I'm one who tends to imagine terms and sayings in a literal sense. A good example is the colloquialism, "Let me pick your brain". I envision the person quoting this as a starved crow standing over me after I get smushed trying to cross a busy road... Or some freakish mad scientist with a stabby instrument who has me cornered in his underground lab. I prefer to say, "Let me pick your thoughts", as I have no interesting morbidly plucking at someone's cerebellum. That's a bit invasive, don't you think?
I see most modern marketers as macabre brain pickers
When I was a youth, I remember seeing a replica Coca Cola advertisement from the WWI era. It said, (drum roll) "Drink Coke". Such a primitive, bare-bones message seems so quaint. To me, it's a bit refreshing in its crudeness. It's very direct and easy to brush off if you don't want ruined teeth and extra rolls. Back then, there was no marketing team aggressively planning to cynically “tug at people's heart strings” to sell massively over-hyped sugar water (yikes, there's another image to make me shudder).
Enter Edward Bernays
Sigmund Freud's nephew Edward Bernays was a pioneer in getting inside potential consumers' minds. I'm not going to spend much time on this guy, but after watching the documentary, Happiness Machines: Century of Self — I was floored. If you don't believe that elites view us as bacteria in a petri dish to be experimented on and exploited, then this documentary will strongly challenge that view. Bernays perceived humans as a brutish herd to be manipulated and subdued with sneaky psychological measures. This philosophy spread from marketing, which is bad enough, to media and politics. This is an eye-opening, but disturbing video, but I value awareness. You should too! :)
The future of marketing
With 5G connections and the Internet-of-Things (IOT), I foresee marketers as being debatably more menacing than a psycho with an ice pick. Reputable people have expressed strong suspicions that marketers are already spying on us through laptop microphones so they can serve up pertinent ads. This is no longer the stuff of conspiracy theorists. If some marketers could read thoughts of consumers, they would — and with great zeal — just to squeeze a few more pennies from us.
Here’s an example of how marketers have no qualms about invading privacy to pitch products... A German company (in 2013) has found a way to vibrate the bones of the skull and project sales audio into the heads of weary travelers that rest against a window on a commute. To quote the article, "It uses something called “bone conduction technology” which transmits sound to the inner ear by passing vibrations through the skull, reports the BBC’s Leo Kelion. That makes it seem like the sound is coming from inside your head."
What sparked this article?
I was bored out of my mind in a parking lot when I received an email from my former car repair center. It contained a customer satisfaction survey. At first, the questions were very straightforward, asking about their pricing, quality of workmanship, explanation of repairs, etc. After page 10 of the insanely long survey, the questions became probing and very touchy-feely. These bastards were trying to pick my brains!!!
Here are some of their questions
(answers ranged from "Strongly agree" to "Strongly disagree":• I express my feelings publicly, regardless of what others say
• My thoughts are the most important thing about myself
• My religion is very important to me
• Being able to make my own choices is important to me
• I am able to work diligently toward a long-term goal
• In uncertain times, I usually expect the best
• I am not sure how I could live my life without technology
• Overall, I expect more good things to happen to me than bad
At this point, I closed the survey window with a very uneasy sigh. The world is becoming a great big microscope. These auto mechanics and their PR firm can take their psychology mumbo-jumbo and shove it.
And yes, I mean that literally.
I have never encountered surveys that detailed about my personal beliefs yet. This sounds insane to me.
So, when do bid bots start doing that to people? Or, is the technology and competence not there yet for crypto devs?
Especially for an auto mechanic... SERIOUSLY? Why get touchy-feely over oil changes, radiator flushes and air conditioner recharging?
I don't blame the local branch, but the corporate office. It's always the execs that go along with the dumbest trends, all of which include frantic brain picking.
Here's what Bill Hicks thought about advertisers:
EXACTLY! I have a number of marketing/PR people in my network, but I'd really like to ditch that side of my field and focus on crypto :)
Highly rEsteemed!
... you beat me to this comment above ; )
Bill had it right all this time.
2+2=5
scary times ahead...
Marketing, for me having graduated in marketing at college, has always been just fertilizer for sales. Just spray bullshit on the fields and let the farmers grow the crops to be slaughtered for profit. Chum the waters with brands and have the visceral masses frenzy feed and get reeled in.
These surveys are going to get more covert and widespread as the iot expands and those cookies in our browsers are going to make sure everyone with money has a book on each of us.
Yikes!
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Just think of the abuses that can spring from that... Like my favourite shower filter company spying on me and threatening to go public with shower footage - XD - there's definitely going to be a blackmail economy running parallel with the surveillance economy - even if it's just hackers doing the racket...
Damn. What car center was that cause I definately don't want to ever go there..
More like... Surveillance Brothers XD
Amen
Whaaat? These were survey questions from a car repair shop??
Ugh..
I just watched David Icke’s talk from Anarchapulco - he doesn’t sound so crazy anymore... It was all about this kind of stuff. Not so much marketing but “perception control”. Which includes marketing. And that 5G stuff, yuck...
Anyway. Pick my brain reminds me of the Hannibal Lector & Ray Liotta scene 😖🤯
And here’s an honest Coke commercial 😉
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What the hell kind of survey is that... at least they didn't ask you for your fav sex positions.
I think that soon we will see user data being crypto protected and sold by users to different companies in order for a better marketing to happen and users being paid for their information. There are already some cryptos trying to do this, Pickiochain and zebbi I think, I think this will be the future of advertisement, it would provide for targeted advertisement while the consumer gets paid for it!
Well, I didn't get that far in the survey, I'm sure I wouldve run into that question sooner or later!! :O
The blockchain projects you spoke of are intriguing!!!!
Have you heard of the term "surveillance capitalism"? It's worth Googling.
I'll check it out, but it sounds like I'll regret it :O
Hello!
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WOW! :D
Sir, I saw a lot of benefit in seeing your post
All your posts are so beautiful
That's how we work with you
Seriously? F*ck off.
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I will give it a try. Are you a real person? Is this real life?
Yes. We are real:)
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To the question in your title, my Magic 8-Ball says:
Hi! I'm a bot, and this answer was posted automatically. Check this post out for more information.
Go away, dumb ass! XD
You delivered him the magic flag xD
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