Capturing the flow of emotion in television commercials: a new approach

This article introduces a moment-by-moment picture-sorting technique for measuring the emotional content of TV commercials.

Capturing the Flow of Emotion in Television Commercials: A New Approach

Charles E. YoungAmeritest

SOCRATES TELLS us in the Phaedrus(Plato, 1952) that “Oratory is the art of Enchanting the Soul.” He describes the soul as a chariot pulled by two horses: the white horse of reason and the dark horse of human emotion. This first description of what, in its modern incarnation, is advertising has framed a debate that occupies us today—the dual roles of reason and emotion in the art of advertising. Because Socrates also counsels us that the “eye is the most penetrating...

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