Media has an increasing influence on the way society understands, thinks and feels about everyday phenomena.
We are exposed to a variety of facts and opinions, yet more recently there has been a focus on the expression of emotion within the media, in order to capture the audience’s attention and trigger a response. Regardless to whether this is a positive or negative reaction, the mediatisation of emotion forms a connection between both the media and society.
But this isn’t such a new thing. This is alluded to by American Civil Rights activist, Maya Angelou when she said: “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”. In a world filled with fake news, people are not necessarily going to focus on the facts and actions of people, but instead will remember the way they are made to feel. That’s the thing that leaves the lasting impact. The media is wise to this and we’ve seen a growing focus on emotive adverts and campaigns in contemporary media.
Working in PR calls for someone with a level of emotional intelligence, being able to express and control not only your own emotions but being able to read and manage the emotions of others. This increasing influence of ‘mediatised’ emotions clearly shows the need for emotional intelligence in PR in order to successfully connect with clients, with media and inevitably the public.
Emotions are embedded in media and are, arguably, the driving force to a slew of successful ad campaigns, a prime example being John Lewis. Over the years, they’ve cornered the Christmas ad chatter. The anticipation in the weeks before Christmas to what the advert will be and what emotive story will be portrayed – whether it’s a boy with a penguin, an old man on the moon, or a dragon who just wants to be loved – the format is strikingly similar. It’s an emotive time of year anyway and John Lewis, more often than not, capitalise on the use of emotion to connect with their audience.
That hasn’t stopped other brands from getting in on the act. In 2014, Sainsbury’s released their ‘1914’ advert which memorialised 100 years since the WW1 truce on Christmas day. Hovis also played on the idea of pride and nostalgia with the ‘Go on Lad’ advert, depicting 122 years of British history. On a different note, Greenpeace pulled on the heartstrings of viewers by creating an animated short story of a family of turtles who are devastated by the impacts of oil-drilling for marine life. Most recently, Starbucks launched a highly emotive advert in support of a young trans charity with the tagline ‘Every name’s a story’, promoting their new project #WhatsYourName on Twitter. All these adverts, despite having different topics, have one very similar goal; make the audience feel something. It’s the feeling they’ll hold onto, remember.
This trend also translates into the PR industry. Emotion has driven many W Communications campaigns; especially where some have inherently emotional subjects, such as the work of male mental health charity CALM and their campaigns ‘Project 84’ and ‘Don’tBottleItUp’ which featured Chris Hughes from Love Island. These fundamentally emotive campaigns helped to raise awareness for a subject which is difficult to address and once often avoided in the media.
But the question then arises, how do we emotionally connect to a product that is not intrinsically emotional? Such as a drink, a bottle, a contact lens, a pizza company? Papa John’s worked with W Communications and miniature food preparation specialist, Thom Whitchurch to raise awareness for the importance of bumblebees in our ecosystem through the creation of a tiny bee-sized pizzas. The Beeza was born. This campaign connected with people through the care and compassion as well as environmental concern, whilst also portraying Papa Johns as a forward thinking and conscientious company.
Look around any further and the use of this skill is impossible to ignore. The vast array of emotions mean there are endless ways for companies to capitalise on this approach. Car manufacturers often focus on thrill and excitement, while online social media make-up artists depict pride. Festivals and holiday companies often refer to escapism and fun. Emotions are everywhere in the media – they’re everywhere in life. And in 2020, the expression of emotions through PR campaigns will become more and more prominent.
Thomas Pearson is an account executive at W North. Wcommunications.co.uk @WCommNorth