Drunk dreams: Coors Light wants to inspire sleepers to dream its commercial with audio and visual stimuli designed to trigger subconscious thoughts of the beer company
- Coors Light teamed up with a dream expert to show ads in people’s dreams
- The team created a system that uses specific sounds and visual stimuli
- Participants watch a film before falling asleep that shows Coors Light cans
- The clip also plays scenes with mountains, waterfalls and snow falling
- Participants described each of the scenes, along with seeing beer cans
Coors Light might not be able to show commercials during the Super Bowl, but the beer company has found a better and cheaper placed to play ads – in your dreams.
The brand teamed up with dream expert Deirdre Barrett to create a ‘targeted dream incubation’ that uses specific audio and visual stimuli to induce ‘the most refreshing dream you’ll have all year.’
The project shows participants a film, prior to falling asleep, which is depicts clean mountain air, flowing streams and of course, cans of Coors Light and Coors Light Seltzer popping up in unexpected places.
And while they sleep, an eight-hour soundscape is played in the room throughout the night.
Participants were the asked to describe their dreams and each mentioned a scene they had seen in the film, including a clip of Coors Light cans and Pogo Sticks.
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The project shows participants a film, prior to falling asleep, which depicts clean mountain air, flowing streams and of course, cans of Coors Light and Coors Light Seltzer popping up in unexpected places
The project raises questions about whether or not implanting dreams is ethical and visual artist David Lawson, who had a hand in the film, was unable to give a complete answer during a behind-the-scenes video about the project.
Super Bowl Sunday, which falls on February 7, is known for showcasing great ads from a range of companies.
However, Molson Coors is not able to participate due to Anheuser-Busch InBev holding the exclusive national beer advertising rights for the Big Game that will see the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers face off at Raymond James Stadium in Florida.
Being barred from the game has not stopped Coors from showing off an ad and it won’t cost them millions of dollars to do so.
Participants were fitted with EKGs at the start of a test for the new project
They were then asked to watch the film and while they slept, a soundscape played in the background
Dr. Deirdre Barrett, a leading psychologist, author and expert on dreams, helped Coors put together the audio and film that will go live February 7.
‘I’ve studied dreams and methods to influence them throughout my career, but working with the artists of the Coors Dream Project was a novel opportunity to craft audio and visual stimuli that viewers could use to trigger specific dream content,’ said Dr. Barrett.
‘We saw the results come to life in the Dream Lab trial run when participants reported similar dream experiences including refreshing streams, mountains, waterfalls and even Coors itself.’
Participants were fitted with EKGs and watched the special film before falling asleep.
One participant named Brandon said he dreamt about waterfalls
Another participant said he dreamt he was walking through snow, which was a clip shown during the film he watched before falling asleep
However, in the middle of the night they were woken up by a project staff member who asked them what they had dreamt.
One participant named Brandon said he dreamt about waterfalls, another was walking through snow and a third volunteer believes she dreamt about ‘Coors and pogo sticks.’
Marcelo Pascoa, vice president of Marketing at Molson Coors, said: ‘Targeted Dream Incubation is a never-before-seen form of advertising.’
‘Typically for big sports events, we see ads featuring over-the-top car chases, pyrotechnics, dramatic scenery and storylines, but with the Coors Big Game Dream, the dreamer is in the driver’s seat to create a chill, relaxing ad inspired by our visual and audio stimuli.’
A third participant said she remembers seeing something about Coors and Pogo Sticks, which is depicted in this image taken from the film
Coors Light is not the first to plant ideas in people’s heads as they sleep, as in September MIT researchers did the same thing to give people bizarre, abstract dreams.
The experts also used a targeted dream incubation that uses a basic set-up consisting of a wrist-worn electronic sleep-tracking device called Dormio, which tracks when the wearer is asleep, and an app, which delivers audio prompts.
In trials, the scientists were able to influence the dreams of most study participants to dream about a tree during hypnagogia.
Researchers also used the ‘Dormio’ system to induce a dream about the chocolate fountain from the classic 1971 film ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’.
They also used an audio cue that consisted of sentences including ’remember to think of a tree’ and ‘remember to observe your thoughts’.
Overall, 67 per cent of dream reports from sleeping participants mentioned dreams involving a tree.
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