Advertising and the Brain...

I came across an interesting article about the brain and advertising. I'm still in a bit of a daze at all the advertising a person is exposed to these days. You really can't get away from it. And apparently it is doing its job since the companies keep investing in more and more of it as we keep buying more and more of what they want us to rather than what we need.

And I'm astounded at how much your scientists are learning about the brain. Put advertising and brain research together and you get some interesting results.

The article tells about how much power advertisers have over us, when we are not aware of what they are doing - and perhaps even when we are. They are getting pretty sophisticated and, dare one say, sneaky.

The article is a bit long but worth the read to catch up on brain scanning technology (very portable and powerful), the differences between MRI and EEG (MRI takes 5 seconds to register, EEG is almost instantaneous - and that means it measures our subconscious reaction - what the advertisers are really after), and how the technology is used.

The second to the last paragraph offers the most promising ways to use this scanning technology for community good rather than just to sell product for a company (allowing quadriplegics to control wheelchairs by thinking alone).

This is all a very long way from 1st Century life with very low key advertising and word of mouth. And I wonder what a brain scan would register when someone thinks of Wheat Ridge.