I remember when I was a marketing and advertising student, I had several discussions with professors, because for me ethics is very important. They may say I'm a fool, but I like to do my job without cheating anyone. Paradoxically, I studied a profession in which those who are most successful are the ones who best manipulate and deceive the consumer.

This is a book that many people should read. Even if you think it is aimed only at students or professionals in advertising or marketing, you are wrong! The more people who can read this book or any of the author's other works, the more they will understand the things in everyday life that are meant to manipulate us.

Everything around us, from the music that plays in a clothing store, the colors that are used to decorate some stores, the way products are arranged on a shelf. Absolutely everything is done in a studied and tested way, so that we, the consumers, decide to buy a certain product or service.

One of the chapters of the book shows us, with data and information confirmed by the author, that we are manipulated even before we are born. When we are inside our mothers' wombs, even in that place where we are apparently protected. But as unbelievable as it may seem, big companies already influence us. How? You will be surprised when you read it in the book.

When you went to buy a new pair of shoes, are you sure it was your decision? Was it really your own impulse? Why did you choose a certain brand of shoes and not another? One of the great experiments conducted and captured in the book is how we can be influenced by new neighbors, whom we see wearing a certain brand of clothing or driving a particular car. And we, oblivious to all the meticulous planning of this experiment, are victims of a total manipulation that makes us buy products that sometimes we don't even need.

This is one of the most incredible parts of the book, because the experiment was real, the author set it up when he was working for a big advertising company and the results were amazing. It is so easy to manipulate us, that we don't even realize that we are being induced to act in a certain way.

The author of this book expresses that sometimes he realizes that he fell into one of these advertising traps, being an expert mind and creator of many of these strategies. If he, being an expert who in his work discovers all the secrets that companies use, falls into the trap of these strategies. What can we, ordinary citizens, who live bombarded everywhere, expect from subliminal strategies, whose only purpose is to turn us into zombies.

One of the references that the author makes on old written works that address the same subject, is the book by Vance Packard, entitled The Hidden Persuaders, published in the late fifties, apparently, it was a writing that caused a great scandal for the time, but the author of Brandwashed ensures that now everything is more surprising and worse than in those years.

He also informs us how companies collected data, without our consent, to use it for their benefit. Here I must make an aside: The book was published in 2011, 10 years have passed, the technological advancement and the impact of social networks in our lives, has evolved in a gigantic way. Some of the cases exposed in the book may already be obsolete in the way they are executed, but I am absolutely sure that they continue to do so, now in a more aggressive way, due to the tools that exist today.

We all know the scandals that have surrounded social networks like facebook, where we are the product, using our data. Or how external companies use the data provided by social networks to even manipulate a presidential election. It is no longer enough to control our minds to make us buy products of X brand. It now has the power to make us act like automatons, without us even realizing it.

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I have a digital copy, in my native language, Spanish. I would like to have it in physical, not only this one, but also the other books by the same author. But it is somewhat difficult to find them in Venezuela. I hope someday I can get a copy of the most recent books written by the author. For the moment I am content with this one, which is one of my favorites.

The book's prologue is written by Morgan Spurlock, who met the author of the book when he was shooting the movie Super Size Me, in which he made a fierce criticism of the McDonalds company. The film was a success and the filmmaker established a good relationship with the writer. His prologue is funny and applies a trick to grab us immediately and make us want to read the whole book.

There is one chapter, the second to be exact, that is very relevant today. It explains how fear is used as a way to sell. One of the examples given in the case of the H1N1 flu that was detected in 2009, the fear of that flu was used by big companies to boost the sale of disinfectants. We are currently experiencing a global crisis with the Covid virus, and all that fear is being exploited by powerful companies, making them richer.

The use of rich and famous personalities is also treated in the book, sex as a trick to sell, the hope for better health and long life, plus the growing addiction to smartphones, I remind you, it is a book from 10 years ago when the furor for social networks was starting, and the new celebrities of this generation, which they call influencers, were germinating.

It is a book that will catch you with all the cases, examples and tricks exposed, which have been applied by companies. In some of these cases, you will feel identified and you will ask yourself how could I not have realized that I was being manipulated?

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Danish Martin Lindstrom is the writer of this book, but he is also the author of seven other books, all related to brands, consumer behavior, and how we are manipulated by big business. His first big success was the book Buyology, the book became a bestseller and exposed the results of a social experiment he did to determine how fragile and manipulable we are. He has his own consulting agency, the Brand Sense Agency. Some have branded him as an expert in Neuroscience and Branding, the truth is that he has worked for large companies, so he knows the monster from the inside. Maybe he hasn't told us everything either, there are things he hasn't revealed in any of his books. If you want to know more about the author, visit this Wikipedia link, but it is very incomplete, I suggest you search his name on the internet, so you can get more information. You can also follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/martinlindstrom

How did this book influence my life?

I read it several years ago, and from that moment my consumption habits changed radically. I have always questioned everything, and when I checked the cases described in the book, the data, and a lot of information from various sites, I decided to make a drastic change, also influenced by the strong economic crisis in my country, but now I try to see beyond and I do not let myself be convinced so easily when buying a product, service or make a decision on a topic.

Something that will be completely clear to you is that everything is advertising, everyone wants to sell you something, and they will find out everything about your tastes, lifestyle, habits, with the sole purpose of creating highly effective strategies to manipulate you and make you buy what they want you to buy, eat what they want you to eat, use the brand they want you to use. You may think it was your decision, but you are very wrong.

It is a book that I have recommended to many friends, even, to a friend on this platform I recommended it some time ago, but I could not pass her a copy, I told her to look for it.

If you decide to read this book, I suggest that after reading it, you watch a documentary called The Social Dilemma, I think it is a perfect complement to understand how we are manipulated today. In that documentary, I saw many similarities of the strategies explained in the book, but on an unimaginable scale.

Remember, next time you head to the store to buy a new smartphone, think: Is it really my decision? Or am I buying it because I've seen it on my neighbor?

If you've read the book, leave your thoughts in the comments. If you haven't, look it up when you can.