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40 Ideas People Believe To Be Normal But Are Actually Propaganda Created By Corporations, According To Folks In This Online Group
It's not a secret to anyone that companies vastly care about money. Some are still interested in their consumers being satisfied with the products – others solely care about profits. Unfortunately, it is a massive problem in our society, and organizations have yet to overcome this issue.
Corporations will go out of their way to find a method of making even more pennies, and it's fascinating how nowadays we don't really question anything. For instance, one of the best examples would be commercials. Those endless ads you see on a website that don't allow you to binge-watch your favorite video in peace, practically forcing you to get that premium subscription – it's truly a brilliant technique.
Well, this online user took it to one of Reddit's popular communities to ask folks about certain things that might feel normal today, but are just successful propaganda made by companies. The thread received over 61K upvotes in just a few days and almost 40K comments debating over hugely influential business tactics.
More info: Reddit
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Immigrants are ‘taking’ our jobs, instead of employers seeking to pay criminally low wages to people with fewer choices.
The lie, in the US at least, that billionaires and CEOs are self made men and women. Most wealth in this country is inherited and most who claim to be "self made" were already born into wealthy families.
Working 5 days a week for 8 hours a day and still not being able to afford necessities.
What makes this worse is the fact it's the result of the very, very few at the top living in obscene luxury.
That global warming is the responsibility of the individual and not about 100 corporations.
Referring to insurance as "healthcare"
Insurance companies do not provide healthcare. They have inserted themselves as middlemen. Physicians, nurses, etc. provide healthcare. Insurance provide payment for costs that are inflated because insurance companies provide payment.
Logo T-Shirts. The consumer literally pays to advertise a brand.
"Ask your doctor if JDGYRHKX is right for you!" WTF isn't that his job? I don't ask my mechanic or plumber if I need a certain product. Pharmaceutical marketing is a total ruse.
Dandelions are weeds. They’re actually very nutritious and great for pollinators. Big Grass are a bunch of d**kheads
Technically, weeds don't exist at all. Where I live, they've now been rebranded to "wild flowers and plants" and are actively being handed out to plant everywhere because, as it turns out, bees are better off with more of these types of plants than they are with the garden varieties. Or so I've been told.
Attaching health insurance to your job and if you have a family and leave your job, you're f**ked.
I never understood why/how this started in the US. I don't think anywhere else in the world has it tied to their job.
Sugar industry blaming fatty foods for obesity, sparking the low-fat trends and ignoring how bad sugar is for your health.
Politicians being a middleman for corporations to influence government policies, instead of middlemen for the people to influence government policies.
The Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court practically guaranteed that this would happen. Equating corporate money with free speech was one of the most destructive legal decisions in the last 100 years.
Plastics Recycling.
It was pushed by the plastics industry back in the early 70s when laws were about to be passed to deal with the environmental impact of plastics. In reality a lot of the plastics that have a little recycling symbol on them are not feasible to recycle at all.
They are still pushing the lie to this very day.
And they ship them off to poorer countries to handle because 'we don't have those capabilities'.
Everything about wedding and engagement rings
Everything about weddings, imho. Such a con. I played in a wedding band a couple weeks ago. We were paid obscene money. I overheard a woman explaining to a friend that she and her fiance had saved $30k toward their wedding and therefore were about halfway there. I just find spending that on a one-day party to be absurd, I wouldn't expect someone to drop 30k just to show they love me. Good gods, just tell each other you love each other and put the money towards a house
Buying bottled tap water.
Yes! I can only see the point if it's an area where the tap water is undrinkable.
The whole work grind and everything associated with it. 40+ hour work week, health insurance tied to it, the need for daycare $$$, time spent commuting…how did all that ever become normal?
Because unions fought to get the work week down to 40 hours. Corporations wanted you to work 12 hour days seven days a week.
Diamonds.
Real men eat meat.
That cost of printer ink.
Sending your DNA in for sequencing is a fun and easy way to find out things about yourself, at least according to companies who contractually retain the rights to any and all findings, don't give a s**t about your medical privacy, and are constantly looking for ways to monetize that information.
