Yesterday The New York Times reported on a new piece in the Journal of Consumer Research which suggests that consumers tend to do the opposite of what a slogan suggests, but are immensely more receptive to powerful brand names. Brand names, it seems, cause "priming effects" or "behavioral effects consistent with those implied by the brand" while slogans seem to create "reverse priming effects," or "behavioral effects opposite to those implied by the slogan." I don't buy it.
