Shame
Ads and videos written to this emotion: 73. 40 make the Say move, 33 make the Avoid mistake.
The Emotion Map's entry, written for B2B buyers.
What it is
A gut sense that you are the problem, not your actions. It makes you dread rejection.
Where it shows up
Copy that implies the buyer is behind, careless or out of date.
Sounds like
"Still doing marketing like it's 2015?"
Say
Move the problem from the person to the structure. Marketing departments are built to underperform, and a structure can be fixed.
Avoid
Shame appeals. Across 90 samples, shame was linked to more constructive action when the failure was more repairable, and to less when it was less repairable (Leach and Cidam 2015).
In consumer ads
Say: Move the problem from the person to the situation: the hard water, the long shift, the design of the old product. A situation can be fixed.
Avoid: Shame appeals: copy that implies the reader is behind, careless, unclean or unwanted, the person others quietly avoid.
Doing it right
Ads that make the Say move.
Silo Stores free marital health booklet ad, al-Musawwar 1936
It moves marital discord from the person to a slight disorder of the glands, notes that few couples reach full harmony, and sends the free booklet in a sealed envelope.
Sherwin Cody School of English ad, Mid-Week Pictorial, 1929
It pins poor English on a habit never formed, pictures a mentor at the elbow who would not laugh, and backs the fix with 70,000 users and the Gary schools result.
Gibbs SR toothpaste ad, al-Kawakib 1965
The same man grins twice and only his toothpaste habit changes, with a box teaching the brushing stroke, so dull teeth are put on a fixable habit rather than on him.
"John Is Not Really Dull" eye examination poster
The headline lifts the label 'dull' off John and puts the trouble on his eyesight, a cause that can be fixed, with one act for the parent: have his eyes examined.
Gillette safety razor for women ad, al-Lataif al-Musawwarah 1928
It never calls her unkempt: the woman checking her bare shoulders in a low-cut gown puts the need on the occasion, and the Milady Décolleté razor in ivory or jade cases answers it.
Burdock Blood Bitters 'Invalid ladies' trade card
The back blames her suffering on 'the peculiar habits of life and fashion' and the changes of maiden, wife and mother, so she carries no fault, and 'two-thirds of the women of America' share it.
Tokalon face cream ad, al-Musawwar 1936
The mother tells her ashamed daughter that enlarged pores and black spots happen to all girls, moving the problem off the girl onto a common condition one morning habit fixes, with money back.
Cuticura Soap skin shame advertisement, 1893
After 'ASHAMED TO BE SEEN', the copy pins the blemishes on one physical cause, 'THE CLOGGED, IRRITATED, INFLAMED OR SLUGGISH PORE', and blames 'ignorance', not the sufferer, so a soap can fix it.
Okasa free marital health booklet ad, al-Musawwar 1936
After a photo of a wife pushing her husband away, the copy puts the fault on a slight gland disorder with a modern cure, and offers a free booklet in a sealed envelope.
The tobacco habit is drawn as a leaf-haired demon that a knight charges down, so the smoker is the one fighting the problem, not the problem, and a free book comes first.
Lux toilet soap ad, al-Musawwar 1941
After hinting that girls with dried skin go without compliments, it puts the cause on how make-up is removed, not on the woman, and Joan Bennett's tip gives the fix: Lux morning and night.
Sherwin Cody School of English ad, The Mentor, 1922
Four named mistakes in bold let readers check themselves in seconds, and 'Learn by Habit, Not by Rules' moves the fault onto a habit that 15 minutes a day can change.
Doing it wrong
Ads that make the Avoid mistake.
Gibbs chlorophyll toothpaste ad, al-Kawakib 1967
The strip opens on rejection, 'Why does he avoid me?', leaving bad breath as the reason she is unwanted, and only a friend's tip to use Gibbs completes her happiness.
Puts the problem on the reader
Book of Etiquette ad, Again She Orders, Screenland, 1924
'Again She Orders' replays a diner's repeated blunder, then 'Are You Conscious of Your Crudities?' turns the humiliation on the reader, making the reader the problem the book fixes.
Puts the problem on the reader
Mohamed Fayek al-Gohary physical culture institute ad, al-Kawakib 1933
'How do you look in a bathing suit' asks whether people admire the reader or hide their laughter at a thin, short body with crooked legs, making the reader himself the problem.
Puts the problem on the reader
Charles Atlas comic ad, The Insult That Made a Man Out of Mac
The comic strip stages three public humiliations, pitied at home, turned away from work, outshone at the beach, and the cry that the fellows call him the weakling makes the reader's body the problem.
Puts the problem on the reader
Tamara face cream ad, al-Kawakib 1940
Your femininity will not be complete unless puts the reader herself on trial, her womanhood lacking until her skin is ivory and velvet, and your beauty is your capital raises the stakes.
Puts the problem on the reader
Charles Atlas comic-strip ad, Slave Girl Comics #2
The headline 'And to think they used to call me SKINNY' and the line about people laughing at a 97 lb. body put the insult in the reader's ear and make his body the fault.
Puts the problem on the reader
Egyptian Institute of Health and Beauty treatments ad, al-Kawakib 1939
'Be beautiful, for your beauty is your capital' ties the reader's worth to her looks, and the list of flaws from freckles to hair loss invites her to find what is wrong with her.
Puts the problem on the reader
Does Your Child Ever Embarrass You? ad, McClure's, 1923
The line 'Every mother knows that people judge her by the behavior of her children' turns a naughty child into a public verdict on the mother, staged across four rooms of embarrassment.
Puts the problem on the reader
Vikelp body-building tablets ad, al-Musawwar 1937
The headline calls the reader 'gaunt, thin, weak, nervous, drained of strength' and sets a muscular man beside it, so the reader himself, not a condition, is made the problem.
Puts the problem on the reader
Listerine halitosis ad, Motion Picture Classic, 1922
Often a bridesmaid but never a bride makes Geraldine's unmarried state the reader's warning, and your mirror can't tell you leaves the reader suspecting that she herself is the unwanted one.
Puts the problem on the reader
Gibbs chlorophyll toothpaste ad, al-Kawakib 1965
The strip runs on rejection, 'Why did Ahmed move away from me?', with bad breath the unspoken cause, so the heroine is made unwanted until Gibbs wins him back.
Puts the problem on the reader
Listerine Antiseptic halitosis ad, Ladies' Home Journal, 1949
The baby recoiling from his smiling mother, read back as 'Even a mother can't get away with it', casts the reader as a suspect who may be unclean and shunned.
Puts the problem on the reader
If this library is useful, leave an email
We send new patterns, ads, and notes when we add them. Name and phone are optional.
You are on the list
We will write when we add more library material.