This is hidden brain.
I'm Shankar Vedantam.
All of us are surrounded by brands.
Designer brands.
Calvin Klein's obsession.
Oh, the smell of it.
Bargain shopper brands.
You're gonna spend $20 every month on paper towels anyway.
You're throwing your money away.
The mini chamwows are for everything, for everyday brands, for seemingly every demographic slice among us.
Good morning.
I'm Wilford Brimley, and I'd like to talk to you for a few minutes about diabetes.
Actually, about diabetes.
Have you ever stopped to ask how brands influence you?
Is it the slick advertising, the relatable characters, or the story?
Lance Armstrong would go out there, you know, with this story of I beat cancer, and I'm gonna put on my gear, I'm gonna put on that yellow bracelet.
I had about 50 of them this.
Week on hidden brain.
The psychology of brands and how we relate to them, how companies create a worldview around the products they sell and then get us to make those products a part of who we are.
Americus Reed knows what it feels like to be an outsider, to be surrounded by strangers, and to have to figure out how to fit in.