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  • Re: Naughty Advertising (was Re: naughty Pascal)

    From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Thursday, January 08, 2026 07:01:19
    On Thu, 08 Jan 2026 04:57:27 GMT, Charlie Gibbs wrote:

    The smart ones try to control what people want.

    The smart ones know that?s impossible. The best they can do is entice
    the punters with attractive alternatives, and leave them to make the
    choice.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From John Ames@3:633/10 to All on Thursday, January 08, 2026 08:45:29
    On Thu, 8 Jan 2026 07:01:19 -0000 (UTC)
    Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

    The smart ones try to control what people want.

    The smart ones know that?s impossible. The best they can do is en
    tice
    the punters with attractive alternatives, and leave them to make the
    choice.

    Oh, it's possible-ish, for a time, in the right social context; advert-
    ising is essentially weaponized mass psychology at this point, and they
    got *very* good at it for a while there. The interesting thing is that,
    as so much of the corporate space is dominated by absolute morons with
    no connection to the line of business these days, a lot of the major
    players are being stupid enough that even the ad people can't sell it
    to the masses. Like, that Dell laptop - on top of "AI-ready" being not
    a thing *anyone* needs (to the extent that it's even a *thing* at all
    and not just marketing woo-woo,) the other features mentioned are a
    transparent attempt to ape that one Macbook that everyone in the world
    hated, the one that was probably the reason Apple finally gave Jony Ive
    the boot. Whose bright idea was *that!?*


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From The Natural Philosopher@3:633/10 to All on Thursday, January 08, 2026 18:23:31
    On 08/01/2026 16:45, John Ames wrote:
    On Thu, 8 Jan 2026 07:01:19 -0000 (UTC)
    Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

    The smart ones try to control what people want.

    The smart ones know that?s impossible. The best they can do is entice
    the punters with attractive alternatives, and leave them to make the
    choice.

    Oh, it's possible-ish, for a time, in the right social context; advert-
    ising is essentially weaponized mass psychology at this point, and they
    got *very* good at it for a while there.

    Especially in terms of politics.
    Marketing is the solution to the problem of democracy.

    To hell with the product,. Just sell them the 'brand'

    Cf. 'The triumph of the Will' in 1935...

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

    The original MAGA .... source material.


    The interesting thing is that,
    as so much of the corporate space is dominated by absolute morons with
    no connection to the line of business these days, a lot of the major
    players are being stupid enough that even the ad people can't sell it
    to the masses.

    Indeed.

    Like, that Dell laptop - on top of "AI-ready" being not
    a thing *anyone* needs (to the extent that it's even a *thing* at all
    and not just marketing woo-woo,) the other features mentioned are a transparent attempt to ape that one Macbook that everyone in the world
    hated, the one that was probably the reason Apple finally gave Jony Ive
    the boot. Whose bright idea was *that!?*

    I think people today are so world weary of marketing that the default assumption is that pretty much everything they see of hear through media
    owned or funded by rich people is a carefully constructed lie.


    --
    No Apple devices were knowingly used in the preparation of this post.


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Charlie Gibbs@3:633/10 to All on Thursday, January 08, 2026 19:16:37
    On 2026-01-08, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

    I think people today are so world weary of marketing that the default assumption is that pretty much everything they see of hear through media owned or funded by rich people is a carefully constructed lie.

    Perhaps, but then they shrug and buy it anyway.

    --
    /~\ Charlie Gibbs | Growth for the sake of
    \ / <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> | growth is the ideology
    X I'm really at ac.dekanfrus | of the cancer cell.
    / \ if you read it the right way. | -- Edward Abbey

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From c186282@3:633/10 to All on Thursday, January 08, 2026 20:11:50
    On 1/8/26 02:01, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
    On Thu, 08 Jan 2026 04:57:27 GMT, Charlie Gibbs wrote:

    The smart ones try to control what people want.

    The smart ones know that?s impossible. The best they can do is entice
    the punters with attractive alternatives, and leave them to make the
    choice.

    "Dilution"

    Put MANY "truths" out there, MANY "options". This
    breaks-up what could become large unified movements.


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)