We're all sheep. It's best just to embrace it. Selling to the public at large is one of the easiest things to do as a corporation. Tie the bow just so, add a tune that one can never escape, color coordinate so the mind subtly picks it up... all genius ways to brainwash and utilize media and life at large. Corporations main source of survival is propaganda, that's why so many business people go into politics. It's all about control.
Redditor u/dddarkmod wanted everyone to expose corporations for their tomfoolery by asking....
What is something that's considered normal today but is actually a successful propaganda made by corporations?
AM/PM? Who Cares?
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Breakfast foods are only for breakfast and that's all you're supposed to eat in the morning. I had clam chowder for breakfast my first day living alone at 17. Forget the system.
WARNING!!!
Ads for pharmaceuticals on TV.
"Warning, this product may cause bleeding, swelling, hair loss, thoughts of suicide depression, cancer, anal leakage, and death"
Meanwhile it shows a bunch of happy people playing frisbee in the park with grandma.
Moisturize....
Expensive skincare. That $300 moisturizing cream doesn't necessarily have better ingredients than a $10 cream.
I personally like the ordinary brand for pushing back on this. All of their products are less than 10 dollars and the only name is just their active ingredients.
My $$$ is Free....
Service charges and ATM fees at banks.
As someone who works at a bank I can tell you the bank does not get charged from the other bank when one of their customers uses another machine. It's literally 100% profit. And a crop ton of it.
Don't Give Up.
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Getting a new car at 70,000 miles. That's crap. If you take care of them they can easily last over 100. My family had a Mitsubishi Endeavor that we finally got rid of at 275, and it ran fine.
Slimed...
Olestra chips.
They had indigestible oil substitute. Essentially mineral oil engineered to taste and have the same sort of mouthfeel and greasiness of vegetable oil.
When you eat something indigestible, it comes out the other end pretty much the same as it went in. So you end up crappy slimy lubricant.
Taboo....
The fact that sharing your salary with your colleagues in the same position as you is taboo.
Some companies I've worked for have gone so far as to put it in their handbook as a rule. It's just them trying to cheap out as much as possible. Because when I bring up the fact that the new hire makes more than I do after gaining seniority, suddenly they want to be mad at me.
Another Cycle.
Planned obsolescence in technology.
You mean how most technology literally quits working every few years? Cause I'm getting sick of being literally forced to buy a new phone every 2-3 years because the old one wont turn on anymore.
Basic B....
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"Premium economy" seating in airplanes. It's what regular economy seating should be.
"The Way We Eat Now"
The standard American diet.
I'd love to recommend the book "The Way We Eat Now" by Bee Wilson. It really opened my eyes about how the "choices" we make as food consumers aren't really choices when they're dictated by the food industry. I mean, we consume what is made available to us at the grocery store, and our desires are often shaped to what is marketed to us not just through advertisements and food network shows, but also influencers in social media. She even touches upon Soylent.
Not only that but she discusses the way we eat, the culture of how we eat, not the food/nutrition, but like, sitting down to meals etc, that's changed a lot too.
We may think that eating a grape today is the same as it was in Greek and Roman times, but even our grapes and the simple act of eating a grape has changed in modern times. Fascinating book.
KFC Holiday....
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People eating KFC during Christmas time in Japan because of KFC's marketing campaign that promoted their products as a traditional Western Christmas treat.
Weeded.
Clovers being weeds. I read a while back that most weed killers can't differentiate between clovers and other weeds they just kill all of them so companies began emphasizing clovers as a weed so they could still sell their chemicals
I learned this fact on reddit tho so take it with a grain of salt.
You may have learned it on Reddit, but it's true. Clover and other common, lawn-healthy broadleaf plants were demonized by agri-chemical companies so that they could sell herbicide chemicals. Here is a wonderful, readable source that will make you and your green space more healthy.
Clover is great for your lawn because it fixes nitrogen. Farmers rotate nitrogen-fixing plants into their fields because grains (like grass) gradually deplete nitrogen. Nobody would need to fertilize their lawn if they just left the clover there.
Fun fact (not actually fun) is the herbicides were designed to kill German potato crops and Japanese rice crops in World War II. They were never used that way in the end, but to this day we are spraying our lawns with chemicals originally designed as weapons to threaten civilian food security. WWII was screwed up.
Ingredients.
Those who sell top cash Ibuprofen or Paracetamol. Normal cheap/store brand stuff works just as well. Just very good marketing.
The vast majority of drugs have store brand varieties. People just need to learn to look at the active ingredients.
Talk it Up....
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The idea that workers discussing their salaries is impolite.
I just got in trouble for that at work.
I sent my boss a copy of the law showing that discussing pay is protected.
She was not happy.
Hard Brush....
Using enough toothpaste to cover the entire head of the toothbrush in commercials. Total marketing ploy.
When i covered the whole brush the foam would spill out of my mouth and it was gross. A pea sized amount is a lot more manageable and gets the job done.
Rule of thumb....
The price of wedding rings. Traditionally, it could be any ring and it'd be fine as long as it fit around your ring-finger.
The idea that the price should be:
Rule of thumb: Spend 2 months of your income on an engagement ring.
Is total bull and a complete waste of money. Money that would be much better suited for the relationship itself.
A new study found that couples who spend less on their wedding tend to have longer-lasting marriages than those who splurge. The study, by two economics professors at Emory University, found a similar correlation between less-expensive engagement rings and lower divorce rates.
https://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/13/living/wedding-expenses-study/index.html
Supreme....
Wearing clothes with the brand name or corporate logo just smacked right on the front.
My favorite example of this is supreme.
insanely overpriced clothes that are supposed to be "hip hop" or "urban".
it's 50% owned by the carlyle group, the largest private equity firm in the world.
So while you rock your $5,000 hoodie that you slaved to afford walkin' on the street, the filthy rich dude in the back seat of the bentley passing your poor @ss by grins, seeing that you make him a teeny tiny tick richer.
On the Menu....
Unnecessary Bling....
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The need for diamond engagement rings.
Not just the need for diamond rings, but the belief that diamonds are rare so corporations can inflate their value when they really only sell a limited amount of diamonds to artificially inflate the price.
Keepin' It Clean.
The concept of individual litterbugs. Corporations such as the tobacco industry helped fund the nonprofit front Keep America Beautiful to shift responsibility of cheap, environmentally damaging packaging from the producers to the consumers. And it totally worked.