1. When Scarcity Works in Ads
Prepared by J. Scott Armstrong (details on him at jscottarmstrong.com).
Please inform Scott about errors and also make suggestions (armstrong@wharton.upenn.edu)
Scott has taken these slides from adprin.com, a site that he founded. That site contains interactive versions of these
slides, along with linked references, videos, and webcasts, all in PPT and PPTX format that you can download.

2. I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Problem
When the butter substitute “I Can’t Believe It’s Not
Butter” was introduced to the U.K. in October
1991, the Butter Council threatened legal
action against ICBINB because of their use of
the word “butter.” Was this a good idea for
the Butter Council?
____NO ____YES
Why? Write your answer.
When you finish see the next slide for what
happened and why.
Adapted from AdPrin.com 2

3. ICBINB ran ads showing the storyboard for the “banned” TV
commercial along and said that the butter interests were
trying to remove ICBINB from the market. (Scarcity)
Within a month their brand awareness was 38% and they had
trouble meeting demand. The ad campaign won an IPA award
for effectiveness.
Other experiments found that scarcity only led to higher
demand when the product was already attractive.
Otherwise, subjects left the scarce product for someone who
wanted it more. (See Verhallen 1982 in Persuasive Advertising, p 72-4)
State that an attractive product is scarce when it is true.
(Principle 2.3.1)

4. Based on this exercise, write a small application step for
yourself, and set a deadline, preferably within one week. If you
are working with someone else, share your application plan and
the results of your application.
• For example, consider making your attractive product scarce
with respect to time, quantity that can be purchased, type of
customer, or type of store.
Adapted from AdPrin.com