Taking advantage

Hygro

soundcloud.com/hygro/
Joined
Dec 1, 2002
Messages
26,270
Location
California
Related to the forks thread, I saw an envelope today, so and so for Congress. Above our address was printed “Breaking: Republicans target so and so”

Similarly, my favorite active blogger made basically most of his money selling diet pills or something BS noting that while that market may seem saturated, it’s so big that if you put some money in and write good ads that trigger the psychology of basically the people who would buy quick fixes for long term problems from ads, you will make a profit.

This is of course disgusting.

And we can draw a line: I had a friend selling life insurance with an investment policy attached. The people he sold it to were never investing, so this suboptimal investment that reached them made them wealthier than they would have been without him. So it’s a sketchy product but improved things since indexing wasn’t on their menu otherwise.


The people who impulsively buy garbage or donate because the words “breaking”, “republican” and “target” trigger them into action have a problem. Instead of taking advantage of them we should be helping them. Many of them would of course disagree they need help but that doesn’t mean the solution is to treat them like an extractable resource to better empower more put together persons.

how do we help them and how do we stop trashvertisments?
 
It will have to be one conversation at a time, but it might be playing off of the same bias as what causes moral license.

I have a series of charities that I give to monthly, and I roll through my list once a season in order to fine-tune what I am doing. So when I see various calls to help ("breaking!"), I already know I'm doing my part, in my own way. Helping people get to their 2.5% donation, and then getting them to just modify their portfolio, might help.

The alternative is to milk them of money so they have nothing to give other shysters.
 
Related to the forks thread, I saw an envelope today, so and so for Congress. Above our address was printed “Breaking: Republicans target so and so”

Similarly, my favorite active blogger made basically most of his money selling diet pills or something BS noting that while that market may seem saturated, it’s so big that if you put some money in and write good ads that trigger the psychology of basically the people who would buy quick fixes for long term problems from ads, you will make a profit.

This is of course disgusting.

And we can draw a line: I had a friend selling life insurance with an investment policy attached. The people he sold it to were never investing, so this suboptimal investment that reached them made them wealthier than they would have been without him. So it’s a sketchy product but improved things since indexing wasn’t on their menu otherwise.

The people who impulsively buy garbage or donate because the words “breaking”, “republican” and “target” trigger them into action have a problem. Instead of taking advantage of them we should be helping them. Many of them would of course disagree they need help but that doesn’t mean the solution is to treat them like an extractable resource to better empower more put together persons.

how do we help them and how do we stop trashvertisments?
High premium life/investment insurance policies are a terrible scam. Agents just starting out usually coop their friends first. I do not know how to protect people from their own ignorance and gullibility.

Didn't someone say: "There's a sucker born every minute." Seems to be true.
 
Smartening up the general population would be a good start. How to do that? Pfft! I don’t know!

I don’t know how I’d apply a hard-and-fast rule to ethics in advertising. Those packs of gum at the checkout counter—they’re there for a reason, and that reason is impulse buys. Is that wrong? Even if it’s wrong, is it okay since it’s just 25¢? People also like gum. Still wrong?

I’ve had co-workers give sales pitches I’d consider to be unethical; what they said was technically possible but the likelihood was practically nil. I’m just a cog in the machine though, so all I can do is just try to keep myself within my own ethical framework. So far, it hasn’t been a disaster. :dunno:
 
how do we help them and how do we stop trashvertisments?

I'm not from the USA but i guess one course of action would be everyone writing to their senator pressing them to act in the form of legislation regarding this issue? And helding said senators accountable?
 
All advertising is pretty much trash and socially harmful imo
I watched Big Brother tonight, and because American shows that are on a the same time as whatever Canadian channel runs it (simulcasting), it means that no matter which channel I watch, I still get the Canadian ads... in this case, FIVE anti-Trudeau attack ads in less than 60 minutes.

My reaction: Okay, so they're NDP ads, which means they're not as obnoxious as Reformacon ads would be. But four of them were identical. And they were too wordy before the punch came at the end. Dear Jagmeet Singh: You need new ad writers. If I must endure attack ads, I want the Reformacon ones to be silent, and I want the NDP ones to at least be marginally entertaining, if I can't avoid them.
 
Smartening up the general population would be a good start. How to do that? Pfft! I don’t know!

I don’t know how I’d apply a hard-and-fast rule to ethics in advertising. Those packs of gum at the checkout counter—they’re there for a reason, and that reason is impulse buys. Is that wrong? Even if it’s wrong, is it okay since it’s just 25¢? People also like gum. Still wrong?

I’ve had co-workers give sales pitches I’d consider to be unethical; what they said was technically possible but the likelihood was practically nil. I’m just a cog in the machine though, so all I can do is just try to keep myself within my own ethical framework. So far, it hasn’t been a disaster. :dunno:

I'm more bothered by the chocolate and sweets at the checkout.
If you're a busy mother with 2 toddlers much easier to give in and buy them something that:
  • you can't afford
  • is bad for them
than deal with the inevitable tantrum as you try and get home with the buggy and shopping on the bus.
 
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