I hear this once a week from people who say, "Oh, I was just with my friend and I was talking about blank brand. Then I opened my Instagram and boom, there was an ad for that. They have to be listening to me." It's like smart adults with functioning brains believe this to be true. They believe that Instagram is listening to your conversations and serving ads. There's a lot of reasons that that's insane. I'm generally not a believer in conspiracy theories because especially today, it would be so difficult to cover that up.

There's just no way that Instagram could be spying on 3.4 billion people. Then using that data and going to brands and telling them, "Hey, we have advertising and we can target people based on their conversations." That thousands and thousands of brands and thousands of Facebook employees who know this secret, nobody has leaked any information about it. That is obviously not possible. The other thing is that Facebook has a $55 billion a year advertising business. If this were true, I assume the FTC would just not allow them to advertise anymore. It would ruin their business. How could it be worth $55 billion to listen to your fucking main conversations and serve you ads?

The greater truth is a few things. One, you're super predictable. It's not that hard for a brand to look at the data that they do get, to look at the things that you like, and the things you look at and the websites you go to and build a profile, and guess what you're going to like. The more interesting thing is how recognition works in advertising. I think what is happening when you have that phenomenon when you feel like I was just talking about this and I saw an ad, was just that. That you were just talking about it. Then you saw an ad that you've probably seen 20 times, but because you just talked about the brand, that triggers something in your brain to say, oh my gosh, I was just talking about this. You recognize the ad.

Then a day later, you see an influencer post about it and you recognize that. Then your friend is at drinks and they're talking about this thing they bought from this brand and you recognize that. Then you're like, oh my God, I'm hearing this everywhere, but you're really not hearing it more than you used to. It's just that you are conditioned to recognize it more. I know when I got a Leica camera, I now see Leicas everywhere because I'm looking for them because I'm like, I know what they look like, and I'm passionate about the brand now. I'm just so much more likely to notice a Leica than I used to be, so I see them every day.

Whereas if you asked me a year ago how often do you see a Leica, I'd say, I don't actually see Leicas every day. I probably see one a week. If you had asked me a year ago, I probably would have said, I see a Leica once every couple of months, maybe. Maybe I see five people a year with them, but I was seeing just as many. Probably 50, 60 people a year. It's just that I wasn't conditioned to recognize it. I wrote an email to brands today about this and said that one thing that is so powerful about influencer marketing is that because you guys already have the trust with your audience, because they listen to what you say, you are able to get that brand to stick in their brain, so the next time an ad comes up, they actually recognize it. That ad is so much more effective. There's really no actionable point here for you guys, but I do think that understanding psychology, understanding the way our brains work is really important especially if your job is changing people's minds and influencing them. In your own behavior, think about that. When you feel yourself noticing a brand or whatever it might be more often than you did before, try and step back and deconstruct what brought you there and what is making you recognize that because that is such a powerful thing that we can do as an industry to drive the efficacy of advertising.