I found my dads mum and family this way, no regrets and I’m a nobody, they can keep my dna 😂
That it is ok to produce a ton of single-use packaging as long as you don’t “litter” it.
I really wish the government would bring in regulations to limit the use of single use packaging. They banned plastic shopping bags of a certain thickness, but have not gone any further. (In Australia)
Most products made for the care of babies. Babies need very little in the way of furniture, gear, special foods etc. But people are so willing to buy so much stuff.
"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day" was a marketing campaign used by Kellogs to help sell their cereal.
You haven't met me before I've had my breakfast and that all important first cup of coffee! If you do, you'll soon change your mind!
Agree. I barely can get out of the house if i dont have breakfast. I get too dizzy
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I tried for years to force myself to eat breakfast and I was in the afternoon hangry because I wasn’t hungry for lunch. i am slow to wake up and for me and my weight it was better to skip breakfast.
That is completely false. Eating habits changed in the 17th & 18th centuries. Before that, breakfast was the biggest meal of the day. Eating big before bed leads to obesity and ill health. Have you never heard the old adage, " eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince & dinner like a pauper "?
Big Breakfast was important for farmers and laborers. Not so much for office workers.
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It is important if its low GI though, especially if you have a designated lunch break that you need to have energy to get through until.
If you are an agricultural worker aka farmer, breakfast is insanely important. You cannot work a 12 hour day [usually more] on a farm and get by with a cup of coffee and croissant. You need a huge breakfast. And that is not a "marketing" scam. It is important. You just "fasted" for 8-12 hours. That's why it is called break fast.
Here in Argentina our breakfast is a couple of toasts, coffee with milk or mate (🧉 a typical drink like tea) and sometimes some salty biscuits or croissants. We have a big lunch, like pasta, meat and salad, or something grilled... so we cut the day in half and all go back home for lunch. That's our way. But I remember my father saying that phrase of the most important meal being breakfast!!! In this country people mock northern countries for eating a sausage at 7am and going to work smelling like fried potatoes or garlic... But the truth is we smell like that when we go back to work in the afternoon. And we have to stay at work until 9pm... Our dinners are late, very light, and in a rush just to get to go to sleep 😴
That’s really interesting, but you have to stay at work so late? Is that normal for most industries or companies there? How long is your lunch break?? I hope it’s a long time if you’re having to work until 9pm.
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If you don't eat breakfast how exactly do you do anything else for the day?
Yep that's why you sugar shock your kids before school! ( I had oatmeal and a glass of milk and toast!)
Hence my Vanilla Hospital Formula Sustagen double shot espresso. Has me bouncing out the door lol. (LADA diabetic that can’t stand anything solid before noon*
In Brazil, the most important meal is lunch, because is the heaviest of the day.
For me it makes perfect sense.. not to eat suger and milk, but to get the stomach going. If i eat breakfast i eat much better during the day. If i dont eat breakfast i often get so hungry by my first break that i feel like i could throw up
Kellogs may have marketed the idea to their advantage but it does mean this is not true.
Though in my many health classes and nutrition classes and my mom was a personal trainer that helped people diet they all say breakfast is important because eating too much at the end of the day makes you gain more weight. I guess it depends on what you’re eating a for breakfast. Also carbs and protein are the best for you to eat in the morning.
Breakfast is an important meal, which is exactly why we shouldn't eat the junk they are trying to market as "breakfast food". Have a bowl of rice beans and vegetables, or some miso soup, or even eggs. That's actual nutritious food, and it is an important way to break your fast.
As someone who has always gotten sick if I eat first thing, breakfast is the least important meal!
This is false. "Breakfast is the most important meal" came from Edward Bernays propaganda to sell more bacon. He got doctors to tell people to eat a healthy breakfast likes eggs and bacon and bacon sales skyrocketed after. Kelloggs just capitalized on breakfast being important and letting the healthy slide.
My grandfather who was born in the USSR and never heard of Kellogs in his life always told me: "Eat all of your breakfast yourself, share the dinner with your friend and give all of your supper to your enemy." So yeah, the idea of breakfast being the most important meal of the day and no eating after 6 pm are older than Kellog marketing campaigns and heathy lifestyle influentials.
