Tag: Advertising
The Market Enchanters: Mind Control in the History of Advertising
Cultural historian Anat Rosenberg on the history of mind control in advertising and its links to current discussions of social media.
Rosser Reeves and the Death of Motivational Research
Advertising executive Paul Feldwick reflects on the history of his profession’s entanglement with psychology and hidden persuasion.
Brainwashing in Communist Czechoslovakia – And After
Sarah Marks on how ‘brainwashing’ was used as a Cold War code-word for Communist mass indoctrination; and to express anxieties about consumerism after ’89.
Persuasion in the Air: Background music and the authenticity of happiness
Alexandra Hui describes an early example of our cultural ambivalence about background music. In 1958 a journalist asked: does it make us happy, even when we would prefer not to be?
Motivated or Manipulated? Ernest Dichter and David McClelland at Work
Kira Lussier, a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto, discusses a recent New York Times article on Amazon employees, placing its critique within the history of how motivational psychology has been used in the workplace.