At io9.com, Esther Inglis-Arkell writes about a recent study that demonstrates how how skillful advertisers can word-jack your brain and create false memories. Yes, you read that right . . . thanks to recent academic research, advertisers now know how to push your brain buttons to create product-associational false memories . . . yep, false memory creation as part of an advertising campaign.
Lots of us have listened to commercials and gotten a sense of the taste of the product they’re advertising. Especially if the commercial uses the phrase, “rich, creamery butter.” The ‘taste’ might last a little longer than commercial. If advertisers can get people to ‘remember’ eating foods they’ve never tried, they can create old, familiar comfort food, or sudden nostalgic food cravings, out of thin air.
I’m going to eat some butter, now.
See the Journal of Consumer Research at http://www.jstor.org/pss/10.1086/660165 for the full paper, with details, and more.
Brian
www.BrianDavidPhillips.net
