For this reason, the atrocity of marketing must be ruthlessly purged from human society at all costs in order to protect our fragile, easily manipulated minds.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk

  • Quimby [any, any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Our efficient markets require advertising because reasons.

    • supafuzz [comrade/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      And advertisements that try to get you to buy a thing you already bought are peak efficiency, which is why the tech companies are so profitable

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      "Kill All Marketers" is how I copped my first twitter ban. No regats.

    • RION [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Advertising as a whole is insidious and corrosive to our minds but this take has always been gross to me. The ad industry is one of the few places creatives exercise at least a smidge of artistic expression while making ends meet. Sure, string up the execs, but telling the 26yo junior art director who just wants a job making something halfway resembling art to off themselves is wack.

      • ElGosso [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        How is this argument meaningfully different than defending people who work at Boeing because it's the only place that hires aerospace engineers

        • RION [she/her]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Are you telling me the guy doing the copy for chewing gum magazine ads is the moral equivalent of people involved in the design and manufacture of weapons of war

          • ElGosso [he/him]
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            Are you telling me that the guy who designs the cognitohazards that are inflicted on our society is free from sin because all he wants to do is doodle a little bit

            • RION [she/her]
              ·
              2 years ago

              I'm saying that I don't think it's nearly as bad as designing missiles and that telling him to kill himself is a little much. If everyone whose job has negative effects on society under capitalism deserves death I don't know how many people you're going to have left once its all said and done

      • D61 [any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Stand up comedy is another place creatives exercise a bit of expression.

        • RION [she/her]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I suppose, but I don't think a whole lot of people can make a living off it

          • D61 [any]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Bill Hicks was doing okay.

            • RION [she/her]
              ·
              2 years ago

              Yeah, a few people can, but there is not nearly as much demand for standup comedians as for ad people. It's like professional chess players, only a certain tier of people can get enough attention to do it for a living

  • AssortedBiscuits [they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    When Assata Shakur escaped to Cuba, one of the things she noticed was how things like rice would just be in nondescript bags with the word "rice" written on them.

    • 4zi [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      wtf? they just eat rice? they dont eat "Rice® by Rice™: Best Rice Made 365 Everyday™ Long Whole Grain Jasmine™"?????????????????????

      • UlyssesT
        ·
        edit-2
        21 days ago

        deleted by creator

        • dead [he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          Yeah it's a real thing. It's an addon that skips past sponsor sections in youtube videos. It also can be set to skip the skit sections of music videos.

          https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/sponsorblock/
          https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sponsorblock-for-youtube/mnjggcdmjocbbbhaepdhchncahnbgone
          https://github.com/ajayyy/SponsorBlock/

          This is what it looks like in action. I pulled up a video. The green segments on the tracker bar are sponsored segments that will be skipped.

          https://hexbear.net/pictrs/image/Wk9OxiSxbH.png

  • UlyssesT
    ·
    edit-2
    21 days ago

    deleted by creator

    • SaniFlush [any, any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Yet we ended up on Hexbear of all places. There must have been a hole there in the wall when we came in…

      • UlyssesT
        ·
        edit-2
        21 days ago

        deleted by creator

          • UlyssesT
            ·
            edit-2
            21 days ago

            deleted by creator

            • SaniFlush [any, any]
              ·
              2 years ago

              How does one even maneuver in this motherfucker of a century without being exposed to stuff which will change our minds for the worse? How exactly are there any leftists remaining?

              • UlyssesT
                ·
                edit-2
                21 days ago

                deleted by creator

                • SaniFlush [any, any]
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  I suppose all we can really do is leave other people a path to follow us and see if they have the nuts to try it.

                  • UlyssesT
                    ·
                    edit-2
                    21 days ago

                    deleted by creator

          • D61 [any]
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            I think of it more like realizing that you're floating along in a stream being carried along with the current. Once you realize it, you can try to control the direction you're being pushed somewhat.

  • LiberalSocialist [any,they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Prevention is better than cure.

    Use uBlock Origin, the best adblocker that money can't buy.

    Once again, that is uBlock Origin, the best adblocker that money can't buy.

    Terms and Conditions apply. uBlock Origin does not guarantee to block all ads. It is not a "sponsor blocker". It cannot block paid posts. Some sites may break, or refuse to display content while uBlock Origin is active. uBlock Origin does not bear responsibility for these issues.

    • cosecantphi [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      I've been using ublock for so long now that I genuinely forget about internet advertising every once in a while. But every time I'm reminded of how bad the internet ad problem actually is I feel so shocked and disgusted at the scale.

      Also, if only there was a way to block second hand ads from entering my brain when I'm around someone who watches tv. Holy fuck, how do people accept that shit? The ads are nearly as long as the programming these days, it makes me want to throw their television of a cliff.

    • drhead [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Know what's better than prevention?

      Total warfare.

      https://adnauseam.io/

      Why block ads when you can hide them while clicking them in the background, wasting the ad buyer's money while also sabotaging the advertiser's data?

  • TheOwlReturns [comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I have been saying this to many people in my life lately. Human beings have very impressionable minds, the likelihood that advertising, especially in commercial spaces, affects your conscious decisions in a serious capacity is very high. In a way, it is an aggressive violation of your agency to be assailed by modern advertising, seeing as how it can be so effective in getting you to think certain thoughts, establish your perspective for you, etc.

  • tagen
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    deleted by creator

    • UlyssesT
      ·
      edit-2
      21 days ago

      deleted by creator

  • HoChiMaxh [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Hearing an ad for a local private school in the middle of the free episodes of Blowback was one of the most bewildering and depressing experiences I had last week

    The normalization of the ownership class weaponizing billions of dollars of psychology research to put hooks in your ape brain just gets me so :doomjak: like this should be considered a high crime.

  • ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    After we seize the state, I will kill two birds with one stone by establishing a Committee for the Repurposing of Excess Pyrotechnics and Explosives. This arm of the Party, also known as CREPE, will take expired, surplus and defective munitions and lob them at billboards using various environmentally friendly catapults and ballistae.

    • UlyssesT
      ·
      edit-2
      21 days ago

      deleted by creator

  • robot_dog_with_gun [they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    commercial advertising is a tremendous waste of humanity. all that effort trying to get you to go to burger place one instead of burger place two, or drink one specific kind of shitty drink.

    i like soda. I haven't seen an ad for it (not counting packaging on the shelf or a logo on a menu) in literal years. I still buy soda, and so would 99% of soda drinkers.

    • TrudeauCastroson [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I'm a soda drinker too, big fan of the hard to find foreign ones, I love picking up random bottles of whatever in Asian markets and niche foreign groceries.

      You (not you, but the general soda drinker) might not buy as much Coke products if you didn't get advertised to as heavily. I still don't understand people who have that big of a preference of coke or pepsi, I buy whatever's on sale.

      Coke had such dominance over the soda market they stopped measuring market share against soda, and instead against all liquids consumed (including tap water).

      This is what infinite growth looks like, instead of just a syrupy sweet little treat, you get shoved more and more advertising because they can't be happy with you having under 250ml a day and they need to sell unhealthy amounts of sugar water. Fast food places sell you a bunch with a combo by default because it's a high-profit item.

      America would be less obese with less advertising and mandatory glass bottles with deposit to reduce the ocean plastic effects.

  • solaranus
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    deleted by creator

  • sunshine [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    couldn't agree more. also i must recommend this excellent and highly relevant article on the exact same subject by Jerry Mander!