"Rather than attempting to persuade us (via our rational, analytical minds), ads prey on our emotions. They work by creating positive associations between the advertised product and feelings like love, happiness, safety, and sexual confidence."

"advertising rarely succeeds through argument or calls to action. Instead, it creates positive memories and feelings that influence our behavior over time to encourage us to buy something at a later date."

"""The objective [of advertising],"" the article continues, ""is to seed positive ideas and memories that will attract you to the brand."""

"""An ad succeeds at making us feel something,"" it says, ""and that emotional response can have a profound effect on how we think and the choices we make."""

"This is a decidedly Pavlovian account of ad efficacy."

"It suggests that human preferences can be changed with nothing more than a few arbitrary images."

"If we (consumers) are swayed by emotional inception, then it seems we're violating this model of economic rationality."

"But the point still stands: external agents can, without our permission, alter the contents of our minds and send us scampering off in service of goals that are not ours."

"And they're not mutually exclusive: a typical ad will employ a few different techniques at once — most of which are far more straightforward and above-board than emotional inception."

"First, a lot of ads work simply by raising awareness."

"""FYI, product X exists. Here's how it works. It's available if you need it."""

"Almost every ad works, at least in part, by informing or reminding customers about a product. And if it makes a memorable impression, even better."

"Perhaps the most important mechanism used by ads (across the ages) is making promises. These promises can be explicit, in the form of a guarantee or warrantee, but are more often implicit, in the form of a brand image."

"So however the promise is conveyed, explicitly or implicitly, the result is that the brand becomes incentivized to fulfill it, and consumers respond (rationally) by buying more of the product, relative to brands that don't put themselves ""out there"" with similar promises."

"There's one more honest ad mechanism to discuss. This one is termed (appropriately) honest signaling, and it's an instance of Marshall McLuhan's famous dictum, ""The medium is the message."""

"Here an ad conveys valuable information simply by existing — or more specifically, by existing in a very expensive location."

"A company that takes out a huge billboard in the middle of Times Square is announcing (subtextually), ""We're willing to spend a lot of money on this product. We're committed to it. We're putting money where our mouths are."""

"Knowing (or sensing) how much money a company has thrown down for an ad campaign helps consumers distinguish between big, stable companies and smaller, struggling ones, or between products with a lot of internal support (from their parent companies) and products without such support."

"As Steven Pinker defines it, information is ""a correlation between two things that is produced by a lawful process (as opposed to coming about by sheer chance)."

"So instead of conveying information, this ad looks like a textbook case of emotional inception, i.e., creating an arbitrary, Pavlovian association between Corona and the idea of relaxation."

"Let's call this alternate mechanism cultural imprinting, for reasons that I hope will become clear. It's closely related to, but importantly distinct from, emotional inception."

"And my thesis today is that the effect of cultural imprinting is far larger than the effect of emotional inception (if such a thing even exists at all)."

"Cultural imprinting is the mechanism whereby an ad, rather than trying to change our minds individually, instead changes the landscape of cultural meanings — which in turn changes how we are perceived by others when we use a product."

"But you aren't in control of that message; it just sits there, out in the world, having been imprinted on the broader culture by an ad campaign. It's then up to you to decide whether you want to align yourself with it."

"What a product ""says"" about you is only important insofar as other people will notice your use of it — i.e., if there's social or cultural signaling involved."

"In this way, cultural imprinting relies on the principle of common knowledge. For a fact to be common knowledge among a group, it's not enough for everyone to know it. Everyone must also know that everyone else knows it — and know that they know that they know it... and so on."

"So for an ad to work by cultural imprinting, it's not enough for it to be seen by a single person, or even by many people individually. It has to be broadcast publicly, in front of a large audience."

"Similarly, internet search ads and banner ads are inimical to cultural imprinting because the internet is so fragmented."

"An ad doesn't need to incept itself all the way into anyone's deep emotional brain; it merely needs to suggest that it might have incepted itself into other people's brains — and then (barring any contrary evidence about what people actually believe) it will slowly work its way into consensus reality, to become part of the cultural landscape."

