I was a tech journalist in the early 00’s and I remember writing about that story or one like that.
A similar thing happened with Microsoft, who either delivered or was served the full documentation of some office format printed out. It’s a pretty popular form of malicious compliance, also paying people in bags of coins.
We also have literal pirates in the seas, and that doesn’t stop us from playing pirates. We have wars, and that isn’t stopping us from playing soldiers.
We shouldn’t let a bunch of morons spoil everything.
That’s such a weird thing. I guess the equivalent would be if a company in Europe would want to run a WWII-theme party.
On one hand, it’s dumb in the cultural/sensitivity sense, on the other hand it would be cool if we could leave the past be. Nobody seems to have an issue with throwing a party with the theme of Napoleonic era, or the Victorian era, or WWI, or the French revolution or whatnot.
I wonder what’s needed for these things to also pass into history as “so yep, that’s what happened. Anyway check out these sick uniforms”.
I hate it so much. I can’t stand standing in the bathroom in front of a mirror and fiddle with my teeth. That whole experience is just wholy depressing, and then the foul taste on top of that. I try to at least brush and use mouthwash when I wake up and am groggy enough to not mind that much.
That’s a question of consumerism in general, not necessarily of ads.
Why is it different? Because if we shrug and say that well, we buy unnecessarily shit anyway, then we are even more likely to buy based on ads and other marketing ploys.
Being aware and skeptical of actual advertisements, on the other hand, can make you more wary about buying too much.
I mean, if you watch TV ads, don’t use adblock etc, you’re just used to the whole ecosystem and are just going with the flow. But if you block ads everywhere and then suddenly get hit by one, you definitely realize how stupid and evil they are. Plus you have more time to look for other sneaky marketing tactics.
The only times I choose a brand is based on reviews or personal experience. And I may still go against that based on price or other need.
This week I bought a
spoilerSandisk
SD card and a
spoilerKingston
card reader. That’s because all cards except this one have always failed me in some way at some point. I might have been swayed by
spoiler"extreme pro"
branding to a degree, but again that’s just based on my experience with the brand, and the reviews. Also the price difference was negligible. As for the reader, well it was the cheapest one.
As for the store where I got it, also based on experience and convenience. It’s a major retailer now, but I used to buy from them when they were a tiny back alley store. And I still looked in 2 brick and mortar stores first.
On the same day I also went in the mall (the closest one) to look for a few things like swimming trunks and a belt pack. I was aware of brands but why would I care about them? Mostly they just make things too expensive.
As for other stuff like food or medicine, I mostly buy store brands, or look at ingredients, or occasionally randomly try new stuff. There’s usually no difference between a detergent from a big brand or the store brand.
I also teach other people that.
As such the only kind of marketing that may affect me are sales, and then I have to actively be in a store and need the thing anyway. So that’s not much of an ad, that’s just shopping with common sense.
Btw the topic is ads. There are other forms of sneaky marketing like altering search results or placement of goods on shelves in a store, but it’s not that hard to be wary of those too.
I hate gamification of... Everything, but if it's just "oh hey I've been here for X years and at some point I got 5000 upvotes / 800 downvotes, that's cool I guess", I'm kinda for it actually.
It's like with videogame achievements. They're not super important for most people, but sometimes it's nice to look back at the stuff you've played or what you had to overcome. Some are addicted to it too. Real life doesn't give you much satisfaction in this way.
For real, ask on some aviation community or Reddit. You'll find real pilots with very specific experience.
My guess would still be beef jerky, plus it's light and doesn't spoil. Also I'd start asap, so you can still get empty before the "trip" and not have much inside left.