Brainwashing that has gone green

There has been an increasing amount of warnings about climate change and its rash consequences in the media. For some, attempts to preserve the Earth for the future generations became a cool trend. As a result of this, all sorts of green products have been filling the shelves.

But what makes a green product? Does a green can make a soft drink environmentally-friendly? Can we call a regular shampoo a green product by adding one natural ingredient? Such a practice of highlighting only a few green attributes is called greenwashing.

Every day, companies and brands vie for the attention of consumers. Through a consumer’s interaction with a brand’s product, this brand wants to become an inseparable part of the consumer’s life.

But should brands focus on the individual consumer? What if a brand can become an inseparable part of the consumer’s relationships – for example, with a spouse? It appeared that brands can benefit from focusing on couples and their shared usage of brands’ products through becoming a significant part of their shared identity narrative.

What is the perfect face for a beauty ad? And which would you use for domestic violence prevention?

In advertising, the primary mission is to promote products or to convey ideas using persuasive language and images. Faces are a key aspect of ads and are often portrayed differently depending on the product advertised and message communicated. But what makes a face visually persuasive?

Have you ever been to a pub with the intention of doing just a few drinks and going home early, only to stay until closing time? A lot of people probably have. If you are one of them, have you ever wondered why you've indulged yourself much more than intended? There are several excuses you could tell yourself to justify staying longer than you should have. Maybe it was a really good night out and it would have been a shame to miss it. Maybe the DJ was playing your favorite music. Or maybe you're just bad at planning.

A less common excuse is the dim lighting in the pub. Few people will believe you if you tell them that your hangover is caused by the lighting in the pub. However, research has indicated that this may have a significant effect on your night out after all. It turns out that the amount of light does more than just setting the atmosphere.

Each and every day, package designers, retail planners and online UX experts all face the same question: should you follow customer expectations, or should you break them?

Many experts propose that stores, products and websites should strictly adhere to what the customer expects. This would increase the fluency of the customer experience, leading to increased feelings of positive emotion and – ultimately – purchase behavior.

Nonetheless, there are countless examples of successful concepts that had their rule-breaking philosophy to thank for. From Dell cutting out the middle man in an industry where no one believed people would buy any place else than the retail store, to Craigslist proving discarding many emblematic UX and design rules.