If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?

Well, in the world of marketing and advertisement, we all can’t help but be the sheep that follows the rest of the herd around. If our fellow sheep like something, then we will like it too!

That ‘herd mentality,’ where people are influenced by their fellow peers to follow a certain trend, adopt a behavior, or purchase an item, is what drives companies to market their product or services to the public: If a majority of people like this, then the rest will like it too. They make sure to let it be blatantly clear to us too.

Think about all those same one-liners you hear or see in advertisements:

• New York’s finest pizza
• 4 out 5 moms choose this diaper
• In a blind test, 95% of testers chose soda A over soda B

It is as if those statistics validates those products presented to us, leaving us with the thought that the ones that most people choose surely are the best quality.

For some companies that have a lot more moxie, they actually have people compare their product with its leading competitor side by side and then proudly announce that they will absolutely choose the companies’ one. Recall those baby diaper commercials where blue liquid is pour into each one and one soaks it up like a sponge where as the other one flattens like a pancake.

Herd mentality isn’t just for marketing products, but is applicable for people as well!

In 2012, Brett Cohen, a Youtube personality, pulled off one of the biggest pranks on New York City where he pretended to be a big shot celebrity, wandering down the streets sandwiched between two bodyguards, personal assistants, camera crew, and fake papparazi. His theory was that, even if people didn’t know who this celebrity was, they will get just as excited at the fact that he is a celebrity and grab a photo with him.

That theory certainly had proven right. As the commotion got bigger and bigger, more people were shoving their way to the middle to get close to Brett. There were even groups of screaming tween girls much like the Bieber-mania.

The funniest part was when cameras would ask each person how do they like their “celebrity” and what was their favorite movie that he was in. One guy says “Oh yeah, wasn’t he in that one, uh, Spiderman movie?”

Oh yes, when it comes to advertisements and you see for good reason why this product is really the best there is, then feel free to enjoy! Just be sure to double check that that celebrity walking down the street really is celebrity before running and screaming for a picture.