Is Consciousness Overrated?

Evidence continues to pile up demonstrating that our brains process information without our conscious awareness, and that our behavior can be affected by these stimuli. Last month, a study sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse…

Why the Absolut Campaign Switch Worked

Last year, Absolut abandoned its classic "bottle" ad campaign. That long-running series of ads featured the shape of an Absolut bottle cleverly concealed in an illustration, and was largely responsible for establishing Absolut vodka as…

Florida Researchers Probe Emotions and Ads

Researchers at the University of Florida have published the results of their first advertising study using fMRI, a project intended to try to relate brain scan data to specific emotions being experienced by the subjects while viewing ads.…

Does Irritating Your Customers Work?

One of the most annoying series of commercials is for HeadOn, an analgesic which one rubs on one's forehead to (supposedly) cure headaches. Does HeadOn work? I have no idea, but it seems doubtful. Their commercials must work very well,…

Emotion-Detecting Phones in Korea?

OK, he sent you roses on Valentine's Day, but does he really care about you? If you are a subscriber of South Korean cell phone company KTF, it will cost you just a buck and a half per month to discern the emotional state of the people you…

Your Brain on Super Bowl Ads

For the last few years, while fans have been recovering from an excess of guacamole and sports analysts were explaining why the winning team actually prevailed (scored more points?), small teams of neuroscientists have been at work doing…

Comfort Shopping: Sad Customers Buy More

Most merchants would include "happy customers" as a key part of their mission. Oddly, new research shows that sad customers are likely to spend more money when shopping. Merely watching a sad video clip caused subjects to pay nearly four…

Nielsen Buys Into Neuromarketing

Has neuromarketing arrived? If not, it has reached a new plateau of credibility as the privately held Nielsen Company has invested in NeuroFocus, a firm that uses brainwave, eye-tracking and skin conductance measurements to measure…

Red Brain, Blue Brain

Just in time for analyzing Super Tuesday primary results, political neuromarketing is back in the news. CNN ran a story, Reading Voters' Minds!, on how Lucid Systems is attempting to measure real voter attitudes with various techniques…