Between a Sisyphusean marketing workload with DNC, a conversion optimization class that operates heavily on the you’ll-get-out-what-you-put-in principle, volunteer activities at the Valley Visitor Center for a full day once every other week, a frozen shoulder that seems to be adamant about remaining stuck, and house construction (Tom’s been going nuts, and we now have flooring down in most of the house, and appliances waiting for installation, it’s very exciting), it’s been a long couple of months between the last post and this one.

Fortunately, the light at the end of the tunnel seems to be getting closer. Two weeks ago, Tom and I met up with our friend Shauna, and skied out to the Nelder Grove of Giant Sequoias. Neither Tom nor I had ever been there before but it’s close to Shauna’s new house, and it was a perfect day and a great chance to explore. Last week, I got out for a quick walk on the Hites Cove trail to look at the wildflowers. And with those two activities as the sum total of my exercise for the last month, today Tom and I hiked up the Snow Creek trail to Mt Watkins and back. Our agreed-upon turn-around time left me a few hundred yards short of the summit, but I have Tom’s pictures from the top as inspiration for the next trip.

The skiing was brilliant and beautiful, the weather perfect, and it just feels fantastic to really get out and DO something for a whole day that doesn’t involve my computer.

It was about 11 miles round trip, with nearly 4500 feet of elevation gain, and I am bone tired and fully expect to be hobbling and sore tomorrow, but I am ever so happy. I’ll try to post some pictures soon.

Bracebridge Webmasters - Pedro Rodelas aka Chef Pierre and me

I didn’t end up taking that many pictures after all, but I did get to participate in a wonderful experience, and met some interesting people. I had corresponded a little with Pedro before in terms of updating the websites. He’s the one who put the wonderful videos that inspired me up on their site last year, and so introduced myself to him early on, and managed to nab this quick picture.

(from left to right) Christine, Cindy (half hidden), Tom, Maria, Dave, me, John, George, Sean and Katie

As Lani told me at one point, “This is live theater, you never know what is going to happen.” I don’t want to give anything away for people who haven’t been yet, but in a performance like this, where the “stage” encompasses the entire dining hall and all of the people in it, including the audience, the potential for Things To Happen is tremendous, and I thought that the actors and singers were quick on their feet, and managed to absorb even the strangest and most unexpected things into the storyline with grace and style. Lani Spicer took a beautiful series of pictures of the “littlest guest“, a ringtail cat that made it’s way up on to the stage and sometimes stole the show.

The best thing about being in the serving party (other than the people) was that we were allowed to slip into the back of the house during scenes we weren’t involved in, and watch. There are so many things going on that I missed when I attended performance last year, that I was glad to have the chance to take it in again (and again), for example, the looks that the Chef and the Housekeeper exchange, or the reaction of the Squire to the Parson.

Plus, if I haven’t mentioned it before, the music is amazing. I’m not much of an opera fan, but there is something about the power of the human voice and that kind of music that gives me goosebumps. The music buoyed me up even through the long days that started at 8 am with a full day of work before hurrying to the Dinner performance which often lasted past 10pm, and I marched around the office with parts of the refrains running through my head and lending me energy.

Next year I wonder if I can finagle a spot as a hostess. They have the lovely dresses, and get to watch even more of the performance.

I received an email today from my boss that had the whole office giggling out loud. We had people wandering in from the hallway to tell us that we all seemed to be having too much fun. Really, some funny emails are just worth sharing. If I had a pic of KK crying with laughter, I would put it into my list of reasons why I love my job. It happens pretty often – I’ll get that pic one of these days.

I wish I could figure out who the original author/editor is. The contents of the email is all over the internet, mostly from blogs (like this one) that are posting it up to share, but I have found an attribution. (Interestingly, I usually see it on the internet titled “Random Thoughts” but it has morphed along the way, and by the time we got it, it was “Observations of a modernist on post-modern life”.) Anyway, I hope you enjoy…

Observations of a modernist on post-modern life…

I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option.

More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can’t wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that’s not only better, but also more directly involves me.

Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.

I don’t understand the purpose of the line, “I don’t need to drink to have fun.” Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they’ve invented the lighter?

Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you’re going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you’re crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.

The letters T and G are very close to each other on a keyboard. This recently became all too apparent to me and consequently I will never be ending a work email with the phrase “Regards” again.

Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn’t work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ’s. We just figured it out. Today’s kids are soft.

There is a great need for sarcasm font.

Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the f*** was going on when I first saw it.

