Last night at the UCLA Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, neuroscientist Marco Iacoboni and a group of researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain responses in a observers watching Super Bowl commercials. An initial report, with two winning ads and two losers, is here. Updates expected throughout the day.
Snip from Dr. Iacoboni's report:
Who won the Super Bowl ads competition? If a good indicator of a successful ad is activity in brain areas concerned with reward and empathy, two winners seem to be the 'I am going to Disney' ad and the Bud 'office' ad. In contrast, two big floppers seem to be the Bud 'secret fridge' ad and the Aleve ad. What is quite surprising, is the strong disconnect that can be seen between what people say and what their brain activity seem to suggest. In some cases, people singled out ads that elicited very little brain responses in emotional, reward-related, and empathy-related areas.
Full text of "The Story of an Instant-Science Experiment: Link.
Image: A scan showing lively brain activity in response to the Michelob ad.
