‘If you don’t like dark roast, this isn’t the coffee for you’: How exclusionary ads can win over the right customers

When brands play hard to get: why you’re drawn to products that neg you

Imagine you are searching for a new mattress online and find something surprising. The retailer displays an ad featuring a “Mattress Comfort Scale” running from 1 (soft) to 10 (firm), followed by the message that if your firmness preference is at either end, this mattress is not for you. Wait … what? A retailer telling someone not to buy its product? No way! Why would a company tell potential buyers that the product might not suit them? Our team…

There is No Defense for Killing Babies With Down Syndrome in Abortions

Periodically—actually more than periodically—I run across stories that are absolutely schizophrenic about children with Down syndrome. The same person who tells us how blessed she or he is to have this special needs child will, in the next breath, casually say it is perfectly fine to abort a child who is prenatally diagnosed with Down syndrome. Why? The all-purpose excuse: opposition to governmental “interference.” This goes back aways but illus…

‘If you don’t like dark roast, this isn’t the coffee for you’: How exclusionary ads can win over the right customers

Imagine you are searching for a new mattress online and find something surprising. The retailer displays an ad featuring a “Mattress Comfort Scale” running from 1 (soft) to 10 (firm), followed by the message that if your firmness preference is at either end, this mattress is not for you. Wait … what? A retailer telling someone not to buy its product? No way! Why would a company tell potential buyers that the product might not suit them? Our team…