I’m giving you this as an extra, not as a homework, because it’s rather difficult. It’s a radio interview about a book called ‘Brandwashed’ in which the author uncovers some of the practices companies use to persuade us to buy their products.
So if you are up for something more advanced, listen to the interview and try to answer the following questions:
- What does the expression brandwashed mean?
- What are examples of unconscious reactions to brands? How can branding create craving at the unconscious level?
- What does Wholefoods do to make their supermarkets more appealing?
- What was the outcome of the experiment with the Margenson family? What did this experiment prove?
- What advice is given to protect yourself from brandwashing? Do you think you need to be protected?
We won’t review this in class, but some words from the script may be interesting and worth memorising:
deceptive, perception, craving, unconscious/non-conscious, intent, word of mouth, casually, creepy, peer pressure, to be fooled