"It leaves our goals fully intact (typically: wanting the respect of our peers), and by imprinting itself on the external cultural landscape, merely changes the optimal means of pursuing those goals."

"Cultural imprinting = shallow emotional inception + common knowledge → inception into consensus reality"

"Over time and with enough exposure, the customer will realize that ""Nike"" is synonymous with ""athletic excellence"" out in the broader culture."

"Once everyone has seen the ad, it becomes common knowledge that sugary drinks are bad for you (and kind of disgusting), and you'll start to worry what your friends might think if they catch you drinking one."

"Peer pressure is an extremely powerful force, and if advertising can tap into it even a fraction of that power, it can have a sizable effect."

"The key differentiating factor between the two mechanisms (inception and imprinting) is how conspicuous the ad needs to be."

"Insofar as an ad works by inception, its effect takes place entirely between the ad and an individual viewer; the ad doesn't need to be conspicuous at all."

"On the other hand, for an ad to work by cultural imprinting, it needs to be placed in a conspicuous location, where viewers will see it and know that others are seeing it too."

"if an ad works by cultural imprinting, we should expect its value (to the advertiser) to scale more than linearly with the size of the audience."

"if branding works by cultural imprinting, we should expect brands to advertise themselves in proportion both to the market size and to the conspicuousness of product usage."

"Bed sheets just aren't a social product, so cultural imprinting can't work to convince us to buy them."

"Admittedly Chevron does attempt, in the US, to carve out a brand image for itself, but the brand is largely based on a promise of quality rather than an arbitrary emotional or lifestyle association."

"The inception model predicts that brands would benefit from being ""two-faced"" or ""many-faced"" — i.e., that brands ought to advertise to each audience separately, using whatever message is most likely to resonate with each particular audience, in order to provide maximum emotional impact."

"why do brands limit themselves to one central message?"

"brands carve out a relatively narrow slice of brand-identity space and occupy it for decades."

"Brands need to be relatively stable and put on a consistent ""face"" because they're used by consumers to send social messages, and if the brand makes too many different associations"

"(1) it dilutes the message that any one person might want to send, and (2) it makes people uncomfortable about associating themselves with a brand that jumps all over the place, firing different brand messages like a loose cannon."

"They work by cultural imprinting, and when the intended audience is a single person, there's no ""culture"" on which to imprint — no one else to appreciate the intended messages."

"The Lifehacker article I mentioned earlier, for example, offers two tactics for countering the effects of unwanted ads: (1) Don't Forget to Think, and (2) Be Wary of Your Emotional Responses."

"But when an ad works by cultural imprinting, we feel we're being manipulated somehow."

"Once we see it — and know that all our peers have seen it too — it's in our rational self-interest to buy the advertised product."

"Avoiding ads doesn't help much either. Because brand images are part of the cultural landscape we inhabit, when we block ads or fast-forward through them, we're missing out on valuable cultural information, alienating ourselves from the zeitgeist."

"The problem is this: Even though we're capable of a seemingly-infinite variety of individual behaviors, our patterns of behavior are a lot more constrained — in particular, by the laws of economics and game theory."

"So for a behavioral pattern to arise — and more importantly, to persist — within a population, it needs to be both economically productive and game-theoretically stable, i.e., viable."

"And the set of viable behavior patterns is much, much smaller than the set of all behaviors we're physically or intellectually capable of."

"Regardless, the logic of dominance is fairly straightforward. By bullying weaker individuals, stronger individuals secure for themselves more and better food, mates, territory, and other resources."

"Where there's dominance, in other words, there's also submission."

"Clearly we recognize dominance (and submission) in many of our own behaviors and social structures."

"Dominance alone, however, doesn't even begin to explain the full range of human status-related behavior. Among humans, it turns out that ""social status"" isn't a single phenomenon, but rather two."

"DOMINANCE VS. PRESTIGE"

"The beginning of wisdom about social status is learning to distinguish its two (and only two) primary forms: dominance and prestige."