I think everyone has a movie that they love so much; it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I’ll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone’s laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I’m still the only one who really, really gets it.

How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.

Was learning cursive really necessary?

Lol has gone from meaning, “laugh out loud” to “I have nothing else to say”.

I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

My brother’s Municipal League baseball team is named the Stepdads. Seeing as none of the guys on the team are actual stepdads, I inquired about the name. He explained, “Cuz we beat you, and you hate us.” Classy, bro.

Whenever someone says “I’m not book smart, but I’m street smart”, all I hear is “I’m not real smart, but I’m imaginary smart”.

How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear what they said?

I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it…thanks Mario Kart.

MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.

Bad decisions make good stories

Whenever I’m Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don’t mind if I do!

Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?

If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I’m from; this shouldn’t be a problem….

You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you’ve made up your mind that you just aren’t doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don’t want to have to restart my collection.

There’s no worse feeling than that millisecond you’re sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far (except the moment in an argument when you realize you’re wrong).

I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

“Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this ever.

I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There’s so much pressure. ‘I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren’t watching this. It’s only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?’

While watching the Olympics, I find myself cheering equally for China and USA. No, I am not of Chinese descent, but I am fairly certain that when Chinese athletes don’t win, they are executed.

I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What’d you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?

I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

When I meet a new girl, I’m terrified of mentioning something she hasn’t already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.

I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it’s on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles…

As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

I think that if, years down the road when I’m trying to have a kid, I find out that I’m sterile, most of my disappointment will stem from the fact that I was not aware of my condition in college.

Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn’t know what do to with it.

Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey – but I’d bet my a$$ everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time…

My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day “Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?” How the hell do I respond to that?

It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There’s nothing like being made to feel like a fat b@st@rd before dinner.

I took the day off on Friday for my birthday (Saturday), and Tom and I left Thursday night after work for a quick backpacking trip. We saw many things, had great adventures, and hiked out Saturday morning.

Saturday afternoon we drove into the Bay Area for a friend’s memorial service on Sunday. We talked about goal-setting, and listened to the first bit of Unaccustomed Earth on the drive. That evening, our friends who graciously opened their house to us, treated me/us to a birthday dinner at Plearn, a local Thai restaurant. Really delicious non-European food and the good company of friends is such a treat.

The service on Sunday was beautiful, and touching. The stories celebrating such a remarkable man went on and on. I’m still processing – and just remembering.

Afterwards, we picked up a bed frame at Ikea that we had been eyeing for some time, and then drove to San Jose to meet up with Tom’s family, pick up the car we’d lent, and eat some pizza at a place nearby, Amicis, that serves gluten-free, and vegan options.

Monday morning, we had brunch with yet another friend before making the long drive back to Yosemite, pausing for a bear jam along the way.

I’m back on a frequent-post kick, so expect to hear more detailed stories unfold over the next few days. I’ve had a lot to think about.

Bliss is a place with plenty of Kleenex and cold meds

Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner

Weiner summarizes the revelations on bliss in the Epilogue: “Money matters, but less than we think and not in the way that we think. Family is important. So are friends. Envy is toxic. So is excessive thinking. Beaches are optional. Trust is not. Neither is gratitude,” and “It’s not the elements that matter so much as how they’re arranged and in which proportions.”

I thought that this book was going to provide some Answers, but really for someone like me who is happy and therefore doesn’t think too much about it, the Geography/travelogue part was ultimately much more interesting than the Bliss part.

TwtrCon

I caught the cold, I think, on my trip last weekend to the Bay Area for TwtrCon – a conference just about Twitter. I’ve been feeling a little funky and headachy ever since, but not really bed-ridden until this weekend.

TwtrCon was wonderfully interesting though. I get a lot of people asking me to explain Twitter – people who have heard all the buzz, maybe signed up for an account, and ultimately just don’t/didn’t get it. I wonder about the statistics that we all hear about how Twitter is expanding as a platform, and then if those numbers are just artificially high because of all the abandoned or semi-abandoned accounts floating around out there.

Tom has written down a bunch of his thoughts about Twitter – how he uses it and ways that it can be used. I keep thinking that maybe I will too, someday. Not today.

I got a bunch of wonderful ideas about Twitter from TwtrCon, and learned about some of the many interesting tools that people are developing as a way to keep score – figure out whether you are using the platform in a way that helps and influences people. That’s important from a corporate perspective. From a personal perspective, for my own Twitter account, I’m not sure it matters much to me.

