The "Gain"

“Gain” is a Negative Impact.

Advertisers nowadays do not submit to having the safe, accustomed and stereotypical advertising which is considered as the boring one, and thus apply “More Pain, More Gain” to sell certain product. So, it becomes the magic key of some advertisers to stand out from the clutter. Other than achieving higher sale of brand, the ultimate goal of “gain” is undoubtedly being famous. 

When brands intend to use this tactic to advertise themselves, the relationship between one brand and its particular target audience is the primary consideration. In the point of view of most brands, the good brand image is vitally important to them for building up a loyal relationship with a brand. However, in “More Pain, More Gain” advertising, brand looks forward to “different” rather than “better” brand image. Between these two terms, the similarity is creating visibility of brand in the competitive market, but “different” is more influential than “better” in this case. “Better” can be defined as stereotypical advertising, it depicts the product in idealized image aesthetically, such as happiness, rich, and health. This is the mainstream of most current advertising is doing. For those brands who intends to be “different”, as Autoway (Figure 3) utilizes the fear appeal to make people feel emotional pain. The term “different” is actually risky for a brand to create its brand image.

“Fear is a primal emotion associated with the ancient structures of the brain. Throughout emotion, fear has effectively protects our species from deadly threats in the environment. The (un)conscious recognition of a threat leads to motivation to confront or flee it, a processes known as the fight-or-flight response.  Research has shown the technique to be flawed. Fear appeal that are too intense can either make the “flight” reaction active in the target group (leading to message avoidance) or can “freeze” or “paralyse” them (impairing further processing of the message.” (Andres, Leeuwen & Baaren, 2013)

Considering about the acceptability of fear appeal in brand images, fear appeals in commercial messages unrelated to health are considered ethically unacceptable (Andres, Leeuwen & Baaren, 2013). Referring back to Autoway Tyres (Figure 3), the only visual impression it gives to the viewers is scary, it also overwhelms the unique selling point “safety” of the brand. When it comes to prankvertising, the problem of brand acceptability is even worse, because the unsuspected receiver has no choice to stay away from prankvertising once the receiver is targeted. For example is, LG Ultra HD prankvertising makes people think it is the end of the world. The response from receiver is mostly frighten and mad. What if this prankvertising is implemented into fledging brand? There would be only one possibility which is disliked and unaccepted by the receiver. It is because receiver has not even had any understanding about the new brand. Therefore, it does not seem to be an entertaining prank, but making receiver feel averse to the brand. These are the impact behind the “gain”, it gains people attention by irritating them.

Besides making receiver feel “pain”, society is also the victim of “pain”. “More Pain, More Gain” steps into the discomfort zone of society by challenging the boundary of rule and regulation for breakthrough. Megan Towers, the Exfearience Planner claims that “we got fifteen lawsuits, and fifteen percent increase of brand awareness” (Youtube, 2013) It shows that lawsuit is being part of the strategy for seeking attention from the public, so press and media which report with interest the scandal at the same time raise the brand awareness (Kubacka, 2012). For gaining the brand awareness, the order of society is being mess up by this advertising. Ironcially, advertising helps brand to solve problem, create problem for society. 

Morally, the advertisement which aims to be known as a provocative one has to touch the area which is considered as a taboo by most of its receivers. (Kubacka, 2012). Also, The marketers and advertisers deliberately, startle and offend its audience by violating norms for social values and personal ideals, hit their emotional levels at a much stronger level, just to break through the advertising clutter and grab their attention and also to attract an audience to a certain brand (Kubacka, 2012).

According to the ethnic of advertising, in psychological appeals, it attempts to deceive people through poor reasoning or emotional appeals are deceitful forms of psychological appeals. Many advertisements seem to promise or imply a possible connection between a product and a good family, a good sex life, intimate friendships, and happiness. (Gray, 2011) However, “More Pain, More Gain” goes against this ethnic of advertising just for getting controversy and bring “different”. 

To recapitulate, “More Pain, More Gain” is a powerful tactic to enhance the recognition of brand. In this competitive market, every brand intends to stand out against its competitors with only minute difference between each other. Therefore, the ideology of pain is actually more workable than the brand attribute. No matter the response from receiver is good or bad, this is not the pre-consideration of selling a product anymore. Indeed, the truth is grabbing more attention, getting more and more famous. This is the connotation of “More Pain, More Gain”. In long term, however, it would induce a consequence to brand itself and the society. The fear impression of the consumer is given by the brand, shock could lead to behavioural paralysis and the dismissal of any information that follows the shock (Andres, Leeuwen & Baaren, 2013). Although the “pain” makes people feel memorable, its opposite effect only let receiver remain in fear rather than its brand attribute. In addition, “More Pain, More Gain” advertising is usually pushing over the boundary line of rule and regulation, and thus law becomes their method of marketing in the commercial industry. Inevitably, the real purpose of law has already lost its functional purpose in our society. To sum up, the “pain” today may become a common promotional strategy because the shelf like of advertisement is short. The misapplication of “More Pain, More Gain” advertising today might affect the prospect of advertising in the future. Will a brand sell product or horror in the future?