SCI/TECH: Neuro-Marketing: Straight to the Brain

The latest trends in advertising and marketing use neuroscience, and look beyond influencing our choices to directly affecting our brains at a physical level. Technology to monitor and alter brain waves dates back to the 1970's. Current research uses functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to map the brain's responses to stimuli. In 2001, "The Brighthouse Institute for Institute for Thought Sciences" gave birth to the BrightHouse Neurostrategies Group, the first neuromarketing company, based in Atlanta. Last week, neuroscientist Baroness Susan Greenfield told the Institute of Direct Marketing how marketing can create new neuronal networks in the brain. Critics say using neuroscience to directly manipulate the brain is unethical and will be used to control our thinking, and voting too.






The technology to play with the brain has existed for decades - what's been missing is a reliable mass media delivery system. Most of the techniques seem to rely on some kind of calibrated flickering, which was easily lost in airway broadcasts. Digital technology took care of that problem, quite neatly. Here is an old patent, granted in 1976:

Apparatus and method for remotely monitoring and altering brain waves


Neuro-marketing's goal is to get us to do what corporations want us to do. There is no denying it. The Brighthouse Institute for Thought Sciences explained neuro-marketing's goal to the CBC in 2002.

The Brighthouse Institute for Thought Sciences claims it's closing the gap between business and science - with the goal of getting us to behave the way corporations want us to.

CBC Marketplace

Beyond the ethics and morality of the basic goal, there are three major problems with neuro-marketing according to Commercial Alert, a watchdog organization.

First, "marketing is deeply implicated in many serious pathologies." Children especially suffer from "an epidemic of marketing-related diseases, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, alcoholism, and eating disorders." Companies that produce tobacco, alcohol, junk food or fast food - and use neuro-marketing - could easily damage public health.

Second, neuro-marketing will make political propaganda much more effective. The dangers include manipulating the public to support new totalitarian regimes, civil strife, wars, genocide and countless deaths.

Third, neuro-marketing will promote degraded values more effectively. Children and teenagers already are bombarded with propaganda to accept materialism, addiction, violence, gambling, pornography, anti-social behavior, and etc. Says Commercial Alert, "Any increase in the effectiveness in the marketing of these values and products could impact the character of millions of Americans."

This topic is pretty much made to order for ATS.

What do you think are the dangers of neuro-marketing? What do you think about corporations using neuroscience not just to influence your choices, but to affect your brain's physical development?



EDIT: It is also important to think about neuro-marketing in the context of the new Bankruptcy Act, and the planned federal sales tax.

New Bankruptcy Law Protects Rich: Squeezes Troops, Everyone Else

US Federal Sales Tax in the Works




Brighthouse
The Latest in Consumer Brainwashing - Neuromarketing
Neuro-Persuaders
Neuromarketing: Straight to the Brain
Playing with Your Mind
The Economist: Inside the Mind of the Consumer
Request for Senate Commerce Committee to Investigate Neuromarketing
Neuromarketing and Political Campaigns




[edit on 6-3-2005 by soficrow]

ELF ( Extremely Low Frequency) waves can affect any organism...

It can affect the human brain...where a person would be able perceive sound or images...

Effects of 6-10 Hz ELF on Brain Waves
www.raven1.net...

Commercialism that tries to override a personality's innate preferences by any kind of "brain washing" or other technique
is immoral and should be illegal in my opinion.

Kids emotional and psychological development being affected by something like this because of corporations wanting to make more profits is definitely immoral and evil.

Sofi, do you see it as your job to scare the hell out of me, or is that just a hobby? The sad thing is that this particular piece of news doesn't even particularly scare me. I already knew that a lot of different people we out to control me, and that some of them were certainly succeeding. Afterall, I wouldn't be who I am if it wasn't for my culture.
TV shaped this generation I think. The Disney Channel used cowboy cartoons and Davey Crockett movies to make a soldier out of me, and as I grew up, action movies and videogames picked up the ball and ran with it: it worked- I joined the Marines. It used to be that only the most desperate men in any society would join the military. I forget who said it, but I remember a quote saying, "No man would join the navy who had the contrivance to get himself into a prison instead." Media controls have changed that.
That's not the only thing they get us with either. The media shows us a world where the only social mobility is in sports or music. They don't a lot of new entrepenuers popping up, thinking that they can build a fortune through honest work and creativity; that would upset the balance of power.
If I have a great idea, they want the first thought in my head to be that I should sell it to the industry leader. If I find a better way to build a freeway bridge, they want me to sell the idea to Bechtel, not put Bechtel out of business with my own company.
If I get a big raise, they want me to buy a tricked out car and a bigscreen TV and maybe some bling bling like I see in videos. They don't want me to start buying property. If I did that I might become wealthy, maybe even influential. They don't need too many "outsiders" like that growing; they count on most people to just be consumers, and they encourage that in the media.
They might get more efficient at brainwashing now, but they're already doing a fine job of it.

