I want a Coke. No Pepsi, a Coke. Imagine my frustration when approaching to the vending machine I find out that Pepsi has monopolised the whole soda section. As selfish human I have two options, accept this cruel world and have a Pepsi, or make a supernatural effort and go upstairs (the mechanicals didn’t work) to the bar. My youthful nonconformity beats my laziness, deciding to venture in search of the holy grail of sodas.

Thumbs up if you feel identified. Now you wonder: what is it that binds me so strongly to this brand, which draws me out of my comfort zone, when the actual product is the same? The answer is simple: it makes me feel good and happy. As Antonio Damasio, a kwon neuroscientist said: ‘We are not thinking machines that feel, we are feeling machines that think’ (Damasio, 1994) Emotions are strong mediators of message processing, exploited by big brands to sell their products and shape our cognitive responses. The brain is the main responsible of consumer behaviour. And it can be modulated by brands through communication, being an addresser with great authority on the addressee, making a combination of code in right context and contact an effective weapon of consumption.

Advertising has the power to make our amygdala, the controller of emotions, shake. It influences our prefrontal cortex to make choices, leading a perfect combination in mixing feelings with, what we think, are “rational decisions”. They create new selling strategies that jump over the