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The 11 rules of succeeding with nonsensical ideas, according to an advertising legend

Hacking The Unconscious

Rory Sutherland explores the stories and psychology behind the most influential marketing campaigns in history, and smashes apart received wisdom with a look at iconoclastic ideas. 
 
Advertising guru Rory Sutherland is a world-leading proponent of behavioural economics. In Hacking the Unconscious, he looks at how this emerging science is used by marketers to influence us and challenges us to reassess which ideas we hold dear. 
 
In Part 1, Marketing, Rory asks why certain ad campaigns, such as Nike's 'Just Do It' and the MND Ice Bucket Challenge, cast such a spell over us. Looking at ten all-time great campaigns - including Coke's iconic 'Hilltop' ad, Dove's 'Campaign for Real Beauty' and De Beers' 'A Diamond is Forever' - he discusses their success with the creative minds that conceived them. 
 
Along the way, he ponders the allure of altruism, asks whether ads can be art, considers what 'Big Data' means for the future of marketing, and shows how a powerful health campaign transformed attitudes, and saved lives. 
 
Part 2, Thought Cages, sees Rory confounding conventional wisdom with his intriguing, subversive and controversial concepts. Is education always a good thing? Would we be better off selecting our MPs by lottery? Plus, he looks at the dilemma the NHS faces - to be successful, or to be loved; speculates if we're really as rational as we think; exposes the fallacy of market research; shows how businesses play on our susceptibility to commitment; and wonders whether online retail will ever replicate the magic of the traditional shopping experience. 
 
As he explores how 'psycho-logic', behavioural quirks and mind hacks could drive change, he formulates a magical series of radical ideas that may provide new solutions to society's problems. 
 
Contributors include novelist Fay Weldon, onetime CEO of Cambridge Analytica, Alexander Nix, New York Times bestseller Bryan Caplan, MP Jess Philips and Nassim Nicholas Taleb, statistician and author of The Black Swan. 
 
Copyright © 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd 
Presented by Rory Sutherland 
Produced by Steven Rajam and Michael Surcombe 
 
Hacking the Unconscious 
Featuring: Shelina Janmohamed, Steve Henry, Roger Greenaway, Nicola Raihani, Sara Pascoe, Geoffrey Miller, Daryl Fielding, J Courtney Sullivan, Fay Weldon, Scott Bedbury, Liz Dolan, Byron Sharp, Alexander Nix, Nick Hall, Lord Norman Fowler, Sammy Harari, Sir Nick Partridge, Jacqueline Gold, Jennifer Jacquet, Matt Brosnan 
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 1-12 May 2017 
 
Thought Cages 
Featuring: Natalie Perera, Bryan Caplan, Nicholas Gruen, Jess Philips, Diana Fleischman, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Helena Cronin, Dave Trott, Ben Page, Nichola Raihani, Robin Hanson, Oliver Payne, Natalie Nahai, Leigh Caldwell, Jonathan Haidt, Owain Service, Sue Benson, Dan Ariely, Katherine Lewis, David Dalziel 
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 19-30 November 2018

Rory Sutherland explores the stories and psychology behind the most influential marketing campaigns in history, and smashes apart received wisdom with a look at iconoclastic ideas. 
 
Advertising guru Rory Sutherland is a world-leading proponent of behavioural economics. In Hacking the Unconscious, he looks at how this emerging science is used by marketers to influence us and challenges us to reassess which ideas we hold dear. 
 
In Part 1, Marketing, Rory asks why certain ad campaigns, such as Nike's 'Just Do It' and the MND Ice Bucket Challenge, cast such a spell over us. Looking at ten all-time great campaigns - including Coke's iconic 'Hilltop' ad, Dove's 'Campaign for Real Beauty' and De Beers' 'A Diamond is Forever' - he discusses their success with the creative minds that conceived them. 
 
Along the way, he ponders the allure of altruism, asks whether ads can be art, considers what 'Big Data' means for the future of marketing, and shows how a powerful health campaign transformed attitudes, and saved lives. 
 
Part 2, Thought Cages, sees Rory confounding conventional wisdom with his intriguing, subversive and controversial concepts. Is education always a good thing? Would we be better off selecting our MPs by lottery? Plus, he looks at the dilemma the NHS faces - to be successful, or to be loved; speculates if we're really as rational as we think; exposes the fallacy of market research; shows how businesses play on our susceptibility to commitment; and wonders whether online retail will ever replicate the magic of the traditional shopping experience. 
 
As he explores how 'psycho-logic', behavioural quirks and mind hacks could drive change, he formulates a magical series of radical ideas that may provide new solutions to society's problems. 
 
