Cohen said people empathized with the angst of Stan and his wife Julie -- seen by TV viewers and newspapers readers as normal, intelligent and wise people.
To predict reactions of a broader public, 31 subjects interested in quitting smoking were recruited for a focus group to evaluate samples from three antismoking ad campaigns: A (a humorous effort that empathized about the difficulty of the task), B (more serious but also empathetic), and C (lighthearted).