CIGARETTE SMOKING WARNING ADS
ARE INJURIOUS TO HEALTH!
Perhaps George W Bush knew a little something about the brain — when asked what Americans could do to contribute in the fearful, unsettled days and weeks after 9/11, he replied with a simple monosyllabic “Shop!” No, this isn’t Martin Lindstrom’s idea of a joke in his definitive work Buy-ology. He agrees with the machinations of George W Bush’s discussed-to-death mind — after all this is the man who won US Presidential re-election by his campaign’s feeding the fear of terrorism post 9/11. “The more stress we’re under in our world, and the more fearful we are, the more we seek out solid foundations. The more we seek out solid foundations, the more we become dependant on dopamine. And the more dopamine surges through our brains, the more we want, well, stuff.” QED says Martin Lindstrom branding guru and neuromarketing pioneer.
In 1966, John Lennons unguarded comment that The Beatles were “more popular than Jesus now” caused a huge stir when taken out of context. Beatlemania met death threats and denouncements. It’s taken over four decades for the Pope to forgive this blasphemy.
Controversy aside, the comparison of rock group fans brand of loyalty with God and religion isn’t far from wrong. In Lindstrom’s study with nuns, strong brands (and Beatlemania definitely qualifies) light up the same regions of the brain that religious activities do. Welcome to the world of neuromarketing — a world with its truth and lies which we’ve just begun to understand — where you the person or identity is inconsequential.
Because, to use a Houseism, “Everyone Lies”. If you thought you were in control of your actions, you’re wrong — the real boss is your brain which doesn’t lie whereas you do —- maybe unconsciously or unintentionally...but still, you do!
Because, to use a Houseism, “Everyone Lies”. If you thought you were in control of your actions, you’re wrong — the real boss is your brain which doesn’t lie whereas you do —- maybe unconsciously or unintentionally...but still, you do! When was the last time you heard something on the lines of “I bought that Louis Vuitton bag because it appealed to my sense of vanity and I want my friends to know I can afford a $500 dollar purse too.” Buy-ology is no paean to retail therapy or a peek into the giddy world of The Confessions of a Shopaholic. The last word on neuromarketing challenges sacred cows of advertising theory with something akin to glee as he sacrifices them on the altar of scientific proof.
Armed with the new tools of marketing — a fMRI (MRI as lie detector) and SSP (EEG on steroids), cutting edge neuroimaging technology uncovers the truths we didn’t even know we were lying about! Blasphemies abound. Throw away your advertising bible and marketing commandments. Lindstrom doesn’t theorise...he proves. Page after page of astounding facts fortified by research studies and the weight of scientific proof make one marvel at the massacre of everything we thought we knew about ourselves as consumers. The book slaughters the sacred cows of advertising dispassionately, ethically and above all irrefutably. So women can rejoice — sex doesn’t really sell — it’s the controversy of pubescent Brooke Shields’ “Nothing comes between me and my Calvins” that sends the stocks flying off the shelves — the banned book effect in other words. Nor does beauty of celebrities really sell — the tipping point is in mirror neurons reconciling the emotional “who I wish I could be” with the rationale of identifying with “people like us.”This book Lindstrom promises “isn’t just for business people, it’s for everyone.” So no need to read up on The Brain for Dummies — its revelations don’t require specialised knowledge or a jargon dictionary to understand. Ad agencies can relax as myths are busted but the profession is not debunked. As Paco Underhill observes in the foreword, the author “believes that advertising is actually a virtuous endeavour, not just a necessary evil.” Selling has to be reinvented and move beyond visual cliches that worked in the past. Neuroimaging provides the tools for understanding why we do what we do.
If Kishore Biyani wants to know why his intuition of consumer behaviour failed him in filmmaking, he needs to start here. Not with memes. If Dr Anbumani Ramadoss really wants to stop people smoking, he needs to stop mourning the defeat of the anti-smoking lobby’s request for a lurid cancer graphic warning on cigarette packets and save the campaign from expensive mistakes that not only don’t work, but defeat the intent and make things worse. Is this the future of advertising as we know it? Sometimes understanding why isn’t the final answer. Sometimes the truth is difficult to accept. Nokia hasn’t changed their irritating ring tone yet. And however disparaging Steve Jobs might be of people selling “coloured water”, even though the truth is out regarding the famous taste tests, the cola wars continue.
— jayakumar.vaishnavi@gmail.com
WALL-E AND HIS LOVE STORY WITH APPLE