Rats prefer the cardboard to cereal.....tells me how bad that stuff is for you!
Kids, can you say yeast? Yeast is something we have on our skin and it grows in small chains of three. They can get nasty, but isn’t it nice of Kellogg to show us what a yeast chain looks like in cereal form?
Any meal you eat first after not eating for a long while is breakfast. You're breaking your fast. I'm an intermittent faster, eating once a day. My meal usually happens between 3-9 PM, and it definitely is not cereal!
i get physically ill if i try and eat an actual meal first thing in my day. i start my day with coffee and a fruit-and-grain bar and a yogurt, and then several hours later i might have something resembling a meal. but in general, putting food in your system first thing is good, your brain and body need nutrients to work.
Golden bars? S**t looks like brass knuckles to me. Why does the bird need brass knuckles for?
I will be sick if I eat in the morning or within the first couple of hours after waking up
Breakfast is actually good for your health, but you arent doing anything for your health if what you eat is sugar cereal, pop tarts, donuts, etc
Also, that breakfast food is a special class of food that's different than any other kind of food. A 1920's marketing campaign by the bacon and egg industries
Companies like Intuit have lobbied to make sure filing taxes can't be free and easy.
US is weird. The government already has all your information. In most countries people don't need to file taxes every year, unless they own a business.
Women shaving. In the US, Women shaving any part their bodies wasn’t even a thing before WWII, but all the men got drafted to war and razor companies took a big hit, so they successfully convinced all of us that natural hair growing anywhere out of a woman’s body besides her hair and eyebrows is disgusting.
I’m talking specifically about western culture/the United States. Evidence of ancient Greeks and Egyptians/etc shaving has no relevance in this instance.
There was also the fact that there were silk and nylon shortages during the war, so women's legs were on show so unshaven legs were noticeable. Then of course you had the swimwear fashion changing in the 60s+ and more skin was seen. The swimwear companies wouldn't show models with bikini lines in their ads, so razor companies profited from this too.
Terms of service agreements example when you buy a phone do you read all 30 pages of your service agreement letting you know that they have basically proprietary control over everything you say and do.
Years ago one company hid a prize in the terms and conditions that you only got if you read them.) It had instructions to claim the prize.) It might have been Apple, anybody remember that? I don't think that would happen today because the trick would be blasted on social media and defeat the incentive to read them.
The way we celebrate holidays is much more of a production than it used to be - Christmas, Halloween, Valentine’s Day. Just more excuses to consume c**p en masse.
what does "c**p" means? English isn't my first language and slang isn't my strong suit.
That you need to drink milk in order to get calcium. Calcium is a mineral and can be found in leafy greens and broccoli to name a couple. The whole, “got milk?” campaigns and all that were funded by the dairy industry. Pretty successful propaganda!
Buying a diamond ring when you propose
100% agree. Pointless. Use the money for something important and worthwhile. Down payment on something..or an emergency fund. A year after I was proposed to we sold the ring. He didn't pay for it so we just profited off it. Never regretted it.
Mothers Day. The original intent was to have a holiday to appreciate mothers, corporations ended up making it a big money grab, and then the person who petitioned for mothers day spent the rest of their life trying to get the holiday removed.
I don't want anything shop bought for Mother's Day, I couldn't care less - I live getting handmade cards from my kids, breakfast in bed and having them take over for a day - zero money involved, ideal day for me to sit and relax
An entire nurdle of toothpaste on your brush.
You don't need that much. A pea-sized amount is enough.
COMMERCIALS. they’re everywhere, YouTube, TV, Hulu, Spotify, etc. the only way to get rid of commercials is to, surprise surprise, pay more which is ANOTHER commercial. Just now realizing that commerce is the basis of commercial lol
This could have been the perfect place for this 'I make 123000$/month'-b******t..
Not discussing your income with coworkers. At least in the US, employees are protected, so they are allowed to discuss income amongst each other without fear of getting fired for it. However, a lot of companies have kept the idea that it is taboo or that your job may be at risk for doing so and a lot of people still buy it to this day.
