Look into my eyes

I always think of the Little Britain sketch above when I think of the well known fact that a picture of someone looking directly at you from the page is known to increase response rates, as Paul Dervan comments on his recent post “the real power of one”.  It’s all about the eyes

The example above is, in my opinion, one where they have succeeded in getting it wrong. The principle is there, but the picture just isn’t a good one and I believe that this is a poorly designed poster (on display in Peter Mark hairdressers). I have to say I am a little surprised at the Children’s Medical Research Foundation for putting this out there, they  do great work and some of their DM pieces are so powerful, using this same principle. Perhaps the artwork was driven by the sponsor?

In Paul’s post he remarks that the research shows one set of eyes has a higher response rate than more than one set of eyes (he also makes his point by using a great picture!). The research was carried out by Paul Slovic, of ‘Decision Research’. You can read Pauls post here and Paul Slovic report here