I prefer Pepsi, and for a number of reasons. Firstly I definitely prefer the taste, and secondly I find that I find the blue colour of the cans and bottles much more pleasing than the red of its counterpart. That's why I prefer Pepsi over Coca-Cola.
Consider this though. I cannot recall having any preference for one of these drinks over the other prior to 1999.
No this isn't the result of some kind of mental millennium bug (especially as the current millennium began on 1st Jan 2001!), I believe I know the reason behind my change of feelings.
In 1999 I remember seeing a TV advert that featured the Corrs, and a song of theirs that I hadn't heard before "Lifting Me", which was in fact written especially for it. In keeping with the requirement for adverts to be surreal as possible it featured a guy with a sack in the crowd at a Corrs concert handing out cans of Pepsi to complete strangers. When he gets to the front you see a shot of Andrea, the lead singer, reaching down to him and he frantically dives into the bottom of the bag for a can to give to her, only to find that he's just run out. He cries out "Noooooo!", and then wakes up in his bed to find that in true cliché style the whole thing was all a dream.
I remember that the advert had me absolutely mesmerised when I first saw it. I was of course a really big fan of their music at the time, but there was something more. I can honestly say I never had a crush on any of the Corrs per se, but I have always been a fan of slim dark haired girls and that moment where Andrea looks right into the camera had the effect one might expect on a 17-year old male otherwise starved of female attention, not least stirring a whole bunch of assorted emotions up to the surface.
Little did I realise at the time that I was experiencing a form of hypnosis, and that my subconscious mind was being tampered with. Years later, and being familiar with what following post hypnotic suggestions feels like, I am able to recognise what happened for what it really is.
We all like to think we are rational and that the decisions we make in life are based on critical thinking and free will. In reality it is all too easy for the critical part of the mind to turn into the devils advocate for what deeper, unconscious parts of the brain want you to do, especially when gorgeous Irish women are thrown into the equation. After that advert struck such a chord with me Pepsi was always going to be my preferred drink, and it was left to my ingenious rational mind to think of some reasons why.
In my experience the subject always underestimates the amount to which hypnosis is affecting them.
You may think, when the hypnotist tells you that your hand is stuck that you are only pretending, that you are only playing along and that it isn't really hypnosis. Consider this though, when you didn't move your hand perhaps there was another mechanism at play, an unconscious reason why you didn't move it, and that telling yourself you're only pretending is how you rationalise your strange behaviour to yourself.
The hand didn't move; you were hypnotised my friend.
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