4 ms·

> Ads are inherently psychologically abusive, targeting your insecurities and exploiting sex and basic instinct to move product. This is a pretty wild claim. M

> Ads are inherently psychologically abusive, targeting your insecurities and exploiting sex and basic instinct to move product. This is a pretty wild claim. Most ads I see are relatively tame (like the “Build on AWS” and iPhone X ads I see around San Francisco), and I don’t see them “exploiting sex or basic instinct.”

kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
Ads targeted at women almost universally target their vulnerabilities in subtle ways, many of which are culturally cultivated and manipulated by marketers. Consider how the food industry plays on weight anxiety: "light", "guilt free" (why should anyone feel guilt over eating?), "sinful", "temptation", "fear X". All the foods are "out to kill you" or at least make you "fat and undesirable". It's all manufactured, alarmist fear-mongering designed to sell stuff. It works. Very few people see through this game. This then extends to other industries. Chocolate is heavily marketed to women as a "decadent" "indulgence" for those times you want to let loose the strictures of life. So the diamond industry cooks up a way to sell crap brown diamonds specifically to women as a way to treat themselves with "chocolate" ice. No man required so you can express your feminism in full force. Go girl power! This changes the very language we use. Decadent no longer has its original meaning of severe depravity any more because advertisers co-opted it in the mid-70's to apply whenever you eat a candy bar. Now it's just a bon mot women's pulp lit. sprinkles in every few paragraphs regardless of the topic. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=decadent+chocolate&case_insensitive=on&year_start=1940&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t4%3B%2Cdecadent%20chocolate%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bdecadent%20chocolate%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BDecadent%20Chocolate%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=decadent+choco...
- baddox 9y ago
  I don’t necessarily deny your broad claims, I just wonder where to draw the line. For example, given that obesity is a prevalent and serious health risk, not to mention that being more fit can make you feel better and be more attractive, is it inherently bad to advertise healthy food or other products that are intended to make you healthier?
- true_religion 9y ago
  Firstly, none of those examples are subtle. I'm not sure when the actual words fear, temptation, sin and guilt were redefined to be 'subtle' manipulation, and these words are literally used in the advertisements. Secondly, the indulgence food industry doesn't care about cultural inclinations in the way you argue. They didn't set up a culture of considering fatty or carb rich food bad for one's health, or sinful. They'd be happy if everyone considered eating cake to be a wonderful thing, that rich, famous, inspirational people do in great quantities. > Decadent no longer has its original meaning of severe depravity any more because advertisers co-opted it in the mid-70's to apply whenever you eat a candy bar. Sin based language has been fading in intensity for generations. We have a show on the Disney channel celebrating "evil" during Christmas. However the association of candy bars and decadence didn't come from advertisers originally. Gluttony is a deadly sin, and for puritan American settlers indulging in such pleasures of the flesh outside of special holy days would have been seen as downright decadent.
  - musage 9y ago
    > Firstly, none of those examples are subtle. Who mentioned subtle? That's not even moving a goalpost, that's conjuring one out of thin air. > However the association of candy bars and decadence didn't come from advertisers originally. Again: so? The point is they use it. The point of many ads being "inherently psychologically abusive" stands, and I count the space wasted on sophistry to try and wriggle out of that as further damage caused by it.
    - mort96 9y ago
      > Ads targeted at women almost universally target their vulnerabilities in subtle ways That's who mentioned subtle.

kevin_thibedeau 9y ago

Ads targeted at women almost universally target their vulnerabilities in subtle ways, many of which are culturally cultivated and manipulated by marketers. Consider how the food industry plays on weight anxiety: "light", "guilt free" (why should anyone feel guilt over eating?), "sinful", "temptation", "fear X". All the foods are "out to kill you" or at least make you "fat and undesirable". It's all manufactured, alarmist fear-mongering designed to sell stuff. It works. Very few people see through this game. This then extends to other industries. Chocolate is heavily marketed to women as a "decadent" "indulgence" for those times you want to let loose the strictures of life. So the diamond industry cooks up a way to sell crap brown diamonds specifically to women as a way to treat themselves with "chocolate" ice. No man required so you can express your feminism in full force. Go girl power! This changes the very language we use. Decadent no longer has its original meaning of severe depravity any more because advertisers co-opted it in the mid-70's to apply whenever you eat a candy bar. Now it's just a bon mot women's pulp lit. sprinkles in every few paragraphs regardless of the topic. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=decadent+chocolate&case_insensitive=on&year_start=1940&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t4%3B%2Cdecadent%20chocolate%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bdecadent%20chocolate%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BDecadent%20Chocolate%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=decadent+choco...

baddox 9y ago
I don’t necessarily deny your broad claims, I just wonder where to draw the line. For example, given that obesity is a prevalent and serious health risk, not to mention that being more fit can make you feel better and be more attractive, is it inherently bad to advertise healthy food or other products that are intended to make you healthier?
true_religion 9y ago
Firstly, none of those examples are subtle. I'm not sure when the actual words fear, temptation, sin and guilt were redefined to be 'subtle' manipulation, and these words are literally used in the advertisements. Secondly, the indulgence food industry doesn't care about cultural inclinations in the way you argue. They didn't set up a culture of considering fatty or carb rich food bad for one's health, or sinful. They'd be happy if everyone considered eating cake to be a wonderful thing, that rich, famous, inspirational people do in great quantities. > Decadent no longer has its original meaning of severe depravity any more because advertisers co-opted it in the mid-70's to apply whenever you eat a candy bar. Sin based language has been fading in intensity for generations. We have a show on the Disney channel celebrating "evil" during Christmas. However the association of candy bars and decadence didn't come from advertisers originally. Gluttony is a deadly sin, and for puritan American settlers indulging in such pleasures of the flesh outside of special holy days would have been seen as downright decadent.
- musage 9y ago
  > Firstly, none of those examples are subtle. Who mentioned subtle? That's not even moving a goalpost, that's conjuring one out of thin air. > However the association of candy bars and decadence didn't come from advertisers originally. Again: so? The point is they use it. The point of many ads being "inherently psychologically abusive" stands, and I count the space wasted on sophistry to try and wriggle out of that as further damage caused by it.
  - mort96 9y ago
    > Ads targeted at women almost universally target their vulnerabilities in subtle ways That's who mentioned subtle.