The Century Of The Self – Happiness
Posted on Sunday, December 5th, 2010
Special thanks to S. Ahmed Al-Awadi, a student in my class who sent this post to me:
Prof. Nassar,
I watched an interesting documentary a long time ago called The Century of Self, composed of several parts. That documentary came to mind in our marketing class so I thought to watch the first part again, called Happiness Machine.
It shows the the history of controlling masses, how easy it is to convince people to buy or accept things that have once been almost taboo in society. Edward Bernays was the father of the idea, and he was inspired by his cousin’s study of human psychology. His cousin was Sigmund Freud. Freud had the idea that a part of human’s mind is filled with unconscious desires and impulses. Berneys was hired to promote the idea of US democracy after WWII using Freud’s psychology and was so successful that he wanted to proceed making money out of it once war was over.
Tobacco companies hired him to get the female population to smoke. At the time it was taboo for women to smoke, cigarettes were a symbol of masculinity. Berneys suggested that groups of elite women show up at a political mass demonstration and light up a cigarette as a “torch of freedom” in demonstration for democracy and women’s rights, the torch was also associate with the Statue of Liberty. It was important for Breneys that consumers get emotionally involved with the product, he convinces masses that they would feel better about buying the product. Soon enough female movie stars started smoking in movies. Fashion also started in this era, people were encouraged to show their personality in clothes, “express your inner self,” it made people feel good to express their personalities. In 1927 the stock market was opened so that ordinary people are given a chance to buy shares. “Transforming people into happiness machines is key to economic progress.”
It was interesting to see the history of capitalism and marketing, and how economy, psychology and politics are all interrelated.
Neuromarketing
Posted on Wednesday, October 13th, 2010
Neuromarketing is a new field of marketing that studies consumers’ sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective response to marketing stimuli. Researchers use technologies such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure changes in activity in parts of the brain.
Here are links for nice blogs on Neuromarkerting