Originally posted by The Vagabond

Sofi, do you see it as your job to scare the hell out of me, or is that just a hobby?

Yeah, and it's personal too.


Seriously though, what I see is a pile of corporate tricks that should be regulated and controlled left to run free - while Americans, who should be free, are reined in tighter and tighter.

Sucks IMO. Not what this country is supposed to be about. And needs to be fixed.

Lightspeed briefs anybody?

"From around the globe to your frontal lobe, this is BrainVision News!"

Originally posted by Astro97
Lightspeed briefs anybody?

"From around the globe to your frontal lobe, this is BrainVision News!"

In the same vein. What if?

...The reason there's an obesity epidemic in the USA is because there's a neuro-marketing conspiracy to force-feed the nation Twinkies and greasy hamburgers - just to see what will happen? (...and that's reason Bush brought in the Anti-Class Action Act?)

...The Bush campaign used "The Brighthouse Institute for Institute for Thought Sciences" to create TV ads for the presidential race? (...and Diebold was just the back up?)

...All the S&M imagery in rock videos is actually imbedded with preparatory training intros for CIA torturers? (I mean, what's with this S&M epidemic anyway?)

...People are addicted to shopping because they've been brain-washed by cable commercials, and it changed their brains? (...and that's the reason there's a new Bankruptcy Act in the Senate?)


...There's a darned good sci-fi horror show script here, I just know it.



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I tell you what the best solution to this situation is.... stop watching Tv, read books, magazines, newspapers, or just actually go outside more. The most I have watched Tv in two years was the recent superbowl that just passed and the few cartoons that followed. I almost actually felt my attitude and personality change the longer I kept watching. It made me feel sick. Granted the internet takes up alot of my time, but I use it to read news like this and get music. I dont even play darned video games anymore, just no time for it in my schedule.

Possible solution? If you have the means to join a gym, do it. Read more inspirational books or any boo for that matter. Go to the park walk through your neighborhood. It just starts to feel so much better when you have kept up with it for awhile.

Originally posted by DYepes
I tell you what the best solution to this situation is.... stop watching Tv, read books, magazines, newspapers, or just actually go outside more. The most I have watched Tv in two years was the recent superbowl that just passed and the few cartoons that followed.

I have purposefully stayed away from TV for most of my life, and spent years at a time without movies. ...My daughter never even SAW a television until she was almost five. ...and yes, she still maintains that original awe.

...But I do think the issue - and the dangers - are much, much larger than the personal. Although I occasionally wonder if it might be possible to imbed a "neuro-component" in a computer virus...


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I think the best thing, sofi, is to understand the world and your perceptions better. Being aware of why you make decisions is a big part of negating outside influences. The conspiracy to control the public by providing an avenue for an inclination that furthers a spurious need is real and not going away. The techniques used, researched, and experimented are not going to be government regulated. It is a corporate tool used to insure the rich getting richer and the poor being endlessly urged to chase their own tail.

A link that shows how an attempt to put a legal restraint, and thusly a legal definition, on mind control was unsuccessful. It's the only sircumstance I'm aware of.......if there are others, I would like to know so I can toss in some support....I've always been a sucker for a hopeless battle

Legal Reference to Mind Control

Edit to include:
BTW, great topic......I've been waiting for you and your excellent info seeking/consolidating skills to target mind influencing.....it's real and effective. The only thing to work against it is awareness and intelligence.

[edit on 8-3-2005 by MemoryShock]

I did a Google search on this quote, Vagabond and this is what came back.

"No man would join the navy who had the contrivance to get himself into a prison instead."

Actually, I would take the Navy over prison any day. It was always my observation that, except for FMF Corpsmen, sailors always live better than Marines.

You have voted soficrow for the Way Above Top Secret award. You have two more votes this month.

I once read somewhere (sorry no source - it was a scientific journal years ago – maybe Scientific American) that the most cutting edge research done in psychology is not done in university psychology departments or by any psychiatric associations or organisations.

It's done by the advertising industry, and results were/are kept as trade secrets.

The article admitted that much of the understanding we have today about association of colours with certain moods and impulses; certain smells with behaviour, alpha state research and auditory (jingle) effects were all discovered by Madison Avenue.

We can only guess about how they have perfected that knowledge and research by now or how all of the components work together synergistically.

I have to go now... I feel a "Big Mac attack" coming on and a hankering for some 60’s nostalgia in the form of a groovy psychedelic experience that is Fruitopia before I got out and “just do it”. I think I’ll take the car so I can feel free and drive through curved mountain roads at high speeds with no other car in sight ...
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Memoryshock - thanks for the link - good stuff.


Intelligence, awareness, conscious thought - all can neutralize mind control. We have some work to do no doubt, but there's a good thread started here:

Almost all your decisions are made by your unconscious mind.