I also really liked TwtrCon just as a conference. It was relatively small – attendance was sold out at 200 attendees, and there was only one session going on at a time, which meant that instead of scurrying between rooms and topics, I could set up my computer, relax, and enjoy the presentations.

During lunch the organizers did something that I’ve never seen at a conference before. There was a white-board set up near the registration table where people could propose and offer to moderate a topic for a lunch table discussion. I sat down at the Analytics table. Eric Pratum from Spring Creek Group moderated – sparking some interesting conversation with a few well-placed questions, and I had the good fortune of sitting down next to Christopher Peri, of PeriVision, who is coming up with some interesting ways in measuring the quality rather than the quantity of Twitter followers. Great stuff. After the sessions ended, I also had an interesting conversation with Shanan from TiVo – she said that her biggest take-away from the conference was that we are all still experimenting and that no one has THE answer for how to use Twitter just yet.

It’s a versatile tool – and like happiness, I suspect that the summary is that it’s “not the elements that matter so much as how they are arranged and in which proportions.”

Family Time

I nice consequence of my time in the Bay Area was getting to spend time with my bro and his girlfriend in San Jose. They generously allowed me to crash out on their floor as a cost-saving measure. AH and I are different in a lot of ways, but I always find that he has interesting things going on in his life. Rockin’ out to Rock Band was fun too – an addition started at my other brother’s house over the holidays. AH figured out how to set it up so that you can’t fail out, and I had a wonderful time missing notes and eliciting boos from the fictional digital audience. I guess it’s a little like my current approach to the piano. I’m most interested in stuff that is much too hard for me.

Audio Books – Mrs. Kimble

Mrs Kimble by Jennifer Haigh

Mrs. Kimble is about three different women who are all married at one point or another to the same Mr. Kimble. There’s Bertie, the first wife, the alcoholic mother of Charlie and Jody. Joan, the former reporter who is fighting breast cancer, and finally Dinah, the tennis player who blossoms from a self-conscious girl with a birthmark on her face, into a strong, beautiful woman.

Ken Kimble reminds me a bit of the protagonist in Sommerset Maughm’s book, The Moon and Sixpence, Charles Strickland, except without out the genius for artwork. The two characters share that peculiar lack of interest in people and the consequences of their actions on others. It’s amazing that Haigh was able to create this character, Ken, to be so repulsive, and yet understandably attractive at the same time.

The women in the book are interesting too. They are so different from each other – and so different in their responses to his self-centeredness. While the book didn’t blow me over in amazement, it will probably generate some good conversation at Book Club.

Envelopes and other things I’ve saved

This post is starting to remind me of something that a good college friend once told me. He admonished me for saving up all my news and sending him one long letter instead of several shorter ones. He told me, that it’s really all about the envelopes. The thrill of receiving mail comes by the envelope, by opening the mail box and finding something personal in there. The number of pages in that envelope was secondary, and he encouraged me to write less, but more often.

It seems to be a character flaw that I haven’t corrected even after all these years.

Other things I’ve wanted to write down, and just haven’t gotten around to include:

Taking pictures for Community Safety Day and the interesting conversations that I had. The new backpacking gear that Tom and I have accumulated and our plans for taking it out for a test spin. Buying a guest book and the process of turning our house into a vacation rental property. Twitter. Somewhat sheepishly following Neil Gaiman and other celebrities on Twitter. Being free, my renewed interest in Michel Foucault, and Tom’s story of meeting the great philosopher in person. Google Voice, Google Wave, and switching the default search engine on my search bar to Bing. Climbing conversations and visits from friends… and more.

I should probably start trying to set aside time to write these down on a daily basis again. I enjoyed the process, and I miss it, and I seem to be accumulating ideas. That doesn’t even count the various little interesting things I find on a daily basis on the internet. It’s not even like I’m saving stamps or envelopes.

Of course, that doesn’t just apply to people on the A-list, or even the B, C, or D-list. And it also isn’t just that face-to-face meetings are better. If you’re meeting people constantly in real life, but you have a new account on Twitter, maybe that is the best way to approach you. I wonder if that is/was part of the beauty of Twitter – especially at the beginning. There weren’t that many people on it, and so it was an uncrowded channel.

