Letter to the Editor

First I would like to congratulate you on the wonderful job you are doing with the Advertiser. We are retired and living in Kennebunk. We had to sell our camp on Big Lake last summer, but are continuing to renew our subscription to keep up with the towns and Calais area news. (Loved the picture of the little cheerleaders last week.)

I especially wanted to thank you for your insightful editorial about the way marketers and others use the mass media to influence behavior. When I majored in psychology at Orono back in the 60s, research was already well under way in this field. Later at Michigan State University, where I was taking my MBA, they were already teaching early techniques in marketing, such as how to do surveys to determine buyers needs and likes and to develop marketing programs appealing to them.

I know the field has progressed exponentially in the last 50 years, resulting in the daily flood of advertising and more subliminal efforts in social media, news networks and other channels to control our thinking not just as buyers, but in our personal and political opinions.

Keep up the good work. 

Neil and Gerry Harmon

Kennebunk