Abed
Have started watching Community for the first time lately and am a bit into Season 2 now. I just saw an episode that referenced Robocop a bit with the character Abed as a robot able to point out faults in women's dress and physique. I also had a flash of Abed dressed in a cheaply made up cyborg type costume where Troy and Abed performed their own home-made D-list movie in a closer of the episode. Thus, that was the mental association I had with Robocop.
As for Steefosaurus point, I agree but with a disclaimer. I looked at Murphy again and wondered if I didn't think of law, what would I associate Murphy with and the next thing to come to mind is Brown. I don't know how many people are thinking of Murphy Brown these days but I still remember it, apparently. I think the difference between why it was second and law was first is Intersteller. When I think of Murphy's Law, I picture images and moments from that movie. Even though a lot of that film has kind of faded from my memory or I don't think about it too much, for some reason, the incessant plot point of the character Murphy and Murphy's Law has wedged itself into my brain. The only other thing that really comes up in my memory is a book I read over a decade ago of great military disasters. One of the disasters listed was an operation authorized by Jimmy Carter to rescue hostages in the Iran Embassy crisis and how everything went wrong in that operation. I think the reason I recall it is that it was my first time learning about or wondering what Murphy's Law was since the article about the operation mentioned it a few times. Anyways, the point I was going to make was about how I think there is also a recency bias needed with associative marketing to make it work. If I had seen episodes of Murphy Brown recently, I think there's a good chance it would have been my number one choice. However, Interstellar and it's Murphy plot was overbearing enough to still be rattling in my brain to come up first.
Another interesting type of test is Match Game. In the bonus round portion, they often have a simple blank with multiple choices. For instance, _____ night. An audience is polled for their response of what they would fill in the blank with and the contestant then must try and guess what the highest matching word would be. A lot of times, my immediate reaction is a movie title or some type of pop culture reference like a band or TV show. So, for ____ night, my first response is Fright Night. I've never seen the movie but, maybe because it rhymes, it's the first thing that pops into my head. However, the answer is usually something generic like good night or date night. A lot of times, my first choice doesn't even show up in the top three answers which surprises me. I clearly have a different thought process than others. Most likely, we all have our own thought processes which I think makes it a challenge for associative marketing to work but it has a better shot at it if the marketing can be done recently which is probably why Coca-Cola keeps making new ads as a quick example.
Topic: What's the first word that comes to mind? (Read 19044 times)
