We’ve always suspected those tawdry health warnings on a packet of fags were rather dumb, but never knew why. Well, it seems that, contrary to discouraging smoking, they actually encourage lighting up by stimulating the nucleus accumbens — the craving spot — in the brain.
This recent research finding in what’s called “buy*ology” is a myth-busting body blow to the anti-smoking lobby as well as the anti-booze lobby and any other bunch who would curtail freedom of choice by legislative process. The law and human behaviour don’t cross the street in the same places. Duh!
As a teetotaller (or more accurately, a recovering alcoholic) I haven’t touched a drop of booze (except Communion wine) for eight years now, so I have no particular candle to light or cross to bear for the alcohol industry. In fact, aside from being the perennial designated driver, I find pissed people screamingly funny. I was probably much like that once too.
I gave up drinking on Hitler’s birthday — 20 April — and gave up Camels (the cigarettes, man, not the animals!) simultaneously. I’ve puffed two fags since then, but immediately stopped with elegant ease. I find women who smoke (except cigars) singularly unattractive and nothing yanks the lead out of my pencil quicker than the sight of a stump of smoldering white paper dangling obscenely between a woman’s fingers. Those fingers are meant for a higher calling.
But I digress. Back to buyology. The phenomenon’s world guru is Martin Lindstrom who defines this “science” as “the multitude of subconscious forces that motivate us to buy”.
In her review of his latest book, Buy*ology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy, TIME reporter Andrea Sachs gives a potted pen-picture of Lindstrom’s more endearing findings based on his most recent research project in which he wired 65 people to special MRI machines to measure any connections between religion and brand loyalty.
As always with such research, Lindstrom got more than he bargained for, which meshed neatly on top of his existing R70-million, three-year neuromarketing study (sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline and Bertelsmann among others, nogal) that measured brain activity of 2 000 volunteers.
A lot of hunches were confirmed. A lot of marketing tripe euphemistically called “conventional wisdom” was torpedoed.
And these tie us back to Anja Merret’s recent blog on TL pondering us being brainwashed into panic and negativity, and my riposte about the equally invidious perils of being brainwashed into docile, mindless, passivity and pink-eyed intellectual slavery.
Among Lindstrom’s “findings” is that sex does not sell. I had a client yonks ago who made industrial-strength heaters out in Kempton Park to warm the tootsies and footsies of factory workers. The range of these monsters was called The Big Red and he insisted the best way to see hundreds of Big Reds in icy concrete-floored factories on the East Rand was to feature bikini-clad beauties hugging, adoring, fondling and otherwise paying homage to The Big Red.
My objections went unheeded. He was the client. This is capitalism and neither morality nor common sense pay the rent. I don’t know if he’s still in business.
What Lindstrom did find was that controversies around sex in ads do sell the product — hence the success of Calvin Klein ads and those of Abercrombie & Fitch. I wonder if that’ll work for Jake “Showerhead” Zuma?
Lindstrom also busts the hoary marketing myth about product placement on TV or in the movies. It is “generally useless” — unless it’s your product. We ordinary, simple, gullible non-scientific folk have known that for years — we just tune it out like white noise. If we do notice the product, it’ll be because it is interfering with our viewing pleasure — and that is a mental black mark against the product. Our minds instantly and automatically dump it in the neurological trash can. I have a long list of those products and it plays havoc with carefree shopping.
Our go-get-some guru also lifts the lid on subliminal advertising. Far from having fallen from grace — remember the scandalous 1957 single-frame flashes of “Drink Coca-Cola”? — the technique is alive, well and lucrative. It’s hard for movie makers in search of the grittiness of everyday life to avoid ubiquitous advertising slogans, brands and products. But if you have the budget, you can score vast mileage out of “donating” your product to a feature movie. Chrysler paid big bucks for that tank Harrison Ford cruised around in in Firewall.
And though every episode of Seinfeld featured Superman in one way or another, it could as easily have been a Big Mac, Nokia or DKNY.
Despite our turning out products and brands as simply part of the background, context can make or break even powerful names. Think about it. If, every time you saw Dr Hannibal Lecter, he was munching an Outspan orange, or the Stihl logo was clearly visible on the Texas Chainsaw boykie’s traditional weapon, or in the next remake of Stephen King’s Christine the car is a homicidal Hummer — how would you feel about the product?
Subliminal advertising is particularly odious and we saw it in its full frontal ferocity during last year’s US presidential campaign. All a fanatical campaign maven needs do is sneak a 1/3 000th of a second grab of the Twin Towers collapsing behind Obama’s head during a live TV debate and mission successful.
And don’t think our Advertising Standards Authority is that sharp either. While we ban comparative advertising in SA (typical in authoritarian states — just ban it, don’t regulate it!), our plethora of locally made soapies are bedecked in brand names. And for a healthy contribution, you can get almost any message on air. It’s the context that counts.
