There are different levels of scummy that are considered socially acceptable, and some marketing doesn’t rely on tricking you.
Think of the different ads you’ve seen:
“Our furniture is locally made by unionized workers. Everything is made using young trees that we grow ourselves, or reclaimed wood”
Is different than:
“On Friday, our pasta is buy one get one free”
Is very different than:
“Hey gay, it’s June. You know what that means? It’s time for us to change our logo to include a rainbow and maybe even have an ad (in some countries) with two woman who might be married if you read between the lines. Maybe you can ignore that we donate money to political groups that are anti-LGBT, or that we fire queer people at a higher rate than straight people.”
Or
“Hey kids, I’m a clown! Your parents don’t love you if they don’t buy Clown brand bleach. Kids without Clown brand bleach are poor, unlovable losers, and they’ll never have any friends. Now in comes in cherry, and blue raspberry!”
Isn’t that just marketing?
There are different levels of scummy that are considered socially acceptable, and some marketing doesn’t rely on tricking you.
Think of the different ads you’ve seen:
“Our furniture is locally made by unionized workers. Everything is made using young trees that we grow ourselves, or reclaimed wood”
Is different than:
“On Friday, our pasta is buy one get one free”
Is very different than:
“Hey gay, it’s June. You know what that means? It’s time for us to change our logo to include a rainbow and maybe even have an ad (in some countries) with two woman who might be married if you read between the lines. Maybe you can ignore that we donate money to political groups that are anti-LGBT, or that we fire queer people at a higher rate than straight people.”
Or
“Hey kids, I’m a clown! Your parents don’t love you if they don’t buy Clown brand bleach. Kids without Clown brand bleach are poor, unlovable losers, and they’ll never have any friends. Now in comes in cherry, and blue raspberry!”