channels:politicsgamesmusicvideo

Ernest Dichter: The Soul of Brands + Why We Buy

A good profile of motivational researcher Ernest Dichter from the Economist. It looks at his ideas about American consumers’ emotional drive to shop and the backlash against his work in the late ’50s from, among others, Vance Packard in The Hidden Persuaders.

adverve:

In the case of soap, he found that bathing was a ritual that afforded rare moments of personal indulgence, particularly before a romantic date (“You never can tell,” explained one woman). He discerned an erotic element to bathing, observing that “one of the few occasions when the puritanical…
Just came across this article about the use of behavioral psychology in politics. I was immediately reminded of the Hidden Persuaders, a 1950s book by Vance Packard on the earliest days of psychological advertising. Looking back, Packard comes off a little paranoid (in fact, that was his specialty) especially when he swallows ideas like women’s menstrual states affecting their likelihood to buy a product and the belief that housewives fall into a catatonic state in supermarkets. Despite that, it’s still interesting and shows how scary the world of the 1950s could seem.

Just came across this article about the use of behavioral psychology in politics. I was immediately reminded of the Hidden Persuaders, a 1950s book by Vance Packard on the earliest days of psychological advertising. Looking back, Packard comes off a little paranoid (in fact, that was his specialty) especially when he swallows ideas like women’s menstrual states affecting their likelihood to buy a product and the belief that housewives fall into a catatonic state in supermarkets. Despite that, it’s still interesting and shows how scary the world of the 1950s could seem.

1 of 1
Theme by Roy David Farber and Hunson; powered by Tumblr; customised by Me