BEUC – together with 25 members from 21 countries – filed a complaint today with the European Commission and European consumer protection authorities against SHEIN for its use of deceptive techniques (‘dark patterns’). These push consumers into purchasing more than originally intended and fuel the environmental and societal problems caused by the fast fashion industry.
No you’re not. Advertising, propaganda, and overconsumption impacts everyone.
The “you are not immune to propaganda” meme may also be propaganda depending on who and when it’s being used.
It is definitely propaganda against propaganda, everything is propaganda.
There’s “good” propaganda and “bad” propaganda, and whether you think any propaganda is “good” or "bad’ is propaganda in itself just by sharing such an opinion.
It can also be propaganda against something that obviously true. It can be used to gaslight people into not believing their own eyes. Like being told that Trump isn’t leading to a more hateful country and it’s only twitter memes that make him look bad.
Absolutely, and being repeatedly reminded to get your COVID or measles shots is “positive” propaganda. Herd immunity is objectively a good thing, but any sort of PSA is propaganda. (please get your shots)
It’s like the word “consequence”, people always think consequences are always bad, when you could say “I got rich as a consequence of winning the lottery”, or, re-worded, “I won the lottery, and consequently, I became rich”.
Bref, if you are not immune to positive propaganda, you are also not immune to negative propaganda.
I would be very happy if advertisement all looked like this.
Honestly this would most likely work very well as advertising, and generate a lot of free publicity around the unconventionality of it all.
A marketer’s pride would never let them tell the truth.
Yet some people are able to not buy shit just because they see it on a site, so maybe not everyone is like you say
You don’t have to have a total lack of self control to be prone to overconsumption. That’s a caricature you have in your mind that’s main function is to make you feel better about your own habits which keeps many from examining their habits in any detail.
I also run a lot of ad blockers and tracking blockers as well as educate myself on how advertisers use people’s insecurities against them. The “How TV Ruined Your Life” series is a pretty comprehensive. Coercion by Douglas Rushkoff is also great for immunizing yourself.
edit: Updated with links. The core of Coercion is still relevant, but it’s tech/internet perspective was from the early 2000s.