Memory morphing by ads

An intriguing article about a technique for marketing called memory morphing. The basic idea is that you plant some notion about a product in service in someone’s mind that makes them tend to think differently about previous experiences.

She reported an experiment in which people were shown an advert suggesting that children who visited Disneyland had the opportunity to shake hands with Bugs Bunny. Later, many of those who had seen the advert “remembered” meeting Bugs on childhood visits to the theme park, a feat that would have been impossible, given that the cartoon is a Warner Brothers character.

I have a feeling that had I saw that particular advertisement, I would have thought “that’s odd, Bugs Bunny doesn’t belong at Disneyland”. But different people have better memories for different things. I could see a lot of people not having the “Bugs Bunny is from Warner Bros.” factoid at the ready.