I guess you could say Old Watson knew what he was doing. Did it work? Well, Up until the late 1980’s, Maxwell House coffee was the most purchased brand of coffee in the United States. Of course, if you were going to have a coffee break you had to be drinking Maxwell House coffee. Eventually Watson worked on an advertisement for Maxwell House coffee, and in the commercial he incorporated the idea of a coffee break. After his time as an academic psychologist, Watson worked for an advertising agency that came up with the devious idea of using brain washing techniques created by psychologists to get people to buy their client’s products. This theory captured the interest of many corporate advertising agencies trying to find ways to lure the buying interest of the public. Watson was an American psychologist whose ideas were the basis for behaviorism-the theoretical system famous for its experiment known as “Pavlov’s dog.” Essentially Watson and other behaviorists believed people could be trained to react in predictable ways through repetitive actions. Watson and the American coffee company Maxwell House? Sound weird? Wait until you read the story. Who doesn’t look forward to that morning or afternoon excuse to take a break and grab a cup of coffee? But the question is: who started this wonderful tradition? What if I told you its origins have something to do with a behavioral psychologist named J.B. The coffee break is as much a part of American culture as baseball and apple pie. How a Psychologist and Maxwell House Coffee Created the Coffee Break

Mid morning coffee break menu