Yes, most people that live in the US know that all states (except Montana) are "at-will" states, meaning that they can fire you for no reason at all, meaning that while technically they won't fire you for discussing pay, some companies will not like it and find any excuse to let you go, so keep that in mind.
Also, some companies will try to stop if right off the bat by having it in your employee handbook that you are not to discuss pay, so make sure you check that out in your case. My company actually has the opposite, stating that they will never go after someone for discussing pay, and they even have it posted in public areas. However, I'm not naive and understand that while it may seem that way, they can just be doing that to protect themselves, so who knows. I've been there for a few years now and we have not heard of anyone getting fired for anything that could be even remotely related to pay discussions.
The point of my comment was to let people know that the idea of discussing your pay with other employees being a "no-no" or taboo is an antiquated idea started by greedy companies decades ago to help keep the average worker from demanding better wages that they rightfully should be getting in the first place, and that legally they can't outright fire you simply for doing that (with exceptions, of course). I myself have no issues letting anyone know how much I make if they ask, and if they use that to get themselves properly compensated, then I'm happy for them at the end of the day.
Apple
Whoever is behind the apple marketing campaign is a genius and flooding the consumers with propaganda. There's no real correlation between how many apples you eat each a day and how often you visit the doctor or get sick
People eating KFC during Christmas time in Japan because of KFC's marketing campaign that promoted their products as a traditional Western Christmas treat.
Merch drops, secret popup locations, limited runs, etc.
These are just marketing tactics to create Artificial Scarcity and hype/demand that wouldn't be there otherwise.
That is just using the business rule of supply and demand...In this instance they have to create a demand and pretend that the supply is low in order to justify the higher costs...
Carrots helping you see in the dark was WW2 propaganda to confuse the Germans.
Carrots contain beta carotene which is metabolized into vitamin A, which is important in proper functioning of the eyes. One of the first signs of Vitamin A deficiency is night blindedness. So I guess it's not that far-fetched, although carrots won't give you night vision :)
“You should pay off debt by getting more debt!”
Note: this post originally had 44 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
Think thees been some confusion/conflation of propaganda and scam.
I am commenting on this post. Thank you in advance for your reading of my comment.
Thanks for the pleasure of reading your comment!
Load More Replies... Shampoo! Consumer care companies pushed the idea that you need to do two washes, and later that you should wash it every day. Actually a disaster for long, curly or dyed hair, but it sells a lot of product.
The money I save on shampoo I end up spending on razors.
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Shampoo and all the other things you need (conditioner, styling products etc) because you f**k your hair up with shampoo.
What do you suggest we wash our hair with? If not shampoo, seriously
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What a crappy boring article, come on show a bit more effort. Usual woke s**t
I disagree with almost all of these. No one is forcing anyone to do most of these things. Stupid article written by broke people.
A lot of these are things society has accepted at a level that individuals can't really choose to avoid them without signing consequences despite them inherently doing more harm than good. I think the list is awfully trite, but I don't think most of these are just things it would be reasonable to expect people to ignore.
Load More Replies... Think thees been some confusion/conflation of propaganda and scam.
I am commenting on this post. Thank you in advance for your reading of my comment.
Thanks for the pleasure of reading your comment!
Load More Replies... Shampoo! Consumer care companies pushed the idea that you need to do two washes, and later that you should wash it every day. Actually a disaster for long, curly or dyed hair, but it sells a lot of product.
The money I save on shampoo I end up spending on razors.
Load More Replies... Shampoo and all the other things you need (conditioner, styling products etc) because you f**k your hair up with shampoo.
What do you suggest we wash our hair with? If not shampoo, seriously
Load More Replies... What a crappy boring article, come on show a bit more effort. Usual woke s**t
I disagree with almost all of these. No one is forcing anyone to do most of these things. Stupid article written by broke people.
A lot of these are things society has accepted at a level that individuals can't really choose to avoid them without signing consequences despite them inherently doing more harm than good. I think the list is awfully trite, but I don't think most of these are just things it would be reasonable to expect people to ignore.
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