Bill Hicks on Marketing

I doubt the only products you buy are cucumbers, tomatoes and gas. You've chosen your phone, laptop, car, and various other branded items. Advertising very likely played a role in your decisions there. How can you actually be sure that advertising doesn't work on you? Of course, you don't see an ad on TV for a new smart fridge and immediately jump out of your sofa, wallet in hand, to go buy it. But the key thing is that _nobody does_. That's not the point. The idea is that six months down the line when your fridge breaks irreparably and you're deciding between different brands, those ads will have an influence, and you won't realise it. People who think advertising doesn't work on them _are godsends to advertisers_. This article puts it quite well, although I don't agree with its conclusions[0]: "If you don’t believe advertising works on you, you are going to be more likely to see good advertising as something else entirely and be more receptive to it and thusly more likely to take the action I want you to take." There was a study a few months ago which found that people who think they are immune to advertising are more susceptible to it than average, but I can't find a link. It was one of the things that changed my opinion on this: I also used to think I was not susceptible to most advertising, but this is a dangerous mentality. You just don't think you're susceptible. I've come around to thinking Bill Hicks was completely right on this [1] Also with the Metromile point, tha

in “Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction” · View on HN

I formed the opinion a while ago that we should go a step further: ban advertising entirely (not exactly a new idea, Bill Hicks came first [1]). Billboards, TV ads, newspaper ads, paid-for articles, promoted Instagram content, all internet ads, everything. One of the main tenants of capitalism is that it naturally produces a meritocracy. Products which are of a higher quality or cheaper than their competitors should, in theory, sell better. Advertising in any form subverts that. More expensive and lower quality products can completely outsell competitors by out-advertising them, which fundamentally undermines capitalism. I do not believe that any limits can be imposed which will make a meaningful impact: banning individual forms of advertising which we think have gone too far will be a never-ending game of whack-a-mole. Kill the industry entirely. [1] ▶ this video

in “Advertising as a source of dissatisfaction: cross-national evidence” · View on HN

I would think the feeling that marketing as a whole, and advertising as part of it was a large social negative was prevalent enough that one would not have to explain it even if not everyone agrees. I mean it's common enough that Bill Hicks on the subject is pretty much a meme by this point ▶ this video I'm not saying I necessarily agree, but if someone says advertising is a cancer on society or something like that I would not be like - whoa what particular belief system has led him to conclude this?!? - I would think, huh, they have that set of beliefs regarding advertising and marketing.

in “HIV Is Reported Cured in a Second Patient” · View on HN

Ha! Reminds me of the late, great, Bill Hick’s seminal piece on marketers and advertisers: ▶ this video I oft wonder how much disdain Bill Hicks would have for the tech bros and the Orwellian apparatus many large tech companies have created.

in “What if people were paid for their data?” · View on HN

Bill Hicks does a good job of explaining my thoughts on the matter: ▶ this video But on a more serious note, while I somewhat agree that not all marketing is evil, some absolutely is. I do not consider the marketing that cigarette companies did to knowingly hook kids on an addictive, cancer causing substance a good thing; I find it rather evil. Since it can be used for evil, I would rather make it as difficult as possible for them to use it against me. It might be a mostly pointless exercise, but it makes me feel better about it.

in “Browser extension that strips Google Analytics tokens from URL query strings” · View on HN

I don't use Stocks or News and I don't use the App Store for discovery so I don't see ads. I am fully bought into the Apple ecosystem. The second I see an ad, I am dumping all of it. Obligatory Bill Hicks: ▶ this video

in “Apple Fined $8.5M for Illegally Collecting iPhone Owners' Data for Ads” · View on HN

20+ years now of not watching a single video ad (since the TiVo). I will never ever go back to that insanity. I'm unlikely to hoist the jolly rodger again as my internet connection is tied to my income. Honestly, I know that the day will eventually come when these parasites will eliminate ad-free streaming and ad-blocking on the web. At which point I will raise my middle finger as a flag and tackle my neglected reading list. Obligatory Bill Hicks: ▶ this video

in “Apple is quietly pushing a TV ad product with media agencies” · View on HN

> And people wonder why I have a pathological disdain for marketing folks. For your Monday catharsis: ▶ this video

in “Tell HN: Stop sending unsolicited emails to developers GitHub email” · View on HN

> Everything you put up between me and what I know I need makes me hate you and want you to die. Reminds me of that legendary standup comedy from Bill Hicks about “marketing”: ▶ this video

in “People Don’t Buy Products, They Buy Better Versions of Themselves (2018)” · View on HN

Yes, it surprises me what some are saying positively in this comment thread about Bernays. In my mind he's always been the epitome of evil. And that mustache... Jeez... This subject always brings to my mind the old "kill marketers" skit by comedian Bill Hicks: ▶ this video

in “Edward Bernays and the birth of public relations (2015)” · View on HN