Sideswipe: 23 November: Tagging festive cheer

Tagging festive cheer. Photo / Supplied

Dreaming of consumption

Sleep perchance to be marketed at ... According to an essay in Aeon, advertisers have already begun invading our sleep in an attempt to place their products in our dreams. "The night before Super Bowl LV, the beverage company Molson Coors ran what they called the 'world's largest dream study'. They explicitly aimed to place images of Coors beer, along with positive imagery (of refreshing alpine rivers, for instance), into dreamers' minds. They hired a Harvard psychologist to design dream-incubation stimuli, incentivised participation with offers of free drinks, and, in a marketing coup, had the pop star Zayn Malik agree to sleep on Instagram Live while having an incubated Coors dream – though he did mention the whole project was 'kinda messed up'." Read more here.

The other JFK

John Francis Kennedy served three terms as Treasurer of Massachusetts, from 1954 to 1960. He was legendary for putting almost no effort (or money) into campaigning. He made no speeches, nor did he advertise. He didn't even have any relevant experience for the job. Before becoming state treasurer, he had been a stockroom supervisor at the Gillette Safety Razor Company. By all accounts, the only reason for his political success was the resemblance of his name to John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He tried running for governor in 1960 (while JFK was campaigning for President), but his winning streak finally ended.

Did you know...

This assertion makes sense: "When certain, highly expensive pieces of jewellery are sold to buyers in different countries (say a $300,000 watch, for example), often times the company selling the watch will send someone to wear it on the plane over to said buyer's country, since to import it would cost them a lot in taxes, but to pay for someone to wear it as their own watch costs significantly less."

Random acts of aggression

A reader writes: "To the angry man who assaulted and abused me at Bunnings Silverdale last week - I understand you were maybe having a bad day and were very upset that I accidentally pushed the extended part of my trolley into your heels. However, I do not believe it justified your vile reaction. Even after I apologised profusely, you grabbed my trolley, pulled it back and then shoved the trolley with force into my chest and shin then loudly and verbally abused me. I would like to thank the staff that came to check on me as I was visibly upset and shaken. I do wonder, though, if I had been a young, 6ft male instead of a small, petite almost 60-year-old woman, would that have still been your reaction?"