Book Reivew: Brandwashed

For years, I have tried to find a book that made me gasp as many times as Freaknomics did. I remember thinking about that book years after I read it...I’m still thinking about it now. I tried Super Freakanomics and other books that people thought were comparable but none of them made me gasp and do a triple take. None of them until “Brandwashing”. This book does for marketing and advertising what Freaknomics did for economics and Fast Food Nation did for food. It made my brain hurt in a way far surpassing the brain freeze of milkshakes and Slurpees. In fact, it has taken me over a week to even sit down to write this review because I have been too busy telling all of my friends to pre-order their copies!

Author Martin Lindstorm is a veteran advertising agents with clients that range from McDonald’s to Microsoft. It say that Lindstorm knows that ins-and-outs of marketing is to say that Steve Jobs can use a computer. Here he takes us behind the scenes to show the reader how companies use MRIs to figure out the areas in the brain that they want their marketing to hit. He tells of how advertising can affect use before we are even born; how smells that our mothers experienced when pregnant with us can condition us to buy certain detergents and eat certain foods. He explains why panic and fear sells more than happiness and peace. Lindstrom gives credence to the idea that people can be addicted to their smartphones and lip balm. Tactics of using nostalgia to buy a certain brand of soda or candy bar are explored. What does Justin Bieber and the British royal family have in common? They’re both brands that dictate our tastes and purchases. In his final chapter, Lindstrom carries through with an experiment like that in the movie “Jones” in which he has a family peddle certain items to their friends in an effort to see how keeping up with the Jones’ really works. Spoiler: it works!

I could go on for pages and pages about this book but at about 275 pages, this book can stand for itself. It reads like a thriller that you won’t be able to put down. Sadly, the horrors that are inflicted in the “story” are on us...the consumers. Just in case the reader doesn’t believe his theories, he backs them up with copious case studies. Once I finished this book, I immediately ran out and bought his other book (which I now know is a marketing ploy). I know people will be talking about this book for years to come. I know I will!

-DLP