Today, I had my own little Least Crowded Channel experience. I’m online. There’s Twitter and email and Facebook, and a woman today took the time to find my phone number. Huh. It’s not exactly like a face-to-face meeting, but I get fewer phone calls than I get emails, so it worked. She wanted to submit a testimonial to YosemitePark.com about her family’s long-standing relationship with Yosemite to celebrate her parents’ 69th anniversary (they honeymooned in Yosemite in 1940). Today. And she called me at 4:30 as I was starting to think about winding down for the day. But, she had such a sweet and beautiful story, that I couldn’t resist. If she’d sent me an email – I may have skimmed it before I left. Maybe. But I’m sure I would not have felt as compelled to stay a little late to put her testimonial up today – much less give it front-page billing.

*************

Other notes:

Steershead on Dewey Ridge Trail

I found Calipidder’s post on different kinds of bear canisters today, fueling the fire to spend money to upgrade our outdated backpacking gear. I am really excited to do some more backpacking this year. I realized it has been more than 2 years since I went on the training trip with the Mountaineering School, and I haven’t done it at all since. We started to make plans for some winter camping back in February to catch the firefall light on Horsetail Falls from Sentinel Dome, and then realized that our gear is scattered to the four winds, and some old stainless steel cooksets were re-purposed into lacquering cans during construction. Winter is hardly the best season to realize that your ‘system’ is missing a few key components. Tom proposes regular a mid-week overnights just to get our system figured out a bit. Sure would be fun…

We pitched our new Black Diamond Hilight tent in the living room over the weekend, and unfortunately decided that we were going to have to keep looking for tents. I had gotten a different impression of the ventilation system from the pictures online, and we found it a bit stuffy – even in the comfort of home. Next tent to check out – the Double Rainbow by TarpTent.

We were excited to find Steershead flowers in bloom again on the Dewey Ridge trail this last weekend. What cool and funky flowers! McGurk Meadow has a few small flowers in it, but it’s early for wildflower season at that elevation still, and there was a fair amount of snow on the trail (although never enough to obscure the trail).

Someone went into the river today – above Vernal Falls. The water is big, right now. Big, and beautiful, and DANGEROUS. Please be careful out there.

The Lambert Family

The birthday/Easter celebration went incredibly well, and I met so many of Deny and Maria’s good friends – many people that I’ve been hearing stories of for a long time. Maria’s memory may not be as good as it once was, but it was clear that her friends are so important to her, and she wandered the room, with Deny’s help, saying hello to everyone. The Easter Buffet at the Trapp Family Lodge was exquisite, and there was plenty of options for vegetarians, and even the Celiac’s among us.

75th Birthday Cake from Suzanne at Trapp Family Lodge

Whoa! Someone should marry that hot young climber...oh wait, I did.

Shopping

I have wanted a sleek pair of knee-high boots to wear with skirts since just about forever. Unfortunately, the few pairs that I’ve seen in stores have all been embarrassingly too tight through the calf. I have what people euphemistically call “athletic calves”, which sounds almost desirable, right up until you can’t get the zipper more than 2/3 of the way up in a tall pair of boots, or can’t get the buckles closed around a pair of ski boots. It’s darn inconvenient, actually. [I have actually had guys compliment my legs before (bless them, I still remember each instance and love them for it), but that doesn't change the fact that it's hard to find tall boots that fit.]

Then I move to Yosemite where shopping is extra difficult. I mean, it’s great if you’re looking for keychains with images of Yosemite, T-shirts or mugs, but tall boots are just not the kind of thing that we carry here.

Enter this magical internet thing, and when you type “wide calf boots” into Google, suddenly not only do you find that there are tall boots in this world which will fit, you discover that there are even many styles to choose from. There are whole categories devoted to women who have the same problem that I do. A whole website even. You have no idea how great that feels.

So, I shop around, find a pair I like, and then start doing price comparisons, and Zappos happens to win out.

The Service

The boots arrive on time, exactly as scheduled and I joke with my husband that it would be interesting to see an example of Zappos’ customer service in action, but really I just want my boots to fit. They fit. They are beautiful, but the zipper is broken. Sadness. Disappointment. I start doing the calculation of how long it will take to return them and get another pair, and resign myself to that.

At least Zappos makes it easy to return merchandise. They have easy to follow instructions included in the package. You just go into to the website, click a return button and you get walked right through the process of printing out a free shipping label for the return. The refund comes in either a credit card refund or a store credit – but they sweeten the store credit option with the promise of free 1-day shipping ($25 value). I choose that because I know I’ll just re-order the boots. I find the boots and start the checkout process but can’t figure out how to apply the store credit, so I click to do an online chat.

