Harry McGurk, a senior developmental psychologist at the University of Surrey in England, and his research assistant John Mac Donald seem to think so. They did a research in 1976 and the results were published in Nature magazine, in a paper entitled, ‘Hearing Lips and Seeing Voices’. If you search ‘the Mc Gurk effect’ on You Tube, you might be pleasantly surprised at the way our eyes can affect what we hear. In other words we can hear with our eyes. And then we could ask if the reverse was true – can we see with our ears? The questions don’t stop here of course. Can we taste with our eyes as well? The fact is, our understanding depends on cross ascribing the messages we get. How do these phenomena help in marketing communication?
Quite a lot in fact. Food writers excel in picture words to clinch a sale for a restaurant.
“Plump shrimp, simmering in a rich brown gravy, sprinkled with diced coriander and slivers of fresh garlic”. The fact is that you read text and the sound of the words build pictures in your mind. Hearing can also enhance a sensual experience. An egg frying in a video clip has no appetite appeal if you don’t hear the splutter and pop as it fries on a hot griddle. This in turn activates our salivary glands, which in turn makes you want to eat it. It might even make your tummy growl. If you took away the sound in a film, especially the sound effects, the film turns dull and colourless. That’s because we use all our senses to complete a message. Who can ignore the sound of crunchy potato chips, the fizz of soda pop, and the squelch of a fresh peach as its juice squirts between your teeth?
In the old days, long before television and the movies, BBC radio used sound to create realism that listeners could see with their eyes shut. They used voice acting and sound effects so skillfully, that their radio plays won them international acclaim. The actors in radio plays could convey age, suspicion, anger, doubt and other subtle emotions purely by their intonation. Add to this sound effects and listeners could ‘see’ details like it was a movie.
Today with FM radio becoming a viable option in advertising plans, we need to recover the lost art of making people see with their eyes. Listen to The Ghost Train radio drama on You Tube. Close your eyes and ‘see’ the movie in your head. The truth is we can see with our ears, eyes and our nose as well. All that remains is for us to master the art of using these triggers.
Cedric Serpes is Associate Professor at
the Goa Institute of Management.
He has successfully recorded the sound
of a mosquito laughing at humans.
