsense, it is just there to test people’s curiosity, just as the blank control topic would.
Day 13
I finally finished all of my experiments! However, I decided to drop one of the topics, which was violence, because I had a very hard time deciding on a picture that would illustrate it well. I am also feeling very lazy about this project because I have already done 5 topics. Today, I will add up the results.
Blank:
Female Child : two Male Child : none
Female Teen : one Male Teen: one
Female Adult: one Male Adult : two
Female Senior: one Male Senior: one
Cute:
Female Child: three Male Child: one
Female Teen: four Male Teen: two
Female Adult: two Male Adult: one
Female Senior: one Male Senior: none
Sex:
Female Child : none Male Child : one
Female Teen : three Male Teen : seven
Female Adult: two Male Adult : one
Female Senior: none Male Senior: none
Food:
Female Child : one Male Child : one
Female Teen : five Male Teen : three
Female Adult: four Male Adult : two
Female Senior: three Male Senior: none
Mystery:
Female Child : one Male Child : none
Female Teen : three Male Teen : two
Female Adult: two Male Adult : three
Female Senior: three Male Senior: one
Total:
Female Child : five Male Child : four
Female Teen : fifteen Male Teen: eighteen
Female Adult: six Male Adult : ten
Female Senior: seven Male Senior: three
This experiment of seeing which theme would attract the most people is somewhat of a failure. Because I was unable to stay consistent with my areas, (I should have used Valleyfair Mall for all of my themes) the results were very inconsistent because of the different concentrations of people, such as the excess amount of children and teens at the library and adults at Valleyfair Mall. This experiment however, allowed me to see which themes are most popular with which genders, such as sex and the male teens and sweet desserts to females.
Day 14
I was too lazy to continue doing anything, sort of worked on the conclusion.
Day 15
Experiment’s finial day! Finished working on the conclusion.
Conclusion
Now that this experiment is coming to an end, I feel that I have accomplished a great challenge. This project took a lot of time to conduct. The idea of this project came to me while watching ads, seeing how they incorporate things unrelated to what they are actually trying to sell. The purpose of this project was to set up a box and using signs with different themes such as food, sex, or cuteness, and try to attract people into opening the box with the themes.
When I first decided on going to Great Mall to conduct my experiment, I was stopped by security and told to not do this here again, or risk getting cited. And so, I was lost in where to go to do this experiment. At first, I decided to go to Cataldhi Park to conduct my experiment, but this only lasted for two days, since I did them at different times of the day. Of the many people who go to the park, a lot of them are the same people who go there to run, or play tennis. And so, the park was not a very good place. I then tried going to Noble Library, The library worked great, however, many of the people going there were students who just got out of school. Many middle school students go to Nobile Library to do homework and get picked up there. The library was also closed on Thanksgiving and the day after it, so I could not finish my experiments there. I finally went to Valleyfair Mall where there was a slight lack of security to conduct the rest of my experiments, and it was a perfect place, but because I did not do my first three experiments here, the results ended up being inconsistent, for there are more people that are diverse in ages going to the mall and there were a lot more of them. This experiment had a lot of potential, but due to my unwillingness to spend a lot of money and the problems I faced at the locations where I decided to conduct my experiment, this experiment ended in failure.
Although this experiment was a failure when looking at the results altogether, when looking at the results singularly, I was able to learn which themes attracted which gender more. From my results, I learned that more females were attracted to the box with the picture of the cute puppies and sweet desserts, and how sex, as in the sexual woman, was attracting more males; maybe it would be different if I put a picture of a man instead? The results were consistent with the thought that in ads, sex is more geared towards men, such as in fast food commercials, and Axe. And things such as home economics and cuteness are more geared towards women, such as in television ads of home utensils and family safety. The mysterious theme and the blank control theme were pointless due to the problem of inconsistency of the amount of people due to the repeated changes in location.
If I were to make this experiment better, I would spend more time making a more professional looking sign, other than hand making a sign that looks un-trustable, and find a consistent area with a diverse number of people where I could safely conduct my experiment without many interruptions. Although very time consuming, I found this experiment to be quite fun. While doing this experiment, I was able to meet new people and converse to them not only about this project, but many other things as well. Even though at times, I felt embarrassed doing this project and having so many people stare at it, and think that I am strange. But overall, I am done with this experiment.
27/30
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