Advertisements over the years have evolved significantly, and the future of advertising could very well be in your dreams while you sleep.
Molson Coors Beverage Company, an American-Canadian multinational drink and brewing company, announced that it will be leveraging Targeted Dream Incubation to infiltrate into the subconscious mind.
What is Targeted Dream Incubation?
Targeted Dream Incubation is the practice of dreaming with a purpose, to guide dreams towards specific themes. According to Dr Deirdre Barrett, a dream researcher at Harvard Medical School, it is a voluntary activity in which dreamers focus intent on content they wish to appear in their dreams. History of Dream Incubation goes back thousands of years. In ancient times, rituals and techniques have been invented to intentionally alter the content of dreams, through meditation, painting, praying, and even drug use.
The beer conglomerate is working with Dr Deirdre Barrett to explore how they can make use of science to induce images of clean mountain air, refreshing streams, and Coors in dreams of viewers after they lost their chance to advertise during Super Bowl's half time.
In this video, we got a peek behind the scenes with subjects participating in an experiment for Coors' Dream Incubation experiment. Participants were made to watch Coors' stimulus film before they slept. When subjects enter the rapid eye movement (REM) state where most of the dreaming happens, they are woken up to recount their dreams. Many said they dreamt of refreshing streams, mountains, waterfalls, and 5 out of 18 participants reported dreaming about Coors' beverages.
While 12 out of 18 participants in Molson Coors' campaign were paid actors, the techniques to influence dreams have been shown to work in sleep experiments - only if the subjects are cooperative.
Molson Coors is not the only company using novel Dream Incubation technologies. Xbox worked with gamers in their Power Your Dreams campaign to promote the launch of their Series X consoles. The research used the dream recording technology, Hypnodyne, to explore what gamers dreamed of after playing on the most powerful next-gen console for the first time. Similarly, participants are willing subjects in the experiment.
Modern science has opened a whole new world of possibilities, but it's heartening to know that the ability to influence sleep worlds forcefully and control minds is not happening anytime soon.