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Because the purpose is to use knowledge about someone, along with a toolbox of weird psychological tricks, to manipulate them into spending their money (time) o

Because the purpose is to use knowledge about someone, along with a toolbox of weird psychological tricks, to manipulate them into spending their money (time) on things they don’t need. It’s as unethical as lying or scamming.

sneak 2y ago
All advertising is an attempt to manipulate someone into spending their money. Either all advertising is unethical (and it isn’t), or targeted advertising is not, methinks. Lying and scamming are fraudulent. Advertising (in the usual case) is absolutely not. There is a bright line difference and equating them is not a useful logical reasoning device.
- BriggyDwiggs42 2y ago
  >all advertising is unethical No, advertising that aims to manipulate you into an unnecessary purchase is unethical. There’s some fuzzy line here where an advertisement like “bob’s hardware: come on down to bob’s for high quality pickaxes” is acceptable and a coca cola ad isn’t. Almost all modern advertising is the latter, and it’s most certainly unethical. I’d happily call it borderline fraudulent; these companies claim through subconscious implication things like “this car will make you happy and everyone will respect you more,” which is a bold faced lie. Basically all modern advertising is unethical; it wouldn’t be the first time something unethical was widespread because it was profitable.
xvector 2y ago
That's fine. I've discovered plenty of cool products through Insta that I wouldn't have found otherwise.
- BriggyDwiggs42 2y ago
  Cool, I’m glad it worked for you. I do think those examples are the exceptions to the norm though, and represent a small portion of the ads shoved into our faces.
chii 2y ago
> spending their money (time) on things they don’t need. but it's not so clear that going to college is not benefitial. Saying it is a scam implies that these colleges are valueless to attend (which i assume is not true as education is usually pretty valuable).

sneak 2y ago

All advertising is an attempt to manipulate someone into spending their money. Either all advertising is unethical (and it isn’t), or targeted advertising is not, methinks. Lying and scamming are fraudulent. Advertising (in the usual case) is absolutely not. There is a bright line difference and equating them is not a useful logical reasoning device.

BriggyDwiggs42 2y ago
>all advertising is unethical No, advertising that aims to manipulate you into an unnecessary purchase is unethical. There’s some fuzzy line here where an advertisement like “bob’s hardware: come on down to bob’s for high quality pickaxes” is acceptable and a coca cola ad isn’t. Almost all modern advertising is the latter, and it’s most certainly unethical. I’d happily call it borderline fraudulent; these companies claim through subconscious implication things like “this car will make you happy and everyone will respect you more,” which is a bold faced lie. Basically all modern advertising is unethical; it wouldn’t be the first time something unethical was widespread because it was profitable.

xvector 2y ago

That's fine. I've discovered plenty of cool products through Insta that I wouldn't have found otherwise.

BriggyDwiggs42 2y ago
Cool, I’m glad it worked for you. I do think those examples are the exceptions to the norm though, and represent a small portion of the ads shoved into our faces.

chii 2y ago

> spending their money (time) on things they don’t need. but it's not so clear that going to college is not benefitial. Saying it is a scam implies that these colleges are valueless to attend (which i assume is not true as education is usually pretty valuable).