From the Brother Judd:
...Research from fMRIs and other machines bears all this out. Gerald Zaltman, a professor at Harvard University, says 95% of consumer decision making occurs subconsciously. Read Montague, a professor at the Baylor College of Medicine, gave subjects the "Pepsi Challenge" in an fMRI scanner. Result: people found Pepsi more pleasing to the palate — their reward center lit up — but Coke's branding hit literally at the core of their sense of self, a much stronger bond. This affirms what we all suspected: brands are so powerful that we are sometimes more likely to buy something we identify with than something we like better or that is better for us.
Let's repeat the experiment, substituting "Kerry" and "Bush" for "Pepsi" and "Coke".
I don't get it. Does this mean that Bush is Pepsi--tasty but ephemeral--whereas Kerry is Coke--solid and substantive? So people may like Bush but will vote Kerry?
Posted by: dmh | March 04, 2004 at 01:00 PM
Well, my obscure point was a guess that, for many of us, it does not matter how little sense "our guy" makes, or how cogent the "other guy" is; if your sense of self is that you are a conservative, Kerry will not light you up; nor will anything Bush says or does sway Dems.
Posted by: TM | March 04, 2004 at 04:05 PM