The dawning of neuromarketing

Remember when it was part of "modern" marketing techniques to get kids to recognize corporate logos before they could pick their own parents out of a crowd; or when people were worried that changing "scents" in the ventilation system would cause people to stay longer than they had intended at the slot machines; or, the worry over subliminal advertising planting desires in us through images only our subconscious could pick up?

The new steps in marketing make those techniques seem quite demur: Emory has lent its MRI equipment and psychiatrists to the study of the human brain so that Coca-Cola and K-Mart can better understand how best to incline us to spend our money at their places of business:

By now, most of us in the appropriately concerned corners have heard at least something about Emory University’s neuromarketing research center, the BrightHouse Institute for Thought Sciences. The latest innovation in a never-ending quest to decode consumer behaviors, the institute uses Emory University Hospital’s Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) equipment to scan the brains of human subjects on behalf of corporate clients such as Coca-Cola, K-mart and Home Depot.

Next steps in "thought science" may be more direct: perhaps wireless electrode implants (free with a case of beverages) that set off minor seizures if you enter the "wrong" store; or cause involuntary nausea if you order the "wrong beverage"; or, won't allow you to say "charge it please" if you are ordering the "wrong product" from the "wrong place." Bawaaaahaaaaahaaaaaa ....