At a recent party, I met a brand manager for a very large company. He explained how advertisements are designed. You do a focus group to find out the real reason people buy your product — what they really want from it — then you make your advertisements reflect that reason. For example, people do not buy [Product X] because it does [the stated function of Product X]. They buy it because they want to feel confident. So the ads for [Product X] show people appearing confident.
I had heard this before, but never so clearly. A NY Times article about Western Union provides another example:
Having once stressed efficiency (“the fastest way to send money”) [in its ads], Western Union now emphasizes the devotion the money represents. One poster pairs a Filipino nurse in London with her daughter back home in cap and gown, making Western Union an implicit partner in the family’s achievements. “Sending so much more than money” is a common tag line.