14 votes

Topic deleted by author

7 comments

  1. [7]
    JXM
    Link
    I’m definitely not a fan of brands trying to be “cool” on social media. Over the past few years I’ve been aware of myself become more and more cynical when it comes to advertising. My wife and I...

    I’m definitely not a fan of brands trying to be “cool” on social media. Over the past few years I’ve been aware of myself become more and more cynical when it comes to advertising.

    My wife and I had a conversation about it a few weeks ago and I realized just how much less tolerant I am of ads since we stopped having cable TV.

    For some humorous replies to stuff like this, I recommend the Brands Saying Bae Twitter account.

    13 votes
    1. [4]
      Omnicrola
      Link Parent
      The same happened to me around 2009 or so. For various reasons I just stopped watching broadcast TV for about a year without really intending too. Played games, watched movies, but not TV. Then...

      The same happened to me around 2009 or so. For various reasons I just stopped watching broadcast TV for about a year without really intending too. Played games, watched movies, but not TV. Then was visiting a friend and watched some, and it was just so ..... icky?

      It felt like being forced to walk through a gauntlet of bazaar hawkers approaching me one by one offering me things I had absolutely no need or want of, but was forced to walk through if I wanted to get to my destination. From that point forward I actively avoided broadcast/cable TV. I stick to Netflix and .... alternative sources that have the commercials cut out.

      Don't even get me started on pharmaceutical ads.

      9 votes
      1. [3]
        Deimos
        Link Parent
        There was a comment I read a while back where someone was talking about how their child had grown up only ever watching shows on Netflix, so they didn't even understand what commercials were. They...

        There was a comment I read a while back where someone was talking about how their child had grown up only ever watching shows on Netflix, so they didn't even understand what commercials were. They were over at someone else's house and the kid was confused about why the cartoon kept getting interrupted by these little segments of information about random products.

        It's interesting to think about. Commercials really don't make much sense, we're just so accustomed to them that it seems normal.

        11 votes
        1. [2]
          Omnicrola
          Link Parent
          It really is kind of bizzare to think about in an objective context. In every society we have established ways of patronizing people/businesses for their goods and services: money. Only with the...

          It really is kind of bizzare to think about in an objective context. In every society we have established ways of patronizing people/businesses for their goods and services: money. Only with the advent of TV did the concept of exchanging a segment of our attention for a completely unrelated thing get introduced.

          It's gotten to the point where frequently, if I first hear about a product/service via an ad (TV or otherwise) I will actively avoid purchasing it. I don't expect this to make a significant difference in the grand scheme of things, but it feels nice. And for the most part it's not hard. Great businesses don't really have to try hard with advertising to succeed aside from letting you know they exist. The harder the sales pitch, the more suspicious I get that what's being sold is smoke blown up my ass.

          4 votes
          1. Deimos
            Link Parent
            If you haven't already read it, The Attention Merchants is a great book about the history and evolution of advertising and how it got so integrated into entertainment.

            If you haven't already read it, The Attention Merchants is a great book about the history and evolution of advertising and how it got so integrated into entertainment.

            3 votes
    2. [2]
      Comment deleted by author
      Link Parent
      1. unknown user
        Link Parent
        I've been thinking about this idea – that a major entity necessarily consists of minor entities, and whether that has an effect on it. The way I see it, in a long- and/or wide-enough structure,...

        the title of the OP article (and even that twitter account) words things as though brands as some homogenous entity, but... it's made up of people, right?

        I've been thinking about this idea – that a major entity necessarily consists of minor entities, and whether that has an effect on it. The way I see it, in a long- and/or wide-enough structure, the small pieces homogenize to an extent as they are affected by their surrounding pieces¹.

        ¹ I recognize that calling people working in corporation "pieces" may come off as dehumanizing, which is not the intent. Think of it as I do: from the perspective of atomistic system design. To this end, observing corporate employees is no different from observing atoms that make up a physical object; structurally – which is what's important here – they're similar-enough.

        Think of nations: made up of multiple wide, diverse groups of individuals, each with their own desires and fears – and yet, you're able to determine one or a few of the general vectors of development within the nation. In a human group, those who don't follow suit are pressured to conform, even if the target values are otherwise recognized as undesirable. Nations are human group to the power of N.

        Does this mean that members of the nation are the same as the nation itself? that you can easily describe every individual of a given nation by the long-observed natural qualities the nation as a whole (supposedly) presents? Of course not – but there is a common vector that many people follow, which is what makes it a nation, rather than a conglomeration of regional associations.

        The PR people agree to act as the corporation's mouthpiece, to promote its goals and values – otherwise, they don't have a job. They act as the focal point of what the company's supposed to represent. I'm willing to bet that, as skilled individuals, they don't get to have a say in the direction the company is taking: they get a goal and are, hopefully, given enough space to utilize their talents on the way to it.

        3 votes
    3. determinism
      Link Parent
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6bLq4466LM Someone posted this video recently either on Tildes or reddit relatively recently. She gives a pretty good account of the phenomenon of corporate...

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6bLq4466LM

      Someone posted this video recently either on Tildes or reddit relatively recently. She gives a pretty good account of the phenomenon of corporate accounts sort of promoting their personality on social media. I don't use twitter so it was pretty bizarre to hear about nihilistically charged wendy's posts.

      1 vote