No brain scans or biometrics were used in selecting my winner in the Super Bowl ad sweepstakes: Hyundai. This is a highly subjective choice, based on my guess as to which company might see the most bottom-line benefit from their Super…

Altruism in humans is difficult to explain with traditional models of behavior, which have focused on competition between individuals for mates, scarce resources, etc. It's undeniable, though, that being willing to help unrelated…

Both the traditional press and bloggers have jumped on Martin Lindstom's Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy. The opinons range from fascinated to horrified, and dismissive to enthusiastic. We learned that the scheduled 60 Minutes…

Book Review: Whiff! The Revolution of Scent Communication in the Information Age C. Russell Brumfield, author of Whiff! The Revolution of Scent Communication in the Information Age, along with co-authors James Goldney and Stephanie…

Marketing eco-friendly products isn't as easy as it might seem, particularly if the products involve some kind of sacrifice or behavioral change on the part of the consumer. Take a look at one of the supposed eco-villains, the auto…

Scantily clad women have been used to sell products to men for decades, and likely for millennia in one form or another. There's little doubt that the typical male brain is wired to respond to attractive females in revealing attire. But…

Popular books like Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, not to mention generations of comedians, have played up the differences between males and females. Researchers at Northwestern University and the University of Haifa have found…

South Korean researchers have conducted an fMRI study that shows that perfume can arouse some men. Shocking news, eh? Eight healthy right-handed heterosexual male volunteers (20-35 years of age), having normal olfaction and no brain…

With Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton locked in a tight race for the Democratic presidential nomination, will one or the other turn to sensory branding, Korean-style? Last December, Reuters reported that Lee Myung-bak, a candidate for the…

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…