Is Seeing, Believing?
The world of advertising is filled with
some very clever people. People whose
sole objective is to persuade us to
believe that we need, or at least want,
something we could probably do without.
It is, in many ways, a black art since it
aims to alter our perceptions and plays
on our emotions, even our prejudices.
Take these three images from a
campaign promoting Colgate toothpaste
and oral hygiene products.
The format of our magazine limits the
size of the image but, for most people,
the picture of the three happy couples will
be spoiled by one thing.
In each of the images, the man has either lost a prominent tooth, or failed to
remove the detritus of a recent meal.
That’s because we know it’s an advert for
a company whose raison d'être is familiar
to us and a quick glance, which is what
we normally give to such images,
confirms the impression.
But look again, arranging cosmetic
dentistry may be the least of their
problems.
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In the top image, the woman has six fingers on her left hand
In the middle one, two people appear to be sharing five arms and
In the final picture, the man is minus a right ear!
So, we often see what we expect to see, not what is actually there. It’s the
same with words. We tend to hear or, more accurately, to think we heard
what we expect, rather than what was actually said.
Those of a certain vintage may recall an “entertainer” (I use the term
loosely), the self-styled Professor Stanley Unwin whose act comprised
talking gibberish, but doing so in a bewilderingly authoritative manner.
A case of “I know you think you understand what you thought I said but
I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant”.
Communication and perception are key skills required to function in society
yet, after all these millennia, we are still remarkably bad at them.
Anon
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