Review: Richard Shotton – The Choice Factory

Highly recommended…

Very occasionally … a book will come along that I can happily suggest in these instances. Because it truly covers a lot of ground in an accessible way. Luke Sullivan’s classic Hey Whipple, Squeeze This is such a book about copywriting. And now, Richard Shotton has written one about applying behavioural economics to advertising.

The Choice Factory however, manages to be both practical and profound, with one foot firmly in the everyday reality of advertising and the other in science.

Much of this has to do with the fact that Shotton is not just recycling scientific findings from universities. Over the past 12 years, he’s actually done tons of original research, testing the effects of mental biases and heuristics on the effectiveness of real advertising.

Here, he offers 25 of those ‘brainbugs’ or as evolutionary psychologists would likely prefer, automatic adaptive behaviours and shows you how they may be and have been used in advertising.

… As a creative, that means reading about behavioural science. And now finally there is that one book that will make you your agency’s Keyser Söze. Highly recommended.