The Selling of a Psychologist: John Broadus Watson and the Application of Behavioral Techniques to Advertising
Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, (1982)DOI: 10.1002/1520-6696(198207)18:3\%253C207::AID-JHBS2300180302\%253E3.0.CO;2-8
Abstract
When Watson joined the J. Walter Thompson Advertising Company after leaving Johns Hopkins University, he participated in the development of market research techniques, experiments to determine brand appeal and habit-forming qualities of cigarettes, and developed various advertising campaigns. He was the „ organization man,'' writing and speaking on the „ psychology of salesmanship,'' „ how to influence the mind of another,'' how to fit in successfully with the needs of the organization and the corporate society it served. In the industrial America of the 1920s, technical problems had been solved. Human beings were now the only variable in the production and marketing process. Watson offered his behavioral techniques as a means of providing direct services of social control for an emerging corporate society that sought stability and predictability.