Earlier this year, Coors sponsored a Super Bowl ad that doubled as an experiment to see if it could get people to dream about its beer.
While the short video, and the “soundscape” that accompanied it, seemed like good fun, sleep experts aren’t laughing.
A group of 40 sleep researchers from Harvard University and other institutes of higher learning recently signed a letter of concern, calling on legislators to regulate what the Coors ad played with: something called “targeted dream incubation,” or TDI.
The idea is scientifically sound: implanting certain thoughts or images while the brain is in that foggy — and highly suggestible — state just before you fall asleep. It’s been used to help people quit smoking and lose weight, or deal with trauma and depression, the researchers document. But it shouldn’t be permitted for companies to hawk products, they say.
“TDI-advertising is not some fun gimmick, but a slippery slope with real consequences,” the researchers wrote in their letter. “Planting dreams in people’s minds for the purpose of selling products, not to mention addictive substances, raises important ethical questions.”
The missive notes, “the kind of dream incubation…assumed to be the pure science fiction of movies like Inception is now becoming reality.”
The researchers further note that Coors wasn’t the only company exploring such tech: Xbox employs its “Made from Dreams” TDI program to try to seed pro gamers’ dreams.
The paper continues, “Researchers have not yet tested whether TDI can instead worsen addiction, but the Coors study, which paired images of beer cans…with images of clean mountain streams, may shine a disturbing light on this question.”
The letter added, “Our dreams cannot become just another playground for corporate advertisers.”