The history of civilization is littered with horrifying social and cultural practices that, at the time, seemed perfectly normal. Today, we are mortified by the idea of slavery. We cringe at the way women have been treated. We are appalled by the past treatment of religious and ethnic minorities. Past child labor practices seem incomprehensible. And yet, in the context of those times, these abhorrent customs and practices were not just acceptable, they were established cultural norms. Sometimes, it is only in retrospect that we understand the harm of social traditions and policies. Today we may be in the middle of such an unacknowledged and unrecognized pathology. The three-headed monster of ad tech, tracking, and surveillance marketing seem perfectly normal to us. Most people don't give them a second thought as they live so much of their lives online. But these currently acceptable practices have the potential to lead us into very dangerous waters. We know the dangers of totalitar...
A few weeks ago, the executive committee here at The Ad Contrarian Global Center for Horseshit Detection coined a term - virtue hustling . We defined it as the practice by marketers of attempting to convince us barbarians of how wise and virtuous they are. You see, these corporations are full of love for all of global humanity and treat us all with respect and reverence. Especially in their advertising. Especially if you're young and beautiful. Pepsi, who you can always count on to jump with both feet into whatever the idiotic marketing or cultural obsession of the week is, has taken this unpleasant new gimmick to its logical absurdity. If you haven't seen this thing yet, you're in for a treat. It is, perhaps, the worst piece of inauthentic crap I've seen in a long time. Try not to barf. Our story so far... ...a zillionaire supermodel, responding to an entreaty by an Asian musician, fosters world peace and general elation among cheerful and beautiful young protestors o...
Comments
Post a Comment