The Noise Inside Your Head

There is a buzz going on in your head. It starts the moment you wake up to the clock radio and ends when you turn off the TV, Ipod player or web browser at night. The buzzing is not very loud, almost like a whisper. What is this buzz in your head? It's the hundreds of ad messages and sales pitches your brain processes every minute of the day. What impact has the total proliferation of advertising in the mass media and the internet had on consumer thinking? What are the negative side effects and if so is there a cure?

Mind over Marketing

Like so many prescription drugs that have been marketed in the US only to be pulled off shelves due to fatal side effects, the contraindications of neuromarketing are yet to be discovered. One of the early warning indicators about the potential risks associated with neuromarketing went off in 2007 when Time magazine published the article: The Brain: Marketing To Your Mind. In this article a Standford neuroscientist, Brian Knutson, conducted a series fMRI brain scans of several test subjects while making purchase decisions. He determined that the area of the brain associated with anticipating pleasant outcomes was stimulated when test participants viewed products that were within their spending limits. Conversely, when test participants viewed products that were too expensive, areas of the brain mapped to anticipating pain were stimulated.

When you consider the findings of Knutson's fMRI studies, could daily exposure to high-ticket luxury item advertising or products that most people simply can't afford explain why a growing number of people are experiencing symptoms of anxiety and depression? You don't have to be a neuroscientist to arrive at the obvious conclusion. If in fact there is a direct link to a rise in mental depression and advertising, what can and should be done about it? With over 30 years of advertising and marketing experience I can tell you that the answer will be: "Run more antidepressant drug advertising".