It’s not quite the barbarians at the gate, but the stuccoed Knightsbridge headquarters of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising this week opened its doors to a man whose thinking is largely inimical to the industry’s day-to-day prejudices and practices.
The intellectual interloper was no creative renegade, indeed had no particular axe to grind on the business of advertising, how companies go about it, or even why.
Professor Daniel Kahneman won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002 for his work debunking the myth of rational decision-making that underpins so much of the “dismal science” and, indeed, broader government policy. Ten years later, his thoughts are finally lapping at advertisers’ shores.
That’s absurd.
Kahneman arrived unwelcome to economists who still believe in rational markets. But those who work in the communications industries (e.g., advertising) have been using Kahneman’s ideas since long before Kahneman articulated them.
Think Tank: Target consumers’ ‘unconscious’ and reap the rewards – Telegraph
(via slavin)