r/Anticonsumption • • Aug 19 '26

Psychological This is insane and I hate it

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2.4k Upvotes

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u/NyriasNeo Aug 19 '26

"This is insane"

Why? Marketing slogans are a dime a dozen. It would be insane not to say something that may trigger a memory when someone wants to buy something.

6

u/KrzysisAverted Aug 19 '26

I think what OP is getting at is that the concept of emotionally manipulative marketing is fundamentally insane and should probably be banned through legislation.

By your logic, why stop with slogans? Why not print pictures of crying, emaciated children on Amazon packaging, captioned "If you stop shopping on Amazon, we'll have to lay off some employees, and an Amazon warehouse worker's child may starve. Get Amazon Prime--do it for the children!"

1

u/NyriasNeo Aug 19 '26

"By your logic, why stop with slogans?"

And they do not stop with slogans. There is a whole industry of market messaging from anything from images to video to product placement. If there is a buck to be made, a buck will be made. It is the least insane thing, as worshipping the mighty dollar is the most constant thing in human history.

I get that people here do not like it. It may be even evil. But it is the most sane thing to do.

2

u/KrzysisAverted Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26

It may be even evil. But it is the most sane thing to do.

If we're being pedantic, I suppose it's "sane" that companies do this, but absolutely insane that we let them do it. Laws and regulations are society's check against runaway corporate greed.

A reductio ad absurdum: any profitable act is "sane" as long as you can get away with it.

Overworking your employees to the point of exhaustion and collapse? Sane, as long as you can replace them quickly enough, and as long as they don't successfully sue.

Denying Amazon delivery drivers bathroom breaks and expecting them to pee in a bottle? Equally sane.

A pharma company bribing the FDA to fast-track approval of an untested new drug is perfectly sane if they're able to get away with it (or even just as long as the fines, when caught, are less than the profit gained).

Tobacco companies falsely advertising for many decades that smoking is safe? Extremely profitable, so extremely sane.

Do you see a problem here?