@esther I have always been confused why it is never treated like propaganda. If a government puts out a message campaign, that's overreach and trying to control the population. But then it's normalised for private companies to do the same thing, every day, in a much more prolific fashion, and that's totally fine. Makes no sense to me.

@esther very true! That's why something inside my mind actually feels deeply uncomfortable anytime I see any ad, because I *know* it's trying to change sth in my subconscious without my consent and I'm so not down for that.

@esther if I could I would ban all advertising everywhere

@esther And web ads do both simultaneously!

@esther@strangeobject.space like how that one satirical rant starts with:

As everyone knows, wars are fought because of advertisers. They get into our minds and influence our subconscious minds with their messages and make us spend all our money on things we don't need. We become poor because we spend our money on nonsense. Poverty makes people depressed. People whose mental health deteriorates resort to violence. That's how wars start.

@esther This sounds like the plot of Inception really.

@esther this is a basic truth that we need to step away from to cast doubt on our common sense worshipping of the #deathcult

Ad blocking is revolutionary first step, what the second step is I talk a lot about here http://hamishcampbell.com what do you think a good second step is?

@esther Yes, yes, yes! Adverts drive me nuts. I don't watch much TV, but I have to mute it as soon as there are any adverts.

Who buys anything based on information from the only real 100% biased source? And modern adverts aren't even trying to sell you the product, but the idea that you need the product. It's madness and I hate it.

@esther Targeted advertising is a bespoke mind virus.

@esther I view all advertising as a form of dangerous enemy propaganda that should be avoided, confronted, & destroyed whenever appropriate/possible.

@esther woah, that's a great analogy. All these years defending against code injection and never thought about it.

@esther Advertising shits in your head.

@esther One of the phrases used in advertising and marketing is "demand generation".

That is: The goal is to make people want something they did not previously want.

If you subscribe to the Buddhist philosophy of desire causing suffering, then "demand generation" is quite directly "induction of suffering".

@esther This is why I call advertising "private sector psyops".

@esther My daughter at around…6? Said while watching an ad on TV

“I know they’re trying to trick me…but I don’t care, I still want one.”

I always joke we bought a ReplayTV (early DVR that auto-skipped commercials) like a week later. 😂

@esther creating new needs (and fulfilling them) is in the heart of capitalism. Without those new needs we wouldn't have to work more than a couple of hours per day.

Who wants a new streaming service, anyone?

@esther

My favorite outgrowth of this from a mental standpoint is that I often feel deep personal discomfort putting a resume out there, or reminding people that I have art up for them to view. And that I'M the jerk because of this discomfort (per society at large). lol

@esther I think I finally found a use for smart glasses: real time ad filtering in meat space.

@esther Gen X: stop selling to me
Millennials: stop bullshitting me
Gen Z: WTH this isn’t close to reality

I feel this is getting worse and worse with every generation. Or I’m getting older and more tired of it.

@esther I think it’s under chaos magic theory where ads are viewed as sigils that cast cognito hazards upon those that view. Invoking feelings or thoughts that they were specifically created for without consent of the viewer.

@esther Advertising is theft. It is noxious, toxic pollution.

@esther I try to keep a distinction between advertising and marketing. Advertising when it's like, "we have this stuff," is an attempt to improve your ability to solve your purchasing problems. Marketing attempts to replace your problem-solving heuristics with emotional responses, and is more accurately construed as an attempt cause brain damage. Oh, and prevent you from solving your purchasing problems.

@esther

And now I want to know what boundary- and consent-respecting advertising would look like?

Opt-in, certainly. Transparent with full disclosure. No "hidden terms."

....

@esther
After the first sentence I expected this would be about how ad companies on the internet literally inject adversarial code that gets executed on your computer, but it turned out even more interesting! Thanks!

@esther Serious question: does anyone actually *see* ads? Even when you can't use adblock, does anyone actually *see* them? I know I'm aware of their presence, and of course a little irritated by them, but as I scroll to the next actual paragraph of text, I never once actually *look* at the ads or have any clue what they were for. At most I might be aware of the predominant colorscheme. We're acclimated and filter them out because we are conscious intelligent organisms and ads are just noise.

@esther and it does that injection by trying to convince you that you are not good enough without it.
Literally gas lighting.

@esther yeah, why do they get to use my computing resources to show me shit that i have no interest in seeing, that in turn messes with my brain, which I also never asked for.

@esther I recommend the book The Attention Merchants by Tim Wu (2016), am now reading it. Very insightful, also the history with WWI propaganda, the technology. https://bookwyrm.social/book/114466/s/the-attention-merchants

@esther
It comes as no surprise then that advertising has at one time or another been studied and experimented with along with mind control and hypnosis.
I hate advertising but as I have learnt, some people think their right to advertise > my right to existence or to complain about it.

@esther yeah, the whole idea of "body odor" was an invention of deoderant companies in the 1970s -- I guess the same companies now trying to make me think my whole body stinks? who can keep up.

@esther These days they are also keen on triggering the re-orienting response on TV by using bright flashes of light or fast camera panning. The idea is the people are more suggestible during these moments.

My defense is I use the TV's P-in-P feature which shrinks the picture down to thumbnail size, in addition to muting audio. It is such a relief.

@esther
Literally black magic.