Marketing of the Future
Neuromarketing, the latest marketing phenomenon used by Google, CBS, Disney, and Frito-Lay. I read about this new type of marketing that markets to your subconscious during some downtime at the ARC. The article “Making Ads That Whisper to the Brain” discusses how instead of using old-fashion surveys and research groups, marketers measure levels of brain activity that consumers have in response to ads.
- photo credit: alles-schlumpf, flickr.com
The newest technique uses EEG sensors and eye-tracking devices. This system connects the brain patterns with exact images from ads to gauge specific responses to ads. They can see if the ad reaches the
subconscious part of your brain, because, as pointed out in the article, only 2% of the brain’s energy is spent on conscious activity. By measuring subconscious activity, the researchers can reveal emotions, attention and memory.
To a marketer, I see how this could seem to be a godsend. If you measure brain waves, you don’t have to worry about variables regarding human error. It just seems a little unethical to me.
Ads are being programmed to stick in our brains. We are being convinced to buy products based on our brains subconscious responses. Day after day our society is becoming more robotic. Human to human interactions are minimized with constant cell-phone and computer use and now, advertisers can tap into our subconscious.
This made me think of my media ethics class and the different ethical theories. I thought about it, and what makes it unethical to me, is that certain brands are using it and others aren’t. If you don’t have enough money to do it, you just can’t. If every brand was able to use the technique, I think it would be okay, because we still have to option to choose the products we prefer. We’re not being programmed to like a single product. According to the theory of universalism, this would be ethical, but for all practical purposes, I think these advertisers are going over the top.
Pretty interesting post, Alison. Well done and super original!
This is very interesting! Great post.