"HeadOn, Applied Directly to the Forehead"

“HeadOn, applied directly to the forehead. HeadOn, applied directly to the forehead. HeadOn, applied directly to the forehead.” Does this sound familiar? I thought so. Most everyone is familiar with the HeadOn commercial that advertises a topical treatment for headaches. Despite its popularity, the overwhelming reaction to the advertisement is annoyance. Why? It features a woman applying the product and a voice repeating the statement: “HeadOn, applied directly to the forehead.” It is hard to deny, however, the enduring effect this repetitious message has on viewers’ memories. In many ways, the HeadOn commercial has become a pop culture phenomenon. It has been the focus of parodies on YouTube, lyrics in a Lil Jon rap song, and is even available as a cell phone ringtone. Television viewers are constantly exposed to the hypnotic advertisement as it appears during syndicated shows like Seinfeld, Jeopardy!, and Regis and Kelly. Vice president of sales and marketing for HeadOn revealed that sales increased 50% within a five month period of airing the commercial. This statistic seems to indicate that frequent exposure to repetitious messages has an enduring effect on viewer’s attitudes.

The HeadOn commercials help promote brand familiarity. Marketing research has revealed that “the effectiveness of advertising is a function of its content (the message), execution (how the ad conveys the message), and frequency (how often a consumer sees the ad).” The HeadOn advertising team should not perceive the increase in sales as an opportunity to stop improving and modifying the commercial, however. The theory of advertisement wear-out reveals that if an audience encounters the same commercial too many times, inattention and intense irritation may result. In order to maintain the sales increase, HeadOn must vary their advertising to present viewers with novel stimuli that attracts their attention and impacts their memory recall.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/drugs/2006-07-30-head-on-usat_x.htm

http://psychology.uchicago.edu/people/faculty/cacioppo/jtcreprints/cp89a.pdf

http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/~moorthy/research/Papers

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