Neuromarketing: The New Phrenology?

I've heard a lot lately about neuromarketing - the use or EEG and MRI as methods of measuring reactions in the mind of a subject to a brand or an advertising method as a way of getting a more accurate indication of "liking" than by using focus groups or surveys. There is a lot of hype and some grandiose-sounding claims, so I decided to look into some of the sources to see if there's anything to it.

Specifically, I looked to Antonio Damasio, a scientist who is named by some of the cheerleaders of neuromarketing - his book, Descartes Error (no reading notes - a bit more academic than the typical fare) describes some of the recent advances in "brain science" and takes a lot more sober tone. Damasio explicitly states that recent advances in science don't prove anything at all, but present some interesting phenomena that merit further consideration and research. That's all.

I have the strong sense that this is one of the (distressingly many) instances where a research scientist's remark that "I noticed something interesting" is spun up to "science has incontrovertibly proven" by others who see a way to use it as a gimmick to make a quick buck - to make a news story more dramatic or to be among the first to offer consulting services.

I'll need to do a bit more reading before I can settle on one extreme or the other - but for now, it seems reasonable to approach the topic of neuromarketing with a healthy dose of skepticism, given the dramatic difference in the way that the notion is described by those who seem (overly) enthusiastic, and the reluctant tone of the science on which it is allegedly based.