My most valuable source of information is the factor analyses I commission at regular intervals from Mapes & Ross. They measure changes in brand preference. People who register a change in brand preference after seeing a commercial subsequently buy the product three times more than people who don’t. Research organizations also measure the recall of commercials, and this method finds favor with many advertisers. But some kinds of television commercials which get high recall scores get low scores on changing brand preference, and there appears to be no correlation between recall and purchasing. I prefer to rely on changes in brand preference. I will start by telling you about ten kinds of commercial which are found to be above average in their ability to change people’s brand preference, and three kinds which are below average. Above average 1 Humor. Conventional wisdom has always held that people buy products because they believe them to be nutritious, or labor-saving, or good value for money – not because the manufacturer tells jokes on television. Claude Hopkins, the father of modern advertising, thundered, ‘People don’t buy from clowns’ I think this was true in Hopkins’ day, and I have reason to believe that it remained true until recently, but the latest wave of factor-analysis reveals that humor can now sell. This came as a great relief to me; I had always hated myself for rejecting the funny commercials submitted for