In psychology and business there is a famous proverb about monetizing human desires. It says, you’ll never go broke if you sell:

→ Men: lust, vision or status.
→ Women: beauty, youth or approval.
→ Parents: peace or safety for their kids.
→ The Wealthy: time, convenience or protection.
→ The Broke: hope or the promise of a shortcut.
→ The Elderly: health and vitality.

The underlying philosophy is that every massive, billion-dollar industry is built on capitalizing on human weakness or desire, rather than just practical utility.

It’s a different means of persuasion where we shift focus from a product’s basic features to the personal benefits it provides.

Instead of selling memory foam, we sell pain-free mornings.
Instead of selling a gym membership, we sell the mirror six months from now.
You get the picture.

They leave very little room for interpretation. It’s this spark of imagination from the use of this product or service that effortlessly sells it.

Most conversations about this type of excitement remain surprisingly surface-level. They focus on the products, branding, trends, exclusivity, or wealth signaling; the visible outputs of luxury culture.

But beneath all of it lies something far more powerful and far more commercially significant: the desire itself.

At its highest level, when we commercialize, it is not simply creating the act of selling. It is the engineering, amplification, and monetization of the human desire. And it’s deeply connected to psychology.

In the 1990s, human desire in advertising was far more direct. Brands like Calvin Klein and Dolce & Gabbana staged aspiration openly. Desire was visual, immediate, and unambiguous.

Bodies were central.
Emotion was heightened.
Sexuality, intimacy, and identity were presented in their most explicit form: large-scale billboards, stark imagery, monochrome skin, and provocative casting that blurred the line between fashion, art, and seduction.

There was a confidence in that era’s communication style. It was a belief that desire could be shown rather than inferred. The message was simple: this is what you want, and here it is, unfiltered.

Today, desire is less direct and more atmospheric. Less declarative and more suggestive. Less about showing everything, and more about creating enough space for the imagination to complete the story.

We must now operate like editors rather than broadcasters to consistently remove, reduce, and refine our messaging, story, features, etc.

Modern desire works through imagination rather than exposure.
The deeper commercial truth is that desire is not scalable in a generic way.

It is:

This is why powerful luxury brands, spaces, and experiences are not broadly appealing. They are precisely resonant to the right person.

Moreover, research on personalization shows that the feelings of “made for me,” are driving desire and buying power.

Research cited by Studio Butch found that:

As you’re seeking to stay ahead of the curve, the best way to think about it is this:
Desire is built through exclusion, sustained by ambiguity, and activated by emotional specificity.

Anything less is a waste of human attention and emotional potential (in my opinion).

(Next Week: Five-Course Tasting Deep Dive)

This image is a piece of surrealist architecture designed by Oslo-based designer and architect Per Carlsen. Carlsen's work combines architectural structures with beautiful natural environments to create paradoxical, surreal worlds. His designs often feature undulating concrete buildings, viewing platforms, and ethereal monuments. The structures aim to expand the possibilities of architecture, exploring the relationship between human progress and nature. This place does not exist in real life.

Why I’m obsessed with this imaginative art piece:
▪ Carlsen designs these "unbuilt projects" as speculative landscapes. They function as conceptual fine art rather than blueprints for physical buildings.
▪ While it looks like a futuristic or artificially generated environment, the artist creates these compositions by hand using traditional 3D modeling tools without the use of artificial intelligence

We create the frame, like a close-up of caviar, rich in detail yet incomplete without interpretation.

Desire is the same: never fully made, only structured to be completed in perception.

P.S. Like my style (and taste)? Work with me.