The best case scenario is that this is just another startup grift, but I know that if :porky-happy: can pay his way into our sleep, he will. What's going to stop him? :agony-minion:
Text of article:
According to a recent essay published by researchers from Harvard, the University of Montreal and MIT in Aeon Mag, 77 per cent of all marketers and advertisers plan to use “dream-hacking” techniques to begin invading our dreams with advertising within the next three years.
A core topic of the essay was the recent Molson Coors beer marketing campaign, where the company offered free beers to people in exchange for taking part in a “dream incubation study”, as reported by American Craft Beer.
The dream study had participants watch a short marketing video that included talking fish, hypnotic visuals, mountainous landscapes and dancing beer cans, resembling something out of a wild PCP trip.
The beer company also featured One Direction star Zayne Malik live-streaming himself falling asleep watching the video on Instagram earlier this year.
A SLIPPERY SLOPE
The scientists say in the Aeon essay that:
“We now find ourselves on a very slippery slope. Where we slide to, and at what speed, depends on what actions we choose to take in order to protect our dreams.”
They went on further to say that the team of scientists are “also baffled by the lack of public outcry over the mere idea of having our nightly dreams infiltrated, at a grand scale, by corporate advertisers.” Also making reference to what was once “science fiction” now becoming a reality.
Analysts predict the practice will be enforced upon in the same manner the American Federal Trade Commission enforces its federally mandated rules against the use of un-informed consent of subliminal advertising.
Subliminal advertising has been banned in many countries across the globe due to the ethical issues surrounding the act of implanting thoughts into a person’s subconscious without their consent.
DREAM INCUBATION HISTORY
Dream incubation stretches back more than 4,000 years to ancient Egypt and has been practised by many ancient cultures.
“Sleepers lay in sacred beds in the Ṣaqqārah Serapeum to receive divine dreams; to ancient Greece, where ailing people went to dream in oracular temples; to today, where dream incubation plays a key role in healing, therapeutic and spiritual practices such as yoga nidra and Mohave shamanism,” wrote Aeon Mag.
So maybe Coca-Cola and Heineken filled dreams are something we should all be expecting for the future – or dreading.
it's a coverage thing - they've already gotten advertising onto every surface while you're awake so the time you're asleep is the only undisturbed opportunity left.
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It's less coverage when it makes up the majority of your ad spend, but it can also serve to reinforce the ads we view in waking life. If the goal is to constantly be putting their message in front of you, sleep is 6-8 hours of wasted time from a marketing perspective. If the ad is even slightly effective, it will be worth the money to some business out there. And it doesn't have to work on everyone - just enough people to justify the costs.
I also don't think that it the priming videos necessarily compete with traditional advertisements for views. I'd bet money that they plan to use social media influencers to push these videos. You'll go on TikTok and after you scroll past the eighth video of a guy doing the trippy walk you'll see some psychedelic imagery that catches your eye. You won't necessarily recognize it as an ad at first, and that's a benefit on a platform where you can skip an advertisement with the swipe of your finger.
You do figure it out - pretty quickly, I might add - but you still spent the time deciphering it, and great, it's that fucking Pepsi again. The same that Pepsi you saw the pretty ladies drinking in the Super Bowl ads on Sunday. The same Pepsi that you got the BOGO coupon for in the mail last week, arriving just in time for the big game and the launch of their viral video. Late night TV guys, desperate for internet content as their relevance continues to drop, will pick up the story and show the video on their weekly roundups. Your mom will send it to you on FaceBook and say "isn't this cute?" I realize this already happens with traditional ads, but it's a lot easier to get someone to share an ad if the viewer doesn't feel like they're being asked to do anything. The more nonsensical and absurdist it is, the more likely it is to get legitimate shares beyond the paid influencers.
Anyway, you get to the store and find that crumpled coupon in your pocket when you pull out your shopping list. You did intend to buy some softdrinks for the kids... Why not buy a couple 12 packs? You've always been a Coke guy, but a BOGO deal is a BOGO deal. And now that you've done it once, you are far more likely to do it again.
I could be totally wrong and I'm not trying to be a debatelord either, but as someone who works in marketing, I have met many people who would pay for a service like this. Executives are mostly dumb as fuck and they rely on outside consultants trying to upsell them to make these decisions. However, even if they fail, the fact that the capitalist class is actively looking for ways to infiltrate our dreams ought to be viewed as an alarming escalation.
Edit: Holy shit, sorry I made this so long... I'm avoiding a lot of work this morning.
oh for sure, I'm just describing why they're trying to do this - like I think they'd take the problem you're describing as a plus because it's also likely to get in the way of other advertisers. if other advertisers are less effective and you find a way to hurt yourself least, then it's a win because zero-sum Hobbsian arms race that you have to win or your competitors eventually overwhelm you with their own advertising. which is to say, I don't think this is necessarily even meant to work as described.
but that still means they're trying to infest our minds with shit that manipulates our dreams. effective or not, it still sucks. it's going to drive further alienation, probably have serious mental health consequences at a population level, and generally be hazardous to the health of all of us. in a word, hellworld.