Our TV news broadcasts feature subliminal prejudices all the time — repeated footage of Zimbabwean police beating MDC supporters when there’s nothing to fill that space. Part of the problem is that our electorate lack the nous or sophistication to sift the background blah-blah from the forefront issue. It hasn’t mattered that Zuma had adulterous unprotected sex with a woman he knew to be HIV-positive, so what would it matter if he is seen driving a Merc — or, heaven forbid, an ultra-economy Toyota Tazz?
In many cases too, the brand is used to cement a stereotype, and in a country as fractious and hyper-sensitive as ours, that would be a kill-or-be-killed scenario.
Sachs writes: “The author insists he doesn’t study buyology … rather, he says, ‘my hope is that the huge majority will wield this same instrument for good: to better understand ourselves – our wants, our drives and our motivations — and use that knowledge for benevolent and practical purposes’. Well, maybe. But then again, he has nothing to sell us.”
We’d be well-advised to brace ourselves for the coming flood of bullboards “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” as the electioneering hots up. We’d be equally well-advised to beware the news that is pumped our way — remembering that there have been massacres of the best and brightest in our newsrooms in favour less-qualified and less costly.
And, throughout this year (despite what the “analysts” say about economic upturns), we will be very well-advised to be extra-cautious not to succumb to buyology’s seductive serenades. It’s a jungle out there and you need bush craft to keep your eye on the prize and the pinch on your purse.
Oh, and BTW, Lindstrom’s research found virtually no difference in the way the human brain reacts to religious icons — the cross, the Pope, Rosary beads, a menorrah — or to powerful brands. So much for the separation of spiritual and material worlds …
Very interesting. I think direct marketing stints – whether they feature nubiles in shanty clothing or not – are very primitive. The new buzz is viral marketing. Think about it: if your mother swears by a product, you’re more likely to try it out. Likewise, a friend or a colleague who vouch for a product are more likely to convince you than Hannibal Lecter peppering a corpse with braaisout.
People tend to shut down when products are marketed at them. I still think if you stick to the universals – like emotions – you’d market your product well. Obama has showed that during his political campaign.
A symbol like a crucifix has no inherent value, but it would shake a needle on an EEG if the test subject has a particular emotional affinity for it, or is particularly averse to it. It’s the emotional attachment that produces the reaction.
If you can generalise such an attachment among a group of people, such a symbol would work in the same way a brand logo does, so no surprises there.
This week’s Daily promise, 1,8,09: God will fight for you
Does God hold our sins against us?
“When God shows mercy, he isn’t forgiving that person because of what he or she has done, but because God is compassionate to those who repent of their sins and ask for forgiveness. It is only because of God’s goodness that sinners are forgiven.”
Who makes all these Assertions for God? Humans? How? Why? To Prove their Man-made God, in our Image, is the Real GOD of the Universes?
Today’s Humans should Translate the Religious Writings and Myths, with our High Tech Science.
The Supernatural Acts of the Gods, that flew up in the air and out into Space, are a High Tech Science Human Species.
They do have ‘Higher’ High Tech Birth, instead of ‘Lower’ Heterosexual Body Birth, the Original Sin of Higher Born Adam and Eve.
Ezekiel’s wheel spinning up in the air, like our helicopters?
The Pillar of Cloud by Day and Fire by Night, some type of spaceship.
We Know How to Do, the Supernatural Acts of the Lord God. High Tech ‘is’ Supernatural to Natural Humans.
It is Time to take the Mystery, out of the Mystery of Supernatural Gods, in our Image.
How Male and Female Equal Clone Helpmeets, were made in the Garden of Eden Lab, can be Known today.
Knowing the Truth of Eternal Physical Life After Birth, will not change our Destiny. It is already written in the Sands of Time.
But, it is so uplifting to Know ‘Why’ we are a Killer Species, by Body Birth.
Now we need to Know Why, The Caretaker Clone Species the Lord God Created, in the Lab ‘in the beginning’. ‘Fell’ to the Lower Nature.
There is Eternal Physical Life After Birth, on Planets and in Spaceships.
The Bible, Myth, and High Tech Science tells us so.
I tried Dolores Lear, and my web site did not come up. It did before.
Here is the www.
http://home.kc.rr.com/hightech/home.html
All the sections are posted but the one to explain High Tech Creation, etc. are.
Again.
I was not notified that my High Tech website was removed.
Will check it out.
I still have many postings on Blogs that state My High Tech Science view of Scripture and Myth.
Hope you can use these posting.
My roadrunner blog provider has changed format, so will see about reposting it. For now I do not have a web site posted.
But plenty of other Posts.
So hope some of these High Tech ideas are useful to you.
Ever since the late 1800s, Natural Humans have been proving the something ‘super’ Natural out there somewhere in the Universes, that Holds LIFE as we Know it together, visible and invisible.
The High Tech Electro-Magnetic Force, which powers our Lights, and all types of Miracles, is like the Lord God of Religion had, and the Gods and Goddesses of Myth.
