Evidence from functional MRI shows cigarette warning labels make smokers want to light up.

This is one of the findings reported in Martin Lindstrom's new (and brilliantly titled) book, Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy. The book recaps how functional MRI (fMRI) was used to conduct a multi-year, multi-million dollar "neuromarketing" study. This is a very different type of evidence than I'm familiar with.

Evidence about warning labels. From the book: "In short, the fMRI results showed that cigarette warning labels not only failed to deter smoking, but by activating the nucleus accumbens, it appeared they actually encouraged smokers to light up. We couldn't help but conclude that... [labels] had become a killer marketing tool for the tobacco industry" (page 15). Assuming the evidence is valid, this is one tragically funny public policy lesson.

Evidence re: product placement. The book talks about advertising and product placement on the American Idol show. Coca Cola and Ford (automotive) were two key companies evaluated, and Coke was evidently the winner. Lindstrom claims that people actually remembered *less* about Ford after the study -- saying that the "Coke-saturated show actually suppressed" memories about Ford (page 49). He explains these results by saying that a product needs to play an integral part in the narrative -- you can't just plunk random products on the screen. I like his example about the movie E.T.: "Elliott didn't just pop those Reese's Pieces into his mouth during a thoughtless bike ride; they were an essential part of the storyline..." (page 51). If you're planning to blizzard people with brand after brand, he says you might as well set fire to those advertising dollars.

Is this real? Lindstrom was interviewed on NPR this week. He presents his findings enthusiastically, and I enjoyed listening to him. Typically, when I see someone touting a book about how companies market to the consumer's subconscious, I keep on clicking. But this is interesting. I'll confess, I know next to nothing about fMRI, so don't know if the Buyology conclusions are valid. But it certainly seems plausible.