We need to be comfortable with things that don't make sense

This article wonders whether the illogical effectiveness of medical practices like the placebo can be observed or constructed within marketing.

We need to be comfortable with things that don't make sense

Rory SutherlandOgilvyOne London and Ogilvy Group UK

We need to be more open to homeopathic effects in marketing, where things work even when logic says they shouldn't.

There are two fascinating truths about placebos. The first is that they work. The second is that, surprisingly, they work even if people know they are being given a placebo. Saying, for instance, that "These pills contain only chalk, but some people with your condition find them helpful" does not cancel out their effect.

What this suggests is that the mechanism...

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