The.NY.Times 19 07 2008

Une sélection hebdomadaire offerte par SATURDAY, JULY 19, 2008 Copyright © 2008 The New York Times A D V E R T I S E M E N T Persuasion Tactics By THOMAS VINCIGUERRA A lack of wings didn’t stop Kent Couch. On July 5 Mr. Couch, a 48-year-old gas station owner, escaped gravity in a device of his own making: a lawn chair attached to more than 150 helium-filled balloons. Taking off from Bend, Oregon, Mr. Couch drifted 380 kilometers to Cambridge, Idaho, in about nine hours. It was his third “cluster balloon” excursion since 2006. “Once you’re up, it’s really pleasant,” he said. “It’s so serene. That’s a word I never used before this. ” Serenemightbeonedescriptionoftheexperience. Idioticmightbeanother. Butthere does seem to be an undeniable whimsy to the idea of floating in a comfortable chair buoyedbyapanoplyofshinyballoons. Jean Piccard, the aeronautical pioneer, may have been the first to use multiple balloons to fly. In 1937, he ascended to 3,350 meters over Minnesota and Iowa in a small gondola attached to 95 1. 2-meter-tall balloons. He landed safely, reportedly by popping balloons with a knife and revolver to control his descent. The patron saint of the everyman school of cluster ballooning is undoubtedly Lawrence Walters, also knownasLawnChairLarry. In1982,hetied 42 weather balloons to a lawn chair in San Pedro, California, christened the craft “Inspiration I” and shot up to more than 4,800 meters. Adriftandoutofcontrol,hestartled at least two airline pilots. Upon descending Mr. Walters snared a power line and was fined$1,500bytheFederalAviationAdministration. He was lucky. On April 20, a Brazilian priest named Adelir AntoniodeCarlitookofffromthe coastal city of Paranaguá, buoyedby1,000balloons. He was reported missing eight hours later. The day before Mr. Couch’s flight, rescuers recovered a body from the ocean that they said may be Father de Carli’s. Jonathan Trappe, who went aloft for four hours on June 7 with 55 huge helium balloons, prefers to take no chances. A 35year-oldtechnicalprojectsmanagerinRaleigh, North Carolina, Mr. Trappe carried aclutchofsafetyequipmentandalertedregional air traffic controllers ahead of time. Not that he didn’t inject some whimsy into his trip. Mr. Trappe’s gondola was actually his office chair. “It represents a contrastbetweenthenormalmundaneworld,” he said, “and the world of my dreams. ” SASCHA SCHUERMANN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES Marketers have refined ways to manipulate consumers into changing their habits. An advertisement hovers above a pedestrian in Berlin. The Business of the Taliban A quarry in Pakistan earns cash for the Afghan insurgency. WORLD TRENDS 3 Continued on Page 4 By CHARLES DUHIGG Social scientists have known for years that there is power in tying certain behavior to habitual cues through relentless advertising. Themarketingworldhasusedthisknowledgetoinfluenceconsumers. Nowthesame principlesarebeingappliedtoaprojectwith a noble purpose — saving lives in the developing world. Studiesshowthatasmuchas45percentof what we do every day is habitual — that is, performed almost without thinking in the same location or at the same time each day, usually because of subtle cues. “Habitsareformedwhenthememoryassociatesspecificactionswithspecificplaces ormoods,”saidWendyWood,aprofessorof psychology and neuroscience at Duke University in North Carolina. “If you regularly eat chips while sitting on the couch, after a while, seeing the couch will automatically prompt you to reach for the Doritos. ” Theurgetochecke-mailortograbacookie is usually a habit with a specific trigger. Researchers found that most cues fall into four broad categories: a location or time of day,aseriesofactions,particularmoods,or the company of certain people. The e-mail urge, for instance, probably occurs after you’vefinishedreadingadocumentorcompletedafamiliartask. Thecookiegrabprobably occurs when you’re walking out of the cafeteria, or feeling sluggish or unhappy. Aware of this, a self-described “militant liberal” named Val Curtis decided a few years ago that she could help save millions of children from death and disease if they could be trained to form a new habit: wash their hands with soap. Diseases and disorders caused by dirty hands — like diarrhea — kill a child somewhere in the world about every 15 seconds, and about half those deaths could be prevented with the regular use of soap, studies indicate. But getting people into a soap habit, it turns out, is surprisingly hard. So after years spent trying to persuade peopleinthedevelopingworldtowashtheir hands habitually with soap, Dr. Curtis, an anthropologist then living in Burkina Faso, contactedsomeofthelargestmultinational corporations and asked them to teach her how to manipulate consumer habits. Sheknewthatoverthepastdecade,many companieshadperfectedtheartofcreating automatic behaviors — habits — among consumers. These habits have helped comKent Couch floated 380 kilometers in a chair borne by heliumfilled balloons. Marketing Tools Foster A Good Habit If You Have a Lawn Chair, Who Needs a Rocket Ship? By JULIE CRESWELL These days, it’s nearly impossible to surf the Internet, open a newspaper or magazine, or watch television without seeing a celebrity selling something, whether it’s umbrellas, soda, cars, phones, medications, cosmetics, jewelry, clothing or even mutual funds. Butwherethestarendsandtheproductandpitchbegin hasgrownlessandlessdiscernibleintheeraofthehuman billboard. NicoleKidmansashaysinadsforChanelNo. 5perfume. Jessica Simpson struts for a hair extension company, HairUWear,andtheacneskin-carelineProactivSolution. And Jamie Lee Curtis spoons up Dannon Activia yogurt while promoting environmentally friendly Honda cars. Over the last decade, corporate brands have increasingly turned to Hollywood celebrities and musicians to selltheirproducts. Starsshowedupinnearly14percentof ads last year, according to Millward Brown, a marketing research agency. While that number has more than doubledinthepastdecade,itisofffromapeakof19percentin 2004. Celebrities appear in 24 percent of the ads in India and 45 percent in Taiwan. Stars are likely to continue popping up in ads for a very simple reason: Celebrity sells. If consumers believe that a certain star or singer might actually use the product, sales can take off. “The reality is people want a piece of something they can’t be,” says Eli Portnoy, a branding strategist. “They live vicariously through the products and services that those celebrities are tied to. Years from now, our descenA Booming Era for the Celebrity Pitchman Continued on Page 4 PETE ERICKSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS COMPETITRACK Nicole Kidman in a Chanel ad. Conquering New Horizons Modern zeppelins intrigue a new class of entrepreneurs. MONEY & BUSINESS 5 CAHIER DU « MONDE » DATÉ SAMEDI 19JUILLET 2008, NO 19744. NE PEUT ÊTRE VENDU SÉPARÉMENT