Advertisements and the Brain

        For me, the Super Bowl always has the best advertisements. One ad that has always stuck out to me is the Doritos ad "Keep Your Hands Off My Doritos." This ad impacts me because of how comedic it is. The mom in the commercial is getting ready to go on a date and leaves her son and date out in the living room. The date then tries to eat one of the boys Doritos and he slaps the man and tells him to put it back. The child then says the iconic line, "Keep your hands off my mama. Keep your hands off my Doritos." 

        The reason this ad was so successful has to do with how our brains react to it. In the video, "The Neuroscience of Film," Dr. Fahd Yazin talks about how the brain reacts to watching videos or movies. In the nervous system, the most active parts of the brain when watching something are the amygdala, corpus striatum, and hippocampus. The amygdala is what allows us to experience different emotions. The corpus striatum is a part of the basal ganglia which is also known as the habit center of the brain. This area deals with desires and rewards. The hippocampus works with memory. Together, these areas decide how we feel and what we want. For me, my brain decided that I wanted to feel laughter and humor which is why I enjoy the Doritos ad so much. Dr. Yazin said that there was a study done a few years ago where they did MRI scans on the brain to see how people reacted to stories. Their study showed that real life stories allowed for the maximal activation of the brain. This means that ads with stories, like the Doritos ad, stick with us the most.