From that, Miracle, Natural Humans began making motor cars, fly up in the air in airplanes, made all types of High Tech equipment, and
Atomic and Nuclear Bombs.
It seems so Natural today, that Humans cannot Imagine this was the Supernatural Power of their Man-Made Earth Gods, Goddesses, and Angels.
The High Tech Electro-Magnetic Force, a Miracle to Natural Humans, powers our Lights, and all types of Miracles, a Spirit/Unseen Force.
From that Miracle, Natural Humans began making motor cars, airplanes, spaceships, and High Tech Equipment that Helps Cure Genetic Diseases, and Physical Problems.
Because the Electro-Magnetic Force, became the Holy Spirit of the Trinity Godhead in 300, it is in the Religious Trinity of ‘Three ‘Persons’ in One Godhead.
GOD the maker of the Atom, and Electro-Magnetic Force, Not Humans, do make a Trinity that makes All Life as we Know it, Visible and Invisible.
The Science Trinity is not, the Human Species that they make.
So let’s get on with the End Times show, of a Nuclear ‘Arm’ageddon, Killing our Ozone Canopy, and setting up an End Times Planetary Fire, for After the Judgement Day.
With our High Tech we Know this Catastrophe is possible. After the Return of our High Tech Ancestors for the Judgement Day, our Earth will be a Dead Planet like Mars.
Scriptures, Myth, and High Tech, Prove there is a Higher ‘Being’ Human Species, called God by Natural Humans.
…and we’ve developed / were born with a materialistic instinct – at least most of us anyway!
What’s with Dolores Lear? Maybe she should be reading “http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/silwane.”?
As in most of the brain imaging studies that reach the popular press i think Lindstrom is completely overstating his findings. I suggest you step back from his book and look at the actual published science and what it actually shows – overinterpretation from simplistic study design is a very big problem in this field – even more so when someone is trying to sell a book.
“While we ban comparative advertising in SA (typical in authoritarian states — just ban it, don’t regulate it!)”
Point of fact, it is not banned; it is, however, considered trademark infringement if you use a competitors trademark – such as a products actual name – in your advertising. Hence “we tried our dishwasher against the 3 most popular dishwashers and won”, which is comparative advertising, and is allowed, and is regulated: you have to be able to prove that your dishwasher was tested against the 3 most popular ones.
Dolores Lear, doubtless under Divine Guidance, seems to have lost her way entirely. I mean this blogologically, theologically, scientifically, philosophically, technologically, astrologically and eschatologically.
Dear Ms Lear, I fear you’re not near
In fact, you’re misled and misleading
The point at debate is not God or fate
And you’ve left us just bleeding
So before you have us busted and all in
Have a read of Dr Francis Collins
Whose faith and science are not at odd
His book: “The Language of God”
The thing that jerked me awake was the revelation concerning “mirror neurons”.
I have been – for years – trying to figure out how marketers (myself included) could punt a product as a lifestyle enhancer, slap it on somebody popular and our young people would just lap it up – spending their parents’ hard-earned money in the process.
This book is truly revelatory in nature and Martin Lindstrom has earned tons of my respect through this literary window into the human brain.
Oh yeah.. the book I read immediately after Buy-ology is David Meerman Scott’s “New Rules of Marketing & PR”.. and now I’m not sure how much of what Martin Lindstrom expounds on in the book hold water in the “newmarketingsphere”..
If we are not ready for High Tech Science Eternal Male and Female Equal Clone Lifestyle After Birth, at least can we start being Caring Humans on Earth?
Is it Time, to join as One Human Race on our Home Planet? Why do we need to be divided into so many different groupings on One Planet?
Now that Atheists are getting more prominent, it is more important to teach our Boy Scouts about Peace and Taking Care of our Home, then who can belong, and which God is God. Or is God Generic.
With Pollution and Nuclear Bombs on Land and Sea, what kind of Lifestyle is that, for teaching the Young what is important for Living, and if you believe in a Religious God or not?
All Types of Religions are now on Earth, but the Living Hate and Greed Morals, do not Reflect a Love of God, and our Brothers/Sisters of Life. Actions speak louder than words.
How many more Gods, will it Take, to make Humans Take Notice of what is going on, on our Home Planet Temple of GOD, while they spend their Money and Time on Pagan Gods, in Temples built by Human Hands?
How many God Religions have been made in the last 2000 years? Why are GODs Humans, Killers? Who is Following their Religious Peace Gods? How?
In the last 100 years, Fallen Humans have GODs High Tech Science, to Blow Up GODs Planet. Is this the Result of Hate Religions? Why?
What happened to Love GOD and your Brothers/Sisters of LIFE? Why do we use GODs Resources for Death, instead of Equal Sharing for Life?
Is there still enough Resources left on GODs Earth for our Population Needs? Or has our Greed tied up Earth’s resources in Excessive Personal ‘Things’, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and Toxic Pollution?
What is the Aim of Religion? Eternal Life After Death? That is a Negative Aim. Who Cares About the Living? Anyone?