Cut your cell phone expenses in half and all of a sudden you feel a bit richer, but does that mean you think you should be driving a significantly more expensive car? When incomes increase, we tend to purchase more items, but luxury goods require a pretty substantial increase.
Qwest Communications — Free Wifi
People will go to great lengths to get “free” wifi even though they may not realize the cost associated with the decision. In this commercial for Qwest Communication, they try to offer wifi where people actually want to go.
M&Ms — What are Caramel M&M’s worth to you?
In this commercial for the new caramel M&M’s, our grocery store employee is trying to buy back M&Ms from customers as they’re leaving the store. The employee offers $2, $3, and his watch to get the M&Ms back even though the customers could easily go through the line again and get a new bag. People tend to value items they possess at a higher rate than they actually paid for them and this action appears irrational since the transaction costs of buying another pack is already low.
Thanks to James Tierney for actually watching the commercials on Hulu:
Bud Light — Swear Jar
Normally a swear jar would be used to curb bad behavior (like in this clip from New Girl), but the folks around this office are using the money to buy Bud Light and have incidentally increased the usage of swear words.
Stella Artois — The Race
Sometimes a good thing is too good to pass up. The young men could continue the big race or they could sacrifice their chance for a cold beer. They chose the latter.
BudLight — Rock, Paper, Scissors
Rock, paper, scissors is a good game to help settle a dispute, but this simultaneous move game has no clear advantage. It helps if you have an actual rock in your back pocket though.
Budlight Hitchhiker Commercial
When one party has more information about themselves than the other party, economists describe this situation as asymmetric information. We know a lot about our “true” selves, but we can use signals to send to other parties to either conceal our true selves or hide a characteristic we don’t want to reveal. In this clever Budweiser ad, the hitchhiker is trying to conceal his real intentions by carrying a case of Bud Light.
Le Trefle — Emma
Paper products have a lot of substitutes with new tablets on the markets, but those tablets will never be able to replace some paper necessities.
State Farm — I bought a falcon
Michael Coon shared this great clip from State Farm. If you saved $480 on car insurance, what would you buy with the money instead?