Contributors include novelist Fay Weldon, onetime CEO of Cambridge Analytica, Alexander Nix, New York Times bestseller Bryan Caplan, MP Jess Philips and Nassim Nicholas Taleb, statistician and author of The Black Swan. 
 
Copyright © 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd 
Presented by Rory Sutherland 
Produced by Steven Rajam and Michael Surcombe 
 
Hacking the Unconscious 
Featuring: Shelina Janmohamed, Steve Henry, Roger Greenaway, Nicola Raihani, Sara Pascoe, Geoffrey Miller, Daryl Fielding, J Courtney Sullivan, Fay Weldon, Scott Bedbury, Liz Dolan, Byron Sharp, Alexander Nix, Nick Hall, Lord Norman Fowler, Sammy Harari, Sir Nick Partridge, Jacqueline Gold, Jennifer Jacquet, Matt Brosnan 
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 1-12 May 2017 
 
Thought Cages 
Featuring: Natalie Perera, Bryan Caplan, Nicholas Gruen, Jess Philips, Diana Fleischman, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Helena Cronin, Dave Trott, Ben Page, Nichola Raihani, Robin Hanson, Oliver Payne, Natalie Nahai, Leigh Caldwell, Jonathan Haidt, Owain Service, Sue Benson, Dan Ariely, Katherine Lewis, David Dalziel 
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 19-30 November 2018

Rory Sutherland

Wonderfully applicable to everything in life, and funny as hell

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, bestselling author of Antifragile and Black Swan

Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant … wonderfully heretical, naughty and funny … Uncommon sense on stilts

Jules Goddard, Fellow of the Centre for Management Development at London Business School and co-author of Uncommon Sense, Common Nonsense

Veins of wisdom regarding human functioning emerge regularly and brilliantly from the pages. Don't miss this book.

Robert Cialdini, bestselling author of Influence, Yes!, The Small BIG and Pre-suasion

Brings together complex theory with stories and plentiful humour to both captivate and entertain. It’s an important work for our era of apparent irrationality.

Both a book on human behavior and a rallying cry to stand up against the spreadsheet mafia dominating most government and corporate policies today

Forbes, "Best Books on Consumer Behavior to Help You in Business and in Life"

[A] fun, quirky, hilarious page-turner…Sutherland is one of the all-time great raconteurs, polymaths, and ad men

Geoffrey Miller, evolutionary psychologist, author of The Mating Mind, Spent, and What Women Want

Buy this book for the footnotes alone… As a committed devotee of rationalism, who thinks there is not enough of it in this world, I rationally ought to hate this book. Instead I loved it.

Matt Ridley, author of The Rational Optimist

‘A must read for anyone who is in the people business’

Dilip Soman, Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Science and Economics, University of Toronto

The Magic of Original Thinking in a World of Mind-Numbing Conformity

Discover the secret power of irrational thinking to create magic in branding, business, and life, with the breakthrough book from the advertising legend. 
 
AS SEEN ON THE DIARY OF A CEO PODCAST 
 
‘Revelatory and entertaining’ Sunday Times 
 
‘Sutherland uses his decades of experience to dissect human spending behavior in an insanely entertaining way…a must read’ Entrepreneur, Best Books of the Year 
 
‘One of the leading minds in the world of branding’ NPR 
 
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Why is Red Bull so popular – even though everyone hates the taste? 
Why do countdown boards on platforms take away the pain of train delays? 
And why do we prefer stripy toothpaste? 
 
The answer? Humans are, in a word, irrational. 
 
In his groundbreaking book, TED Talk superstar and Ogilvy advertising icon Rory Sutherland reveals why abandoning logic and casting aside rationality is the best way to solve any problem. 
 
Based on thirty years of field work, his unconventional and relentlessly curious approach has led him to discover that the most compelling secrets to human decision making can be found in surprising places:<ul><li>What can honeybees teach us about creating a sustainable business?</li><li>How could budget airlines show us how to market a health-care system?</li><li>Why is it better to be vaguely right than precisely wrong?</li><li>What might football penalty kicks teach us about the dangers of risk aversion?</li></ul> 
Better “branding,” Sutherland reveals, can also be employed not just to sell products but to promote a variety of social aims, like getting people to pay taxes, improving public health outcomes, or encouraging more women to pursue careers in tech. 
 
In his mission to turn us all into idea alchemists, Sutherland blends cutting-edge behavioural science with jaw-dropping true stories to show that the problems we face, both as an individual or in society, could very well be solved by thinking less logically. 
 
To be brilliant, you have to be irrational. This book shows you how.

Rory Sutherland

Books by Rory Sutherland

Articles featuring Rory Sutherland

The 11 rules of succeeding with nonsensical ideas, according to an advertising legend

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