Notwithstanding these groundbreaking revelations, the use of hypnotized focus groups is disdained by marketing theorists offering rival routes to the unconscious. "I'm not a big fan of hypnosis," says Dr. Sam Cohen, the object-relations psychiatrist turned marketing consultant. "Respondents go into zombie-like states. While you do get insights, you don't learn enough about the defenses of the consumer. So you wind up creating advertising that makes the unconscious totally conscious." Cohen points with disdain to a recent campaign for British Airways, a campaign developed based on input from hypnotized focus groups. The ads, he says, pound home a truth that should only be hinted at -- the need of the business traveler to feel coddled and babied while en route. "You see a man who's a man on top, wearing a suit, but then the bottom half of him is a little boy in a diaper," Cohen laments. "They have made the unconscious totally conscious, in a way that's threatening to the consumer."

As a counterexample, Dr. Cohen modestly cites his recent work for Delta Airlines. Probing the unconscious minds of business-class travelers, he discovered a class of "big strong men and women" who nevertheless needed to feel cared for and fussed over. "Traveling on an airplane stirs up feelings of regression and helplessness," Dr. Cohen explains. "The plane is almost a womb. So you go into this womblike place. You're trapped in a chair. Now you're going to be flown off somewhere." In this scenario, Cohen explains, "the flight attendant becomes the all-good mother. It's a regression into helplessness that is defended against through heightened grandiosity. And if the airline catches that, if they understand the grandiosity need in this regression to feel powerful and special -- that's the airline you're going to want to fly."

The key, Cohen stresses, is that the flight attendant must materialize at the traveler's side without being summoned. "If you watch the advertising, you'll see that the stewardess comes over without being asked," he says. "That's so important. If I have to ask, 'Can I have a magazine?' 'Can I have some more water?' that breaks the spell. It means I'm not that special or powerful a businessman. The idea is that you don't have to ask that the stewardess, like the all-good mother, will meet the anticipatory need." The desired result, Cohen says, is that the viewer subconsciously associates Delta with toasty mother-love. "He will think: 'If I go with Delta, I will have a mothering experience. And if I have to go to a meeting, I'll perform well, because the flight attendant has brought me magical supplies to empower me for my trip.' The coup de grace, Cohen says, is the final shot of the ad, which invariably shows the business traveler bounding confidently down the steps of the plane. "The airline took you in its womb, it flew you off, and while it did that, it gave you psychic supplies," he says triumphantly. "It's one of the most impactful dramas in advertising."

Cohen also points with pride to his work for Pillsbury Cinnamon Buns. Here too, he says, the human need for mother-love and for oral gratification opens up vistas for the savvy advertiser. "The advertising is centered around the buns coming out of the oven," he explains. "The mother is coming downstairs. The buns are out. The Pillsbury boy is there. You see the smell coming upstairs. The smell is going to wake the family up." Cohen contrasts this to real life, where "the mother trying to get the family downstairs is seen as a tyrant." Instead, in the advertising, "the bun becomes the oral gratification that entices the entire family, perhaps through its smell. So now the family unites. And now the mother has her own unconscious needs met. Pillsbury has leveraged its brand for maximum unconscious impact. That's very powerful advertising."

In his focus groups, Dr. Cohen makes use of some classic Freudian projective techniques -- free association, structured sentence completion, dream work. The latter, he says, "is something that's unique to my company. It's something that I created." Cohen cites his work for Procter & Gamble as an example of how dream-work methodology can be applied to consumer brands. "A while ago, I was doing some groups for Tide," he says. "And I said to the respondents: OK. Let's say you're having a dream about Tide -- and Tide is represented by something other than laundry detergent. What would that something be?"

Take a wild guess. "Guess what it showed up as? Mother!" Cohen says triumphantly. "What we learned is that Tide also means 'Tied.' Tied to the old connection you have with your mother. As long as you use Tide, you'll always be 'tied' to her. You'll never have to lose her. It's quite moving, actually."

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