RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, "neuromarketing" is a form of marketing research that utilizes neuroscience techniques to learn about the mental processes involved in purchasing decisions and consumer preferences, and includes techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and magnetoencephalography (MEG); and

WHEREAS, the use of brain imaging for market research purposes has developed due to the inherent limitations of more traditional market research methods; and

WHEREAS, for example, strong personalities can bias or steer the outcomes of focus groups, survey participants may not always give truthful answers to opinion pollsters, and research subjects may have difficulty articulating the reasons underlying their buying preferences and behaviors; and

WHEREAS, in 2001, BrightHouse, an Atlanta-based advertising and marketing firm, established a dedicated neuromarketing arm, BrightHouse Neurostrategies Group, whose work is built upon general fMRI-based research on consumer preferences and decisionmaking conducted at Emory University in Atlanta; and

WHEREAS, BrightHouse has reportedly conducted a yet-to-be published neuromarketing study and claims to have a Fortune 500 client interested in using neuroimaging as an advertising tool, but has declined to identify its client or describe its work; and

WHEREAS, BrightHouse's neuromarketing experiments have raised concerns with Commercial Alert, a non-profit organization co-founded by Ralph Nader whose mission is "to keep the commercial culture within its proper sphere, and to prevent it from exploiting children and subverting the higher values of family, community, environmental integrity and democracy"; and

WHEREAS, the advertising watchdog requested Emory University to cease the fMRI experiments on the grounds that the experimentation is unethical, inappropriate, and unnecessary, but the university dismissed the objections as misinformed and unfounded; and

WHEREAS, Consumer Alert also requested the federal Office for Human Research Protection to intervene on the grounds that medical research guidelines may have been violated, but the agency declined to investigate; and

WHEREAS, the Federal Trade Commission Act grants the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) broad authority to regulate advertising under its mandate to protect consumers against fraud, deception, and unfair business practices; and

WHEREAS, one of the FTC's areas of focus is advertising and marketing directed to children; and

WHEREAS, currently, there is no federal legislation regulating neuromarketing; and

WHEREAS, Commercial Alert has advocated for a federal law banning the practice, and in July 2004, requested the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation to investigate neuromarketing; and

WHEREAS, the organization's concerns are that:

WHEREAS, the Senate committee was requested to consider prohibiting neuromarketing as an unfair or deceptive act or practice under the Federal Trade Commission Act; and

WHEREAS, to date, Congress has not acted to investigate the practice of neuromarketing and its potential harmful effects; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2005, the House of Representatives concurring, that the United States Congress is requested to investigate the practice of neuromarketing, particularly with respect to the concerns cited above and consider its regulation; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and to the members of Hawaii's delegation to the Congress of the United States.

Report Title:

Neuromarketing; Congressional Investigation