Companies are now becoming more aware and willingly to take responsibility for the dangers that their product can present to the general public. Instead of invoking feeling of pleasure associated with a product we are starting to see a trend of reverse advertising. This trend now invokes fear and disgust while using a certain product through classical conditioning. Classical conditioning deals with the kinds of learning in which an organism learns to associate stimuli. In this case the consumer is the organism that is being maneuver to feel a certain way about the action of using a certain product. The elements of classical conditioning include certain elements that need to take place in order for the conditioning to happen. The factors that need to take place are the conditioned stimulus, the unconditioned stimulus, the unconditioned response, and the conditioned response.
One example that portrays reverse advertising while using classical conditioning is an advisement gear towards texting and driving. Three teenagers are in a car having a great time driving on the highway while the driver of the car is texting. Unexpectedly a truck hits the car the ad vividly shows the point of impact and the car being thrown into oncoming traffic in the other lane. This advertisement just like many others is questioning our norm and in this case texting while driving. Although texting while driving may seem socially acceptably just as it was portrayed in the beginning of the ad we also saw three teenagers’ lives being shattered in an instance because of the driver’s action to text.
The factors of classical conditioning are clearly exhibited throughout this advertisement. The conditioned stimulus in this ad is to stop texting while driving which can lead to the unconditioned stimulus a car attack. This ad seeks to associate the unconditioned respond of fear with texting while driving. The conditioned response is the whole purposed of this ad which wants to instill within its viewers the desire to stop texting while driving.