at the bottom of oil wells. With luxury goods, the process works with a special

boost because buyers who pay high prices often gain extra status from thus

demonstrating both their good taste and their ability to pay.

 

Even association that appears to be trivial, if carefully planned, can have

extreme and peculiar effects on purchasers of products. The target purchaser of

shoe polish may like pretty girls. And so he chooses the polish with the pretty

girl on the can or the one with the pretty girl in the last ad for shoe polish

that he saw.

 

Advertisers know about the power of mere association. You won’t see Coke

advertised alongside some account of the death of a child. Instead, Coke ads

picture life as happier than reality.

 

Similarly, it is not from mere chance that military bands play such impressive

music. That kind of music, appearing in mere association with military service,

helps to attract soldiers and keep them in the army. Most armies have learned to

use mere association in this successful way.

 

However, the most damaging miscalculations from mere association do not

ordinarily come from advertisers and music providers.

 

Some of the most important miscalculations come from what is accidentally

associated with one’s past success, or one’s liking and loving, or one’s

disliking and hating, which includes a natural hatred for bad news.