"If dominance is the kind of status we get from intimidating others, prestige is the kind of status we get from doing impressive things or having impressive traits or skills."

"The point is that dominance and prestige can be separated, and that they're analytically distinct. They're the two Platonic forms of social status."

"So Dominance & Submission are one complementary pair (of interlocking instincts, emotions, and behaviors), while Prestige & Admiration are a different complementary pair."

"The dominance system and the prestige system have at least one thing in common: There are perks to having high status (whichever form it takes)."

"Avoidance vs. approach."

"Dominance works by inspiring fear and other ""avoidance"" instincts, so that low-status people try to steer clear of dominant individuals."

"Prestige, on the other hand, inspires admiration and other ""approach"" instincts, so low-status people actively seek out prestigious individuals and enjoy spending time around them."

"Taking vs. giving."

"The perks of dominance are taken by force by the high-status (dominant) individual."

"The perks of prestige, on the other hand, are given to the high-status (prestigious) individual, freely, by the low-status admirer."

"Entitlement vs. gratitude."

"Dominant individuals expect deference from others and treat it as their natural right. Prestigious individuals, on the other hand, often make an elaborate show of humility when accepting the deference of others."

"In contexts governed by dominance, gazing at someone is considered a threat, an act of aggression."

"In contexts governed by prestige, on the other hand, gaze is considered a gift; to look at someone is to elevate him."

"In this case, attention (rather than information) is the key resource."

"Most interactions, of course, involve a mixture of dominance and prestige, and eye behaviors must adapt on the fly."

"Consider the two instincts/behaviors that make up the prestige system."

"On the high-status side, we have prestige-seeking: striving to impress others."

"On the low-status side, we have admiration: celebrating or fawning over a prestigious individual, i.e., paying respect."

"Now which of these two behaviors — prestige-seeking or admiration — is primary? Put another way: which of the two behaviors makes sense on its own, without the other?"

"prestige literally means nothing without admiration. On the other hand, it does make sense to admire impressive people, even if they aren't actively seeking it."

"So admiration, rather than prestige-seeking, is the lynchpin of the prestige system."

"What's in it for the admirer?"

"ADMIRATION ACCORDING TO HENRICH"

"Henrich and Gil-White begin with the observation that low-status admirers are attracted to their prestigious superiors and hope to spend more time around them, and that their admiration therefore acts as a bribe."

"Admirers, in other words, are sycophants."

"admirers are hoping to learn from their superiors."

"Prestigious people are above all impressive."

"And since humans learn mostly by observation and imitation, they need to spend time, up close, observing the skills and behaviors they wish to copy."

"And yet there are a number of puzzles that give me pause."

"We respect and admire people quite freely, even when we have little desire to learn from them."

"We can respect and admire people even when they're less-skilled than we are, and when we're unlikely to learn from them."

"We respect and admire people even for traits which aren't learnable skills — IQ, beauty, strength, or raw athletic prowess, for example."

"Finally, if admiration were motivated by a desire to learn, teachers would be among the most prestigious members of society."

"It might be argued that we're designed to admire others not just to learn from them today, but for the potential to learn from them someday in the future. I suppose this is possible, but it seems awfully sloppy of natural selection."

"All of this strongly suggests that admiration has its roots in something other than learning."

"ADMIRATION ACCORDING TO ZAHAVI AND DESSALLES"

"When it's living as part of a group, a babbler does fairly well for itself."

"But babblers who get kicked out of a group have much bleaker prospects. These ""non-territorials"" are typically badgered away from other territories and forced out into the open, where they often fall prey to hawks, falcons, and other raptors."

"Within a group, babblers assort themselves into a linear and fairly rigid dominance hierarchy, i.e., a pecking order. When push comes to shove, adult males always dominate adult females — but mostly males compete with males and females with females."

"But here's where things take a turn for the weird. Babblers don't just passively or occasionally offer to help each other. Instead they compete intensely for the privilege of doing so."

"Unlike chickens, who compete to secure more food and better roosting sites for themselves, babblers compete to give food away and to take the worst roosting sites. Each tries to be more helpful than the next."