Lucas says that the credit doesn’t become available until the boots are returned, but he’s happy to help me now with an exchange. He’ll send the new pair out right away, and he’ll upgrade me to the 1-day shipping so I’ll get them fast. Please send the old pair back in the next two weeks, using the free shipping label I created already. Oh – and even though I didn’t ask, he also noted that the price had decreased since I purchased the boots and he credited my card for the difference. I’d noticed that the price had gone down when I went to the site, but had expected a straight exchange. That would have been fair. To get the sale price on top of the expedited shipping, was much more than I expected.

Marketing

Great customer service is something that you can sell. The first thing I did after getting off the line with the Zappos chat agent was run over and tell two other women about their great customer service and how they should feel comfortable buying things from Zappos. And then I wrote this blog post. It’s not exactly viral, but word-of-mouth marketing is big these days, and even though this is a very small private blog, I hope that a little bit of the good guest service karma trickles back to them.

Obviously, this isn’t a brand new business strategy, and marketers have been talking for a long time about customer service. DNCs GuestPath program is just and example of the way companies are trying to codify and measure that service, as I mentioned before. But it’s always interesting to notice how I respond to those strategies, and it gives me more incentive to try to make experiences great for people coming to visit here (even though I have almost no direct customer contact at this point.)

Predictably Irrational is a book by Dan Ariely that I have been absolutely itching to read for a long time now. Tom read it while he was in VT, so I’ve gotten a few sneak previews, and this most recent discovery on TED.com was the last straw. I’m ordering the book.

In the video, Dan Ariely talks mainly about cheating, and about some of the surprising discoveries that he made about how much people cheat and ways that you can encourage or discourage cheating. What is the difference between taking someone else’s can of soda, vs taking a $1 bill lying in the refrigerator? Nothing, and everything. What difference does it make what sweatshirt someone is wearing when he/she cheats? And, how does this relate to Enron? It’s a fascinating talk, even if you never plan to read the book, but it also makes for a great teaser if you’re interested in things like this. (Don’t forget to visit the TED.com site for more fascinating talks.)

Other interesting topics that I’ve heard are covered in the book include the power and perception of things that are ‘free’, and the difference between social value and market value. I can’t wait to read the full descriptions and other interesting studies/conclusions for myself. And if his list of current projects is any indication, I’m going to be in for quite a treat.

The most interesting part of the book, for me, was the concept of using fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) to look inside the brain for activity in various regions, to gain some insight into the ways people are really responding to your input and how they will behave. Unfortunately for me, the science was ‘popularized’ for the book, and so I ended up having a lot of questions about methodology and the interpretation of results.

It’s a little sci-fi big-brother creepy to find out that in many cases looking directly at brain activity can be a better predictor of someone’s behavior than what that someone actually says they will do. But Martin suggests that by knowing how your brain responds to various inputs, will at least make you aware of the tricksy things that Marketers are trying to pull.

Much of the actual marketing advice in the book is old hat, but it’s interesting how the science is making hunches measurable. Some things to think about from the book…

Anti-smoking ads were backfiring, and regions in the brain which control pleasure and cravings were more active in smokers’ brains when they watched those ads, than when they watched neutral ads.

Subliminal advertising absolutely does work. And not just the words flashed on the screen, but associating your brand, the way Marlboro did with red cars, and NASCAR and cowboys, means that when smokers see unbranded red cars, NASCAR and cowboys their brains respond just as if the Marlboro brand was present. Interestingly, in some studies, branded ads were actually less effective in activating these areas as non-branded ads. Martin Lindstrom suggests that we are protecting ourselves from the messaging in ads that we don’t want to give in to when we know that someone is making a pitch, but when it’s just a cowboy riding off into the sunset, the associations that we have between that imagery and cigarettes is unchecked.

Sex sells (no big shock) but sexually charged ads worked less well/were less memorable against the backdrop of a sexy show like ‘Sex in the City’ than they were against the backdrop of a less sexy show, like ‘Malcolm in the Middle”. (Of course, being TV-less, I’ve never seen either of those shows, but I’m sure that makes sense to people who have.)

Product placement is tricky business. Associating Reeses Pieces with ET, or Ray Bans with Risky Business and Top Gun made huge differences for those products, but it’s possible to spend millions of dollars on advertising on a popular TV show, only to have subjects have a lower recall of your brand than if they had never seen the commercials. (This is one of those bits that I’d love to go back through and read again, but I can’t for the life of me find it on the audio book.)

Retailers like Christian Dior are already collaborating with fMRI researchers to tailor their product launches.

There are a ton more interesting tidbits in the book, that I don’t want to go into here, so here is a nice little chapter summary from Martin Lindstrom himself.