Think about it - what's the first thing you do when waiting for someone who's late? Grab your smartphone and do something with it ...anything with it - so that you don't look like a loser. However by doing so we've lost our ability to be present - to observe, to connect with others and most importantly to be bored.

Here in particular the idea of contextual communication - i.e. communicating the right message, at the right time to the right audience - seems to generate an increasing effect on the consumer in a manipulative way.

Imagine a smashed stained-glass window, a page torn from a Bible, or a snippet of choral singing. You would still recognize their religious roots, wouldn't you? In 1915, Coca-Cola designed a bottle so unique that if it were smashed into thousands of pieces, from a single shard of glass you'd still be able recognize the brand. We call such a device a Smashable. It can be anything from a color to a sound, from a pattern to a smell to an icon.

Placing a wedge of lime in the neck of a Corona bottle helps sell those beers. And where did that ritual come from? One story has it that two bartenders in California were curious how fast a ritual could spread. Astonishingly fast, they discovered.

Products are produced in the factory; brands are produced in our minds.

If you were to close your eyes and walk into a place of worship, the sounds and smells would alert you to where you were: ringing bells, incense, the rumble of a massive organ. Most brands are lacking these sensory stimuli.

Imagine Pepsi without Coke. Impossible, right?