"And because it's a competition, higher-ranked (more dominant) babblers typically win, i.e., by using their dominance to interfere with the helpful activities of lower-ranked babblers."

"Feeding each other. The alpha male, for example, may bring an insect and try to shove it down the beta's mouth."

"Bringing food for the communal nestlings."

"Harassing or ""mobbing"" predators or attacking foreign babblers."

"Guard duty."

"Sleeping in the most vulnerable place. Babblers sleep together lined up along a single branch, and the two exposed ends of the line are the most dangerous, the most vulnerable to predators. And these two spots are almost always held by the alpha and beta males."

"If their ultimate goal were the success of the group, interfering with others would be entirely counter-productive."

"""What selfish motive does an individual babbler have to help others?"""

"The answer, in a word, is prestige. A second form of social status that lives alongside the babblers' dominance hierarchy — a kind of ""credit"" reflecting the amount of good each individual has done for others."

"But as in our species, so too in babblers: prestige means nothing without admiration. If other babblers weren't willing to defer and pay respect to prestigious individuals, there'd be no incentive to compete for prestige."

"The first is mating opportunities.[2] Babblers are constantly trying to interfere with their rivals' mating attempts — but when a babbler has high prestige, his or her rivals interfere less."

"The other perk of high prestige is a reduced risk of being challenged to an all-out showdown."

"Why do other babblers voluntarily defer to prestigious ones?"

"The answer is simply(!) that babblers with lots of prestige are useful to the group, and therefore useful to keep around.[3]"

"When a babbler is useful enough, in other words, it's in the self-interest of others to ""suck up"" or pay respect to that babbler (by backing down from fights and interfering less in its mating attempts) in order to keep it happily in the group."

"Prestige-seeking and admiration (deference) are complementary teaming instincts. They help babblers stay attached to a group, keep groupmates happy, and secure a larger share of the group's reproductive ""spoils."""

"Once you know how to look for prestige — and, just as important, to stop conflating it with dominance — you'll find it everywhere."

"Kings of yore who literally led their troops in battle. More generally: noblesse oblige."

"Servant leadership. Actually almost all forms of leadership rely on prestige. In fact, leadership isn't even the primary phenomenon; instead it's followership that comes first, analytically speaking, just as admiration is logically prior to prestige-seeking."

"We voluntarily follow our leaders (and otherwise defer to them) because good things tend to happen when we do; it pays to be on their team."

"The point is, we want to be friends, allies, and teammates with people who do good things for their friends, allies, and teammates. It's in our self-interest to cultivate access to such people — which we do, in part, by paying them respect and granting them the perks of prestige."

"Prestige status, he says, is ""the public knowledge that you possess assets that would allow you to help others if you wished to."" In other words, prestige reflects your value as a teammate, whether actual or potential."

"Admiration and prestige-seeking, then, are teaming instincts (in babblers as well as our own species). Both are ways of currying favor among actual or potential allies."

"But both are ultimately after the same thing: more spoils from cooperative (team) efforts."

"Do unto others as you would have done unto you."

"Admire those who would make good allies."

"Money, in this view, is a reified, tangible, industrial-strength form of prestige status. It's something we earn for doing valuable things for others, for example, and both money and status are processed in the same regions of the brain (for whatever that's worth)."

"Why did prestige status take off so spectacularly in our own species (rather than, say, any of the other great apes)?"

"According to E. O. Wilson, it was the fact that our ancestors lived in a semi-permanent ""home base"" that needed to be guarded collectively."

"This, says Wilson, is a prerequisite for the evolution of radical group-level cooperation. In other words, due to ecological factors, our ancestors simply had more of an incentive to team up and work together."

"According to Dessalles (following Christopher Boehm), our ancestors gravitated toward prestige status because, once we learned to use tools as weapons, the dominance system completely collapsed."

"Among our ancestors, then, bullies quickly got their comeuppance — unless they offset their dominance with a lot of prestige, creating many friends and allies in the process."