Play Out How Nostalgic Music Distracts

Humor which pings the listener’s funny bone can generate word-of-mouth about an ad. But there’s also the danger it will draw attention from the sales message. People spend significantly less time looking at an ad when next to the ad is a cartoon which makes them laugh out loud. An endorsement by a celebrity the audience had come to admire will generate creditability for an ad. However, the audience might be so taken with thinking about the celebrity that they’ll forget about what the endorsement refers to.
     A similar phenomenon occurs with music which arouses memories of the listener’s past. In a study conducted by Prof. Russell Clayton at Florida State University, people were found to pay less notice to radio advertisements when those ads immediately followed presentation of nostalgic songs familiar to those participants. In response to my email asking about the effect, Prof. Clayton explained that when the songs were familiar, lower attention was devoted to them, and this carried over into lower attention being paid to the ads. It likely happens because attention is being devoted to reminiscing and listeners comparing their current selves with their past selves. These diversions of attention weren’t seen when the presented songs weren’t associated with the listeners’ history. The range of ads used in the studies included those from McDonald’s, Progressive Insurance, and Casper Mattress.
     All the consumers in the Florida State University study were within the age range of 18 to 21 years old. We might not see the same pattern of results with older adults. For example, because older adults have been listening to music for a longer time, there might be more music associated with their past and so a higher probability of attention being diverted from an ad presented right afterwards.
     A person might compare their current to past self to maintain their identity, inspire self-improvement, or verify their worth. In the study, participants largely reported that they felt life was better now than at the period the music led them to reminisce about. The researchers saw no evidence that the emotional valence of the music affected this. However, other research indicates that listening to sad music from the past could lead listeners to feel better about the present. It occurs because being temporarily exposed to sadness leads to us feeling more joyful. To fully know what happiness is, we need to know what sadness is.

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