If like me, you're obsessed with marketing, messaging and advertising, then this piece is for you. It is an attempt at a unified theory of advertising of sorts. While it has some flaws, it is an interesting take on why advertising works and what are its most effective tactics.
Since the piece is rather long, the gist of it is this: advertising works not by creating a unique emotional bond with the viewer, but by altering the cultural landscape that we all are a part of, therefore, influencing our purchasing decisions based on the message we want to convey to our peers, according to the cultural message that brand X has been conveying throughout its history.
In other words, the car we drive, the clothes we wear and everything in between carries a message that is solely shaped by which image advertising brands work hard at associating with their product as coke has done for decades with their relentless association of the fizzy drink with happiness.
If you're a designer, the takeaway is that you need to associate your brand with an idea or message and that can't be "We are a creative team of client-focused architects striving for design excellence". Why? Because that's basically what every architect is claiming to be, so you'll have to be a little more original than that, I'm afraid.
A worthy read.