Sponsored posts are a cringey ubiquitous evil of social platforms - a content paradigm that arises inexorably from the basic conditions of the world: brands want to get in front of audiences at any cost, and young people on social platforms have audiences.
The idea of “selling out”, once such a hot button, has become so passé that it’s hard to remember what it ever meant. On social platforms, selling out is aspirational: hawking cheap direct-to-landfill products is a sign of institutional success and a stamp of approval. Audiences, steeped in a culture that leads kindergartners to overwhelmingly list “Youtuber” in response to the classic “what do you want to be when you grow up,” are thoroughly unalienated by sponsorship - and perhaps even compelled by it. We've gone from no one wanting to sell out to everyone wanting to sell out.
The ability to sell out, perhaps ironically, is not democratized. Not everyone is sufficiently influential to be blessed by the Giant Brand Hand In The Sky. Still, we all buy products: if we cannot become paid shills for brands, we can at least attack them in unison. Anti Advertising Advertising Club is dedicated to reversing the flow of attention-economy juice through the top-of-funnel pipeline. If every user’s desire is to sell out, we’ll happily enable that impulse if it means we can punch at the companies doing the buying.
Where is the funding for the bounties coming from? Who decides which products are “evil” and should be shamed?
Here’s a suggestion, put your own company down on your list for your shady and deceitful tactics. Refer to this list:
TheBlueDonkey - a pseudo-restaurant which allows employees to abuse corporate perks by routing the funds to political candidates.
The Red Line - A service, built by your company, to spam call your (Republican) senators and complain to them in Russian.
MasterWiki - MSCHF acknowledges that it “stole MasterClass' content and turned it into wikiHow articles” (https://masterwiki.how/).
AllTheStreams - As a means of “boycotting against streaming giants,” a pirate radio service that will “play anything and everything we feel like” (https://thenextweb.com/apps/2020...)
Now you’re trying to lecture us about unethical brands? Give me a damn break.
@georgewillaman don't forget these...
Severed Spots - someone else's artwork (Damien Hirst), destroyed, cut up, and resold as bits and pieces https://severedspots.com
Times Newer Roman - a font that's slightly bigger than Times New Roman to help students cheat https://timesnewerroman.com/
the list goes on and on
Disgusting.
Great idea and incentives to destabilize targeted advertising, especially children/teens. Somewhere, there's a George Carlin bit waiting to be heard that reflects this idea completely, but a few book recommendations on Mass Media:
Walter Lippman
1922 - Public Opinion
Marshall McLuhan:
1951 - The Mechanical Bride
1962 - The Gutenberg Galaxy
Neil Postman
1985 - Amusing Ourselves to Death
1992 - Technopoly
Michael Parenti
1986 - Inventing Reality: The Politics of the Mass Media
Noam Chomsky / Edward Herman
1988 - Manufacturing Consent
You've Got Spam
Songbox