How Habits Hold Us

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204795304577223200657284394.html

by yarapavan • 14 years ago

33 9 14 years ago

online.wsj.com

julien_p• 14 years ago

This New York Times article by Charles Duhigg (whose book is mentioned in this story) is a much better read: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.h...

lubutu• 14 years ago

This always happens: we get a cluster of articles which serve as summaries for a central 'canonical' one. I would love a service which, given an article, would link me to the best article on the same subject.

chadzawistowski• 14 years ago

It requires a subscription, unfortunately.

crgwbr• 14 years ago

Type the URL into Google search. NY times will let you view it as long as google.com is your referer.

aangjie• 14 years ago

Bad science journalism.. clearly trying to oversimplify and the author, didn't seem to have re-read it at all...I wish i had downvote on HN :(

Iroiso• 14 years ago

Great article for ordinary users because its simplistic. But it's a bad fit for HN; People here want juicy information...

joshklein• 14 years ago

Former Madison Avenue ad executive here, limiting the scope of my comment to the Febreze story.

This part accurately reflects the kind of thinking process the strategists went through:

> What's most interesting is that instead of focusing on removing bad smells, the ads set up Febreze ... satisfying the desire to make things smell nice, not just look good.

The rest of it is totally ridiculous:

> The ads taught consumers a new habit, training them to associate the rewarding positive cue—a spotless space—with the use of Febreze.

I would believe the ads were effective at setting cultural expectations that a clean space also needs a clean smell, and that Febreze helps make that possible. But the "rewarding positive cue" of cleaning? A "reward for a bout of cleaning"? That's overstating the power of advertisers and understating the common sense of consumers, and awkwardly smashing this example into a story that isn't related to it.

Madison Avenue "manipulates" you, but it's done by setting your expectation for The Way Things Should Be. It isn't with a subliminal cue and a Pavlovian reward. The carousel scene from Mad Men [1] is really what the meeting where they sold this idea was like. Trust me, I've been in many of them.

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHUUyx0d7qw

moe• 14 years ago

Just want to say thanks for your great link (the video)!

Having been in similar meetings it almost hurts how close to home this hits. All the way down to the charismatic narrator and his carefully crafted speech.

Truth is, advertising agencies work with 0,1% psychology and 99,9% bullshit. And most of the psychology is focussed on squeezing the maximum campaign budget out of the customer...

How Habits Hold Us

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