Omnileech
David2074
Omnileech
The point of the law wasn't to force people to no longer make bad decisions about their diet. The point was to attempt to use human psychology to limit the damage made by poor decisions. There's a lot of tricks you can do to subconsciously make people more gluttonous/pay out more for drinks that cost next-to-nothing to sell anyways. People who order at a fast food place once are less likely to order again. That's why McDonalds specifically asks if you want to supersize what you order.
Even as a psychological tool I feel it was poorly implemented.
Then again I might not be a good barometer for that. I find the psychology of most advertising very shallow and transparent. I don't think I've ever purchased anything due to an ad unless it simply informed me of a product I was unaware of and was something I wanted.
Still, psychology efforts should be suggestive rather than forced.
Or maybe they could follow the lead of what they did with cigarette packs. They can print warning photos of obese people on the large cups.
smile
You've been effected whether you notice it or not. The plate sizes when you go out to eat, for example, if you are given a small plate with X amount of food or a larger plate with the X amount of food then you will likely feel more full because of how your brain processes the negative space. It's why people looking to lose weight should stick to smaller plates to make their serving size not look so small.
If you go to a restaurant like Fridays or Applebees and you notice the them playing loud or at least reasonably loud music? It's not for your benefit. It's because your brain will multitask to try to hear the lyrics and make sense of the song and spend less time dwelling on the taste of what you eat. Eating in silence would give you more of an appreciation of what you eat or allow you to discern more easily that the food you paid for wasn't anything special. Also it took decades to get get to the point where the lobbying of big tobacco wasn't able to hold out against anti-smoking propaganda. Soda companies would fight much much more to stop something like that.
I specifically referred to advertising, not any subliminal / mood altering effect I'd ever been subjected to.
However you are making assumptions about what works on me and seem to be assuming a one size fits all approach to the stuff you mentioned. I'm not going to say I've never been affected by the myriad of things businesses do to try to influence you but I will say that quite often it rolls off my back or even has the opposite effect. If you recognize the manipulation then you don't always respond in the desired manner.
I am familiar with the small plate for dieting and have not found it to be that effective on me. It is also a tactic used by most buffet restaurants. Then of course there is stuff like the all you can eat (shrimp, whatever) but they only bring you a few at a time. Or trying to front end load you with cheap carbs. The issue is time. If they can delay your next bite there is a better chance you stomach will have time to tell your brain you are full. But if you know that then plate size does not really matter. Just pace your eating so your brain has time to figure out you are full.
Music does not make me think the food tastes better. If the music is annoying me it just makes the dining experience seem longer and less enjoyable. I am much more likely to enjoy the food if the music is soothing. And for me the music (if done correctly) does not give me more to focus on but less. I am largely a verbal thinker. When I am at a restaurant I am following the conversations at three or four tables around me. Not because I want to eavesdrop but because my brain just does that. So well done music helps me not hear conversations as many tables away.
On the whole I do not like 'cacophony' which is how some restaurants seem to me. Funny you should mention Applebees. I like some of their food but I 'tolerate' the dining experience. Noisy music, distracting TVs on the walls, hope you don't get seated next to a neon sign with an annoying electrical hum, smurfs with falsetto voices pretending they give a s**t about your day and suggesting that everything is just wonderful. I much prefer a waiter that is more - well, like a butler I guess. Good service and there when you need him/her but not trying to engage me in personal conversation. If I want an escort to talk bubbly and pretend she likes me I'll hire one. But I didn't, I'm just paying for table service and keeping my water glass full.
I've said it in another thread but at Olive Garden they had a policy of making the seater ask you how your day was at the exact same spot on the walk back to your table. We made a game out of silently gesturing to each other the exact moment she was going to turn around and ask us how our day was going. Manipulation FAIL. This did not make us happier to be there, it simply served to emphasize how shallow and phoney the 'caring' was. Now, presumably they do that because someone at corporate decided that doing A, B and C causes most diners to have a more enjoyable dining experience, order more, tip more etc. But again, one size does not fit all when it comes to manipulating the sheeple.
I prefer to let myself be affected by things that are true. Like Saturday a friend and I went for Chinese. Good service but not obtrusive. Good food. Relaxing music, comfortable seating. I enjoyed my meal and the general dining experience not because someone 'tricked' me into it but because it genuinely deserved to be enjoyed.
Oh, I did think of something I purchased recently due to the 'ad' (it was the photo on the drive through). That was a BBQ pork sandwich at Burger King. Except I was not fooled by subliminal, I was outright lied to. Sandwich in photo piled high and over the edges with meat and looked like how you would make it at home. Piece of s**t in my takeout bag was a stale bun with a small amount of meat under it. I honestly thought I had been given the wrong sandwich until I pulled off the top of the bun to see there was actually a small amount (maybe two tablespoons) of BBQ pork hiding under it.
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