Gools - thanks for the kudos, the vote and especially, for that good humor flight of marketing fancy. Hope you feel the wind blowing through your hair.


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Boy is that scary, and not the least bit surprising. If corporations were allowed to handcuff you to a radiator they would. But cutting edge neural technologies is almost unneeded, millions of Americans wake up everyday and without a second thought swallow three or four pills to help cure whatever they'v ebeen told is wrong with them. I'm of the opinion that people don't want to think anymore. I'm always taken a back when someone refuses to discuss somthing of merit and would rather inquiire as to my choice for American Idol. I know peopel who go so far as to be genuinly angry at me when I bring up a topic relating to science or history. God forbid I try political speculation.

People want to be happy, however, these days people buy into the commercials. People don't want to ponder the idea that material posessions will not make you happier, nor will pills packed with chemicles. People want the simple solution, the easy way out. They see happy people driving a Honda, they want what they see in the commercial. But not the car, they want to live in the world created for the ad, and posessing that car is the closest they'll ever come.

So yes, it is morally bankrupt corporations perpetrating these thought crimes. But the reason they get away with it is the American People. It's not that people don't read, people refuse to read. The vast majority of the populus these days are so vehemently anti-intellectual it's shocking. The list of meritorius persutes no longer include art, music, philosphy, literature and least of all peace. Most people are mentally incapable of appreciating such things, and what's worse, it's of their own free will.

Enough on the stupidity of the majority. This seems to me to be a legitimate thing to be concerned over. I was wondering if there has been any recent updates as to the extent of the testing, funding, or implementations of neurological marketing devices. If so it would be nice to know who the top bidders are so I know what to watch out for. Also is there any more information on how they plan to use this technology, what are the limits of it's capabilites, what would be the predominate method of transmission? It would also be interesting to find out if there have been any side effects on test subjects, there always are.

Great topic sofi, this kind of thing has been on my mind recently

Originally posted by Shadowflux
Boy is that scary, and not the least bit surprising.

If so it would be nice to know who the top bidders are so I know what to watch out for. Also is there any more information on how they plan to use this technology, what are the limits of it's capabilites, what would be the predominate method of transmission? It would also be interesting to find out if there have been any side effects on test subjects, there always are.

Information is a commodity - and only available for the right price. ...So I' more concerned about what we DON'T know...

Here's a bit of what we do know:

" He lay inside an M.R.I. machine, watching commercials playing on the inside of his goggles as neuroscientists from the University of California, Los Angeles, measured the blood flow in his brain. Instead of asking the subject, John Graham, a Democratic voter, what he thought of the use of Sept. 11 images in a Bush campaign commercial, the researchers noted which parts of Mr. Graham's brain were active as he watched. The active parts, they also noted, were different from the parts that had lighted up in earlier tests with Republican brains.

The researchers do not claim to have figured out either party's brain yet, since they have not finished this experiment. But they have already noticed intriguing patterns in how Democrats and Republicans look at candidates. They have tested 11 subjects and say they need to test twice that many to confirm the trend.

"These new tools could help us someday be less reliant on clichés and unproven adages," said Tom Freedman, a strategist in the 1996 Clinton campaign, later a White House aide and now a sponsor of the research. "They'll help put a bit more science in political science." "

From Cognitive Liberty

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Has anyone found any new info on this topic? ...I haven't been monitoring the news much lately - but want to stay on top of this one.

...Got moved, dealt with much in RL - hope I can spend more time at my ATS again. (Need that fix. lol)

- Sofi

Muhahaha-how evil can we get?

Just think how effective this can be if we could test an underage target group to build data on brain development with this technology? Bring in the clones!

Originally posted by soficrow
what I see is a pile of corporate tricks that should be regulated and controlled left to run free - while Americans, who should be free, are reined in tighter and tighter.

This 'news' has been going on for thousands of years, this is not new stuff.

The continued calling for regulations and then slamming government as being oppressive just seems to fit another gimmick thread to promote one's own advertising agenda.

Talk about 'bait and switch' sofi, you are the Queen

Originally posted by JoeDoaks

The continued calling for regulations and then slamming government as being oppressive just seems to fit another gimmick thread to promote one's own advertising agenda.

Talk about 'bait and switch' sofi, you are the Queen

I see a difference between regulating the activities of monolithic corporations and controlling individuals. Sorry if you can't grasp the distinction.


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Originally posted by soficrow

I see a difference between regulating the activities of monolithic corporations and controlling individuals. Sorry if you can't grasp the distinction.

Enlighten me. I apparently am so f&*#ing stupid I can't see how more regulations that drive the costs UP help me at all.

[me]Being rather dim-witted and Bohemian by nature, perhaps you can be my guiding light? I'll try and keep my eyes open

You certainly don't expect stock holders to pay for my well being do you?



[edit on 22-5-2005 by JoeDoaks]