4 ms·

Note that they also don't just sell "ads", they sell psychological manipulation. Yes, product ad targeting is one type of manipulation but where the real danger

• bonoboTP 6y ago
  Where does ideology stop? In some sense all the ads blend into one meta-ad, an implicit one, that teaches us what to value in life. I mean something of the same nature which used to be the "picket fence suburb house, 2 kids and a dog", but is something else today. Slavoj Zizek (controversial I know) has good observations about this, that ideology is precisely the whole framing, which is invisible from the inside. You don't notice it as something "sold to you", it's deeper than that, it's something that informs what you should strive for. Ideas like "if only you could afford XYZ, things would become so much more $positive_adjective". But not explicitly. Through implication, stories, association. That you need to work more, build a career, buy better things, or become free, express your inner authentic self through self-expression using this and that brand, this and that political slogan etc. I anticipate that this is already too much of a cliche for some people, while for others it's just a strange way to look at things...