Last night I went to see Mark Earls talk about his new book, Herd. That's him there on the left illustrating his point about how people don't make independent decisions, but do things because other people are doing them. The example is the "Mexican Wave" phenomena at stadium sporting events.
But contrary to his assertion, this morning I exercised my own free will by waking up at 7:00 instead of the regular 5:00 and running by myself instead of with the team. This is clear evidence that Mark is wrong.
I'm obviously being sarcastic. It sounds like a really interesting read and brings up a really good question about why we advertisers have been trying to communicate to individuals when people really make decisions on the basis of what the group is doing. Somehow that explains our crappy record of influencing mass behavior.
Excuse me while I go tear up the brief I've been writing now.
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