Creepy Marketing? Maybe.

From Nielsen Wire, a brief on how neuromarketing research was used to promote sales for New Scientist magazine's cover. Briefly, the testing of covers to see where the eye went and what the deep recesses of the brain were lighting up through EEG scans picked the cover that went on to result in a double-digit spike in sales for the month.

On face value, determining what works via brain scan sounds a little creepy. Still, you get past attempts not so much to deceive as to give the answers perhaps a questioner wants to hear with the scanning. Lie To Me meets Scanners.

I've heard a good deal of skepticism on neuromarketing, and a lot of it based in a Luddite reaction.

Tell me something: what's creepier -- a volunteer hooked up to a bunch of electrodes knowingly studied or another "volunteer" who clicked "I Agree" to a EULA that allows complex algorithms to sift through all your searches, personal data and other trending data to deliver you ads that "fit" your predicted preferences.

At least the first volunteer knows it's happening.