Neuromarketing - creepy

[cycleberg]

Anybody out there know more about neuromarketing?
What really concerns me is- what are the long-term effects. Are there studies about the long-term effects of the advertising we are subjected to now? Is the total immersion/blending of life and advertizing/consumerism, the reason the general populace acts so dumbed down? apologies if this article is a dupe post.

"There's a Sucker Born in Every Medial Prefrontal Cortex"
By CLIVE THOMPSON Published: October 26, 2003

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/26/magazine/26BRAINS.html

....
Measuring brand influence might seem like an unusual activity for a neuroscientist, but Montague is just one of a growing breed of researchers who are applying the methods of the neurology lab to the questions of the advertising world. Some of these researchers, like Montague, are purely academic in focus, studying the consumer mind out of intellectual curiosity, with no corporate support. Increasingly, though, there are others -- like several of the researchers at the Mind of the Market Laboratory at Harvard Business School -- who work as full-fledged ''neuromarketers,'' conducting brain research with the help of corporate financing and sharing their results with their sponsors. This summer, when it opened its doors for business, the BrightHouse Institute for Thought Sciences in Atlanta became the first neuromarketing firm to boast a Fortune 500 consumer-products company as a client. (The client's identity is currently a secret.) The institute will scan the brains of a representative sample of its client's prospective customers, assess their reactions to the company's products and advertising and tweak the corporate image accordingly.
...
''You are going to see more large companies that will have neuroscience divisions.''
...
This result provided the BrightHouse Institute with an elegant tool for testing marketing campaigns and brands. An immediate, intuitive bond between consumer and product is one that every company dreams of making. ''If you like Chevy trucks, it's because that has become the larger gestalt of who you self-attribute as,'' Kilts said, using psychology-speak. ''You're a Chevy guy.'' With the help of neuromarketers, he claims, companies can now know with certainty whether their products are making that special connection.
...

[creativelcro]

1. Here is the insider's deal...

A few years ago a colleague began to propose using neuroimaging to test the effects of ads on brain activity, so as to be able to go "beyond" focus groups and surveys. A deal was made with a big company (no names, sorry). The press got wind of it and the company pulled off because of the fear of bad PR. In the meanwhile some patents were filed and approved (check on the US patents database for marketing and brain imaging). Now they are starting again. There is at least a company doing it. And a number of people interested in it. Why are they interested ? You see, these business types are essentially idiots... They'll buy anyting. They spend millions on methods to evaluate ads that are basically random draws. The "neuroimaging" component sounds objective, the latest buzz... In reality it's all BS. A few people who know how to do brain imaging etc want to make a buck and exploit the gullibility of these biz types. They'll catch on at some point, perhaps. In practice, if you have a method that gives you an answer about which ad is best and then the ad flops, one can always attribute it to "bad timing", whatever...
In any way, conspiracy guys, DON'T WORRY. There is nothing to it. Nobody can read minds. The press does not understand this field at all. If they tell you they can read your mind or know how you feel by putting you in the MRI machine please remember it is not true. Take it from somebody who's done this for a long time...
-C

[neurowoman]

2. another insider's opinion

i agree. these fMRI studies will only serve to identify brain regions that subserve the basic psychological phenomena that advertising is already based on. nothing to worry about here. although lots of scientists are eager to have their research funded and may be tempted by big companies. <p>

as an aside, this is my first post in DU after a long hiatus. i first found out about DU in it's early days, but interested waned. but i'm glad to be back :)

[newyawker99]

3. Hi neurowoman!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[neurowoman]

5. thanks

for the welcome.

[onecitizen]

4. Hi neurowoman!!!!

Welcome back!!

[creativelcro]

7. Hi neurowoman

are you in the neuroimaging field ?... -C

[neurowoman]

8. neuroimaging

yes. i assumed that you were from your post. are you at a university or in the private sector?

[foo_bar]

9. it's "pure research"

Isn't neurology the study of advertising? Madison Ave didn't wait for science, they took their teleology and went home. If shrinks had the good sense to whisper "eat at joes" under hypnosis, they'd be the ones buying MRIs to find "must see synapse". Sometimes our collective incompetence prolongs the species.

[DBoon]

6. Blipverts!

Where is Max Headroom when you need him?

[KittyWampus]

10. I Happen To "Self Attribute" As A Seeker Of Light

A light that cannot be parceled out by one to the many for a profit...

The Light I seek is Everywhere and in Everything...

All you need is the eyes to see it and the ears to hear it...

Maybe if I find a way of communicating my Self Attributes to the crowds, I can make millions from the donations rendered by others who are too lazy, fearful or filled with divisive thoughts to Seek the Light for themselves and in their own way.

Perhaps I will Lie and tell people that the Light can be parceled out for a profit...

The Light is the only thing that can make people happy...

Advertising is the example I use when speaking of Black Magic.

[JohnyCanuck]

11. We ain't seen nothing yet.

To show to what extremes the CIA is willing to go in developing the technology to control human behavior, they funded the "research" of Dr. Jose Delgado. Delgado was infamous for implanting radio-activated electrodes in animals (and possibly in humans).

In the pictures to the left he is demonstrating that his implants in a bull's brain can stop it even after it starts to charge Delgado.

You may get a slight whiff of sulphur and brimstone as you read this quote from Delgado:

"We need a program of psychosurgery and political control of our society. The purpose is physical control of the mind. Everyone who deviates from the given norm can be surgically mutilated.
"The individual may think that the most important reality is his own existence, but this is only his personal point of view. This lacks historical perspective.
"Man does not have the right to develop his own mind. This kind of liberal orientation has great appeal. We must electrically control the brain. Some day armies and generals will be controlled by electrical stimulation of the brain."

Dr. Jose Delgado (MKULTRA experimenter who demonstrated a radio-controlled bull on CNN in 1985)
Director of Neuropsychiatry, Yale University Medical School
Congressional Record No. 26, Vol. 118, February 24, 1974

Above from the article Brainwashing America by Dr. Norman Livergood former head of the Dept. of Artificial Intelligence at the US Army War College.