Interesting, but anecdotes and MRIs and studies done on groups of people only numbering in the teens at best is not science. This book was backed up by pop psychology and pseudoscience at best. ( )

Stimulating and thought provoking, about how brands affect and effect your life. I think I am pretty immune to the type of brand-washing that this book describes, but I admit a certain weakness for Guess jeans and Dr Pepper. Especially scary is the chapter on data mining, where your every move is monitored and your information sold to companies that will try to sell you their product based on your preferences. Makes me think twice before "liking" something on FaceBook again.
Definitely a must read for anyone who has ever shopped or bought anything. ( )

“Still, nothing is as wildly age-inappropriate as a toy that Tesco, the UK retailer, released in 2006: the Peekaboo Pole Dancing Kit, a pole-dancing play set marketed to females under ten—as something that will help them “unleash the sex kitten inside.”

This is the most disturbing example of marketing gone to a gross extreme in this book, but it’s far from the only one. Lindstrom tells the story of how marketing takes advantage of understanding the brain to push your buttons and sell products. He starts with research indicating that you can start to form brand attachments by babies in utero and continues with efforts grooming kids into perfect little customers, and influencers of parent purchases, before getting into how they target adults.

Then, while this book is about a decade old at this point, he starts to discuss all the ways big companies are tracking you with technology. Many more people are aware of some of the ways big data is used for advertising now, but it’s likely you’ll learn things about how deep those tentacles go reading this book as well, even though it’s starting to slow its age a little.


Finally, he discusses an experiment where he set up a family in a new neighborhood to test the efficacy of guerrilla word of mouth marketing to friends and neighbors. This also serves to demonstrate why astroturfing is such big business in the tech driven world of today.

As it’s partly driven by his personal involvement in the industry, not every claim is sourced to academic research, but a decent bit is. For additional science backed information on the subject, Influence or Presuasion by Robert Cialdini are the way to go, but Lindstrom’s insider perspective is worth reading as well.

Very good book. You’ll find it disturbing, but knowing is the only way to protect yourself from manipulation. ( )

A wonderful, outstanding book full of insight into how marketing pervades every aspect of our lives. ( )

There is an oft-cited study of children in which they were offered identical meals — a hamburger, carrot sticks, a beverage — but one wrapped in plain packaging and one wrapped in McDonald’s packaging. The children chose the branded items over the plainly packaged items, claiming that they tasted better, despite the fact that the items were identical. In his book, “Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy,” industry expert Martin Lindstrom, who has been involved in many a marketing campaign, examines the subtle and not-so-subtle ways that marketers and companies trick consumers into thinking they are making choices on their own and subverting “the man.” He begins with a well-used tactic for books on consumer culture — a “detox” in which he swears off all branded items for a certain period of time, and, predictably, fails. As is par for this type of book, Lindstrom segments his topic into chapters on marketing to children, using sex as a selling point, target markets and customized ads, online advertising and data mining, and so forth. Other topics that Lindstrom address include that of nostalgia marketing and the creation of addictive properties in products. One of the most interesting sections in the book details an experiment that Lindstrom conducted; he chose a young woman who worked behind the scenes at NBC’s Today, outfitted her with the trappings of a celebrity, including make-up, hair, a designer handbag and a fluffy dog, and put her outside Saks Fifth Avenue with a fake entourage. Almost immediately, a crowd was drawn to her, asking for her autograph and talking about having seen her perform — despite the fact that she had never been on stage, performed, or done any of the things which they claimed for her. Along these same lines, Lindstrom plants a family in a southern California community for the express purpose of seeing how much they can influence the buying and consuming habits of those around them — and in conclusion, makes the argument that the path to a more educated, responsible consumption can only come about through peer pressure and setting good examples in the community.

Although most of what he writes about has been covered in individual books already, Lindstrom writes in witty and engaging prose, not blaming the consumer for having bought into the marketers’ tricks, but rather in an attempt to educate and enlighten. As someone who does not often buy branded merchandise anyway, I found this to be a fascinating look at how marketers and corporations manipulate even the most savvy consumers — myself included. The concluding remarks do come up rather abruptly, with the argument about responsible consumption seeming rather broad, and really needing an entire book to unpack. This book, with its many references to current and prominent campaigns, companies, and celebrities, may not age well, although its overarching points should remain relevant for some time. ( )