Maslow's Hierarchy - 28.09.23
For this lesson, we had a talk about how Maslow’s law could be used for advertising. This is a hierarchy of needs that range from Physiological to Self-Actuation. The hierarchy has 5 stages and each stage leads onto the next one.
The photo below shows the pyramid of hierarchy;
Stage 1 - Physiological Needs
The first stage of this law is called the Physiological needs, which is defined as basic human needs and are listed as;
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Food
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Air
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Water
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Clothing
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Sex
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Personally, I do not agree with the last statement, but with the others, these are very important as we cannot function properly without any of the basic human needs.
Stage 2 - Safety and Security
Following on from this, the next stage of the hierarchy is called safety and security, in which being safe is something that is focused on in this stage. This also includes having a home to live in and to also feel safe around said home.
The needs listed are;
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Protection
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Stability
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Pain Avoidance
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Routine/Order
Stage 3 - Social Needs
The next stage of the hierarchy is called social needs, which focuses on the relationships with other people. This gives a sense of belonging and a sense that you are part of a community and be able to socialise with people and feel like you can be happy with others.
The needs for this are listed below;
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Affection
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Acceptance
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Inclusion
Stage 4 - Esteem
The second-to-last stage of this hierarchy of needs is called esteem needs. For this stage, the person needs a sense of respect either for themselves or from others.
The list of needs is shown below;
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Self-respect
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Self-esteem
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Respected by others
Stage 5 - Self Actualization
And the last bit of the hierarchy is called Self-Actualization, which is something that can be said by having a sense of fulfilment and being able to feel like you have achieved the best that you can do.
Relating Posters to Maslow's Law of Hierarchy - Poster 1
We then went and did an exercise on about how advertising can use Maslow’s law and how each stage of the hierarchy can be used to send a message about the specific needs within the hierarchy.
This is the first photo that was used for the exercise;
With this photo, you can see that the poster is targeting the safety needs of a car as not being able to properly stop could cause loss of life for the person driving the car. It could also give out a sense of belonging too as you would relate someone with a kid and seeing just a kid on the poster could give it a sense of knowing whose baby is this and thus could be a sense of belonging too.
Relating Posters to Maslow's Law of Hierarchy - Poster 2
The next photo shows the next poster that was used in the exercise;
This poster targets the Esteem needs in Maslow’s hierarchy for how this fashion brand can make us feel. The tower in the background suggests that when you have this type of fashion sense, you can be as tall as the tower in the background, being able to look down on the people surrounding you and feelings powerful because of it. Also having an angle this low feels like we, as the viewer of the image, have a sense of looking up to her as well.
The red bag also is much different compared to the composition of the image as well, which draws your eyes to the bad the more you look at the poster. Red is near opposite on the colour wheel and thus compliments the colours well.
Relating Posters to Maslow's Law of Hierarchy - Poster 3
The next image is another poster used for this exercise;
First, looking at the poster without context, you can clearly see that this is something about a child. The mother is hugging the child as if the mother is a child holding onto her parents. You feel like the roles for this poster is reversed and thus makes you more intrigued as to why this is the case. Now reading the slogan for the poster, it is for an adoption charity or adopting children and now you can clearly tell that the size of the child signifies how much the child could give back to you as a parent, like how a parent is willing to give so much more back to the child as well.
There is nothing else going on in the background, which signifies that the child is the only thing that can give you this sense of belonging to the world. The poster can also be talked about in a minimal way, with minimal text and having this minimal look to the whole poster, with the colours being quite muted and wanting to focus on the subject matter and wanting to be a more calming environment. The logos are also shown in blue as this colour signifies a calming energy to the whole thing.
Relating Posters to Maslow's Law of Hierarchy - Poster 4
The poster below shows the last poster that was talked about during the lesson on Maslow’s hierarchy;
You immediately have this sense of urgency when looking at this poster, as you can tell that the first thing that stands out is the scribbles on everything. It looks like they have been counting how many days they have been left outside and thus not having a home.
This immediately gives you a sense of needing a home and targets physiological needs as well, which is the first need on the hierarchy and encroaches on the second need as well.
Also, with the way that the poster has been designed, the red really stands out from the image and leads the eye more naturally to it. I also think that the image is really striking and plays with the emotions of the viewer as well. I also think that the poster really tries to shock you more with the way that the wording of the heading plays out.