Inception - how does it relate to advertising practice?

I went to watch Inception last Sunday. I must say the movie is very interesting. It is about extracting (secret) information and implanting (manipulated) ideas in people's dreams. After watching the movie, I was a bit horrified, not by the movie, but by what science can do in the future i.e. manipulating people's dreams. My movie buddy told me that some scientists are researching in this area.

I know I may be being melodramatic. I surely do not want some strangers to 'poke' around in my dreams. What if I was having a wet dream? How embarrassing will that be? Similarly, I do not want some strangers to inject ideas in my dreams so that they can manipulate me to behave the way they want me to.

A large part of the movie, Inception, is about how a group of 'professionals' (I was not sure about their backgrounds as the movie does not go in detail in explaining that) 'hijacked' into a young businessman's dream. This group of 'professionals' attempted to manipulate this businessman's behaviour by implanting an idea in his dream and, consequently, his memory. I use the word 'hijack' because this group of  'professionals' did not seek permission to enter into this young businessman's dream. Instead, this businessman was drugged and then 'hooked' to a dream-manipulating machine.

Whilst I was a bit horrified with the possibility of our dreams being manipulated, I was also fascinated by this idea, especially from a marketer's perspective. Will not it be a golden dream for any marketer if he or she can manipulate the dreams of target customers? The notion about 'implanting ideas into people's dreams' is, indeed, parallel to the advertising campaigns of many products such as luxury products (e.g. Louis Vuitton and D&G), vodka (eg Russian Standard) and holiday destinations (e.g. Thomas Cook). These products constantly strive to motivate people to dream about the person they apsire to be (e.g. a successful, handsome business man in the Russian Standard's ad) and the holiday destination they desire to visit (e.g. relaxing, having fun and making love with your lover on an exotic island in the Thomas Cook's ad). By promoting these dreams, marketers hope that consumers will then take necessary actions to fulfil these dreams. Stated bluntly, by promoting these dreams, marketers hope that consumers will buy a Louis Vuitton product, purchase a bottle of Russian Standard or telephone a Thomas Cook branch to book a holiday. After all, that is the main objective of many advertising campaigns. That is, to influence consumers' minds (cognition) and hearts (emotion) so that they will act(behaviour) upon the idea communicated by an advertising campaign . Many advertising campaigns are designed to manipulate consumers' cognition, emotion, behaviour or a combination of these three components.

To give you an example, I will use the Russian Standard vodka ad, which I have seen many times in the cinema. The ad features a fairly young, good looking man asking for a shot of Russian Standard vodka at, what appears to be, a high-end night club. After a sip of the vodka, he started to visualise a series of dreamlike events such as being seduced by a gorgeous, blond-hair female, escaping with this female to a country side and ice-skating in Russia. The ad obviously uses a fantasy appeal and aims to provoke several dreamlike fantasies or desires such as sexual seduction, escapism, thrill and mystery.

What is your thought on manipulating people's dreams?

• From a marketer's perspective?
• From a consumer's perspective?