Comments on: The Big Game: What Corporations Are Learning About the Human Brain

By: Time Warner lab aims at scientific seduction | eats shoots 'n leaves

Time Warner lab aims at scientific seduction | eats shoots 'n leaves — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:37:08 +0000

[...] Read the rest. [...]

By: Simoleon Sense » Blog Archive » Weekly Roundup 164: A Curated Linkfest For The Smartest People On The Web!

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 06:25:52 +0000

[...] The Big Game: What Corporations Are Learning About the Human Brain via thesituationist.wordpress.com – For the second year in a row, FKF Applied Research has partnered with the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, to “measure the effect of many of the Super Bowl ads by using fMRI technology.”The research involves “track[ing] the ads on a host of dimensions by looking for activity in key parts of the brain areas that are known to be involved in wanting, choosing, sexual arousal, fear, indecision and reward.”As the FKF website explains, why this research is useful to Fortune 100 companies is that it shows clearly that what people say in focus groups and in response to poll questions is not what they actually think, feel and do. fMRI scans using our analytical methods allow us to see beyond self report and to understand the emotions and thoughts that are driving (or impeding) behavior. Looking beyond the spoken word provides immense and actionable insights into a brand, a competitive framework, advertising and visual images and cues. [...]

By: Nate

Nate — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:25:17 +0000

I think the challenge for companies going forward will be to use this information without making all their ads feel the same, as yesterday’s mostly did. Except for the Clint Eastwood Chrysler ad, the breaks were processions of “Doo duh doo, here’s an ordinary ad, nothing to see here…OH LOOK WHAT JUST HAPPENED! AREN’T YOU CHARMED AND DELIGHTED?”

I was not, generally speaking, charmed and delighted, except by the result of the game.

By: tpiety

tpiety — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:11:21 +0000

Great post Adam but I think you don’t need to rely simply on an uneasy feeling for being concerned about this company’s commitments to disclosure: (1) we know that for this type of tactic disclosure is probably not a very effective counter-measure (after all, what strategies do you employ once you know about this? Avoidance? Boycott?) and (2) the marketing literature is replete with discussions of how to get around consumer skepticism generated by knowing something is an ad. The entire thrust of this technology is to be able to seamlessly exploit and aspects of cognitive function unobtrusively in a way that will not arouse defenses like skepticism (although skepticism’s doesn’t do as much to protect people from advertising manipulation as people would like to believe or as advertisers complain of; eternal vigilance and skepticism is exhausting and it erodes community so people can’t maintain it. And even if they did, what good would it do? See point (1)).