THE CORPORATION [11/23] Basic Training
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN cites it mainly as a damning example of manipulative advertising aimed at children rather than recommending it as a watch.
What it is
Chapter 11 of the documentary The Corporation, on how marketing targets children, including the Nag Factor study that taught kids to nag their parents more effectively.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2009 to 2018.
What Hacker News said
Cites nickpsecurity · 2018-07 · on “The Astonishingly High Administrative Costs of U.S. Health Care”
""brutal capitalism" is both more efficient and more compassionate in the long run" I'm not sure about that. I've watched a lot of scuffles in capitalist markets eliminate most of the competition to turn into lock-in via strong brands, control of territory, copyrights, or patents. The lock-in typically lands on a few companies that become an oligopoly of sorts. These are most noticeable in telecoms, operating systems, big chains of any kind, and so on. Once they form, they barely compete with each other. They mostly screw customers and employees over in common ways to maintain high margins. Internally, they usually form rigid hierarchies that push control more than innovation with the eviden
Critical jacquesm · 2009-07 · on “Why I won't be at my high school reunion”
I think that you should take a comedians word with a grain of salt. What Bill Hicks was literally getting at was that to use your talent as a wordsmith to create wants where there are none and to pursue money without any consideration for ethics by trying to translate each and every human emotion into the dollar equivalent and a 'hook' by which to gain acess to peoples wallets is a very wrong thing. Comedians will exaggerate grossly in order to make their point. See Carlin, Connolly and many others for more examples of such behaviour. It's up to us to separate out the core facts from the poetic license. The kind of marketing that the great-grandfather post of this comment referred to is exac
Critical jacquesm · 2009-09 · on “Bertrand Russell, "On Sales Resistance"”
The story about the salesman pushing the grand piano and a wall being knocked down into the bedroom to make room for it. It was clearly meant tongue-in-cheek, or at least that is how I took it. Of course nobody buys a piano because of a pushy salesman if their house can not accomodate it, but it is a nice analogy to describe some of the process that goes on when people buy stuff they don't need or have the ability to use. Have a look at this for how far the 'salespeople' are willing to go: [this video]
Critical jacquesm · 2010-01 · on “Ask HN: Is marketing essentially using brainwashing to propagate a meme?”
Viral marketing is, 'regular' marketing can be divided in to two branches, one where people are informed about a product and left to draw their own conclusions, and another - much less ethical one - where marketing is used a means of influencing decisions people make in general. The latter I have a real problem with. SwellJoe has already posted Bill Hicks, let me contribute this little gem: [this video]
Critical neilk · 2013-05 · on “Dear American Consumers: Please don’t start eating healthfully”
"The Nag Factor": [this video] You don't have to accept the position of the documentary, that the corporate form is intrinsically a bad thing. But tell me that the marketers behind the "Nag Factor" report don't disgust you. It is nice to imagine that each family is an island of rationality, well-informed about choices and their eventual effects, never choosing the easy path, immune to marketing and peer pressure. In the real world, things are a little more complex. And the marketers behind reports like "The Nag Factor" make millions by subverting family relations to serve their purposes. It is good to be skeptical of regulation, but this is so clearly a case where more good can be done than harm.
Critical vanderZwan · 2017-09 · on “Insane state of today's advertising part 3”
> From my perspective, I've found various things via advertising that I would have never come across by other means. If you want to make a fair comparison, that should be compared to all the things you didn't find because useless ads took up your time and mental space. Also, whether or not you found something through an ad is not the point; one isn't not going to convince a smoker to quit smoking by trying to convince them that nicotine doesn't make them feel good - it's the other shit about it that is bad. In the case of advertising, there's a lot of cynical manipulation going on. The nagging factor in children's advertising comes to mind as one really evil example: [this video] I've been TV- an
Critical corey_moncure · 2017-11 · on “YouTube says it will crack down on bizarre videos targeting children”
Whereas in my jurisdiction (USA), corporate media conglomerates employ PhD trained child psychologists who research the exact pattern and timing of flashes and other stimuli to catch an iron grip on a child's attention. Our children do not stand a chance. [this video]