Latest / The imuRgency Room / The Propaganda of Overconsumption

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The Propaganda of Overconsumption · The imuRgency Room

• 0:00
  Quickly, what's your favorite shoe brand, preferred cosmetic
• 0:02
  company, Favorite Taylor Swift album?
• 0:05
  Do you believe that U.S. military intervention helps
• 0:07
  support democracy abroad? Now wait a minute.
• 0:10
  One of these things is not like the other.
• 0:13
  Well, or is it? Hey guys, what's up to emergency
• 0:16
  And welcome, welcome back to my channel.
• 0:18
  And yes, let's address the elephant in the room really
• 0:19
  quickly. I do have little twisties.
• 0:24
  This is a new development. I'm still trying to figure out
• 0:26
  what exactly to do with them. So if you do have
• 0:27
  recommendations for what I should do with these little
• 0:29
  twists, styled them a little bit more, let me know in the
• 0:32
  comments below. So for right now, they're dude
• 0:33
  down. But getting back to what we were
• 0:35
  just talking about, the reason why I ask all these questions is
• 0:37
  because it's important to understand what it is that makes
• 0:39
  us have the opinions that we do on these things.
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  While we'd like to believe that it's our own autonomy and free
• 0:44
  will, I'm sorry to tell you that a lot of whatever you may have
• 0:46
  answered to those questions has been shaped, molded, and dare I
• 0:50
  say, even manipulated by propaganda that's all around us.
• 0:53
  And I know that sounds spooky and dumoristic, but hear me out
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  because in this video, we're going to be going over
• 0:57
  propaganda and its relation to modern day advertisements, as
• 1:01
  well as getting into the conversation around Taylor
• 1:03
  Swift's new album like The Showgirl and how it could be
• 1:05
  seen that much of it, that being the album itself and its
• 1:08
  marketing, actually also is propaganda.
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  So first and foremost, we got to talk about what exactly is
• 1:13
  propaganda. Now, I feel like we've all heard
• 1:15
  this term used usually in a political sense, and that's
• 1:18
  honestly the most common use for sure.
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  When you nutritionally hear that something's propaganda, you
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  think of things that are trying to get you to think a certain
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  way about something political, something trying to sway your
• 1:26
  opinion one way or another, and usually in a very insidious way.
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  And if you've been paying attention to current events in
• 1:31
  America, you can definitely see that the word propaganda has
• 1:33
  been thrown around a lot. And there has been a lot of it
• 1:36
  in that sense. But the actual textbook
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  definition of propaganda is the dissemination of information,
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  facts, arguments, rumors, half truths or lies to influence
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  public opinion. And it is often conveyed through
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  mass media. And if you apply this definition
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  broadly, it actually is a core tenant of branding, marketing
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  and public relations. I think as a publicly definitely
• 1:54
  separated the two do and see propaganda as a more nefarious
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  and sinister thing, which in some cases it definitely can be,
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  but it can also be applied to things we don't see as sinister
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  as say fascism. It also applies to the ads that
• 2:05
  we see in our day-to-day, whether it be for that creepy AI
• 2:07
  friend device, which I do have to plug.
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  I did make a whole video about on my second channel, Emergency
• 2:13
  2. If you do want to go check that
• 2:14
  out, definitely go do that or for things like cereal or your
• 2:16
  favorite shoes. Marketing, branding,
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  advertising, whatever you want to call it, at its core has the
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  same mission that propaganda does to disseminate information,
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  whether it's the full truth, half truth or not, to sway
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  public opinion and perception. Believe it or not, I am a comms
• 2:30
  major guy. So we are going to get a little
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  comms and PR here. So if we're talking about things
• 2:34
  like propaganda, NPR, the conversation has to start with a
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  man named Edward Bernice. Now, Edward Bernice is
• 2:39
  considered the father of public relations or PR, and also
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  propaganda because he wrote a whole book on it.
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  And this story is actually going to take us all the way back to
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  World One. I know, spooky times, but during
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  World War One we really kicked in the propaganda machine
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  because America needed to boost morale to support work.
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  So they created the Committee on Public Information and when they
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  did this they brought on Edward Bernie's to join them to
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  maximize their joint propaganda slay to create messaging that
• 3:04
  might sound a little familiar today.
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  Does U.S. military intervention will spread democracy abroad
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  ringing any bells to anyone? Anyways, after this experience,
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  he opened his own PR office and he himself said that because
• 3:14
  propaganda got such a bad rap after the war, he had to think
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  of other words to essentially do the same thing.
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  And those words became public relations.
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  The rebranding of propaganda, if you will.
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  Also a little fun for the history and psychology nerds.
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  Bernice is actually Sigmund Freud's nephew.
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  You know, the Sigmund Freud that's like the father of
• 3:31
  psychology. And for some reason that just
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  makes sense in a way that I don't know that I like.
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  Given this background, who's the 1st to apply sociology in
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  psychology to commercial and corporate business?
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  His whole tactic was to take an insight that's already governing
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  people's behavior and connected to the product that you're
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  selling, effectively using people's desires and behaviors
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  to get them to want the specific product that you want them to.
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  And actually, if you want to do a little nepotism funner facts,
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  his great nephew I know followed the family tree was actually the
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  former CEO of Netflix. So really, this also kind of
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  makes sense. Now, I got to think that this is
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  propaganda podcast for this one. But one of Bernice's most widely
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  known public relations feats was bringing in women as a
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  demographic for cigarettes, more specifically for the brand Lucky
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  Strike. During that time, it was seen as
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  taboo for women to smoke, But for Lucky Strike, that was the
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  whole market that they were missing out on.
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  So of course at the time taking the insight that feminism was on
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  the rise and hey women actually want rights said let's use that.
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  He then staged a March called torches of free that essentially
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  captured the desires of women to be equal to men but tied it to
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  the spirit. The whole March was women
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  smoking outside and he even had his assistant go out and give
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  interviews where she would not name a company but would pose as
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  a feminist activist saying that women deserve the right to smoke
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  and take a break that women can do what men do and in this case
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  that it being smoking. Additionally, in other marketing
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  that targeted women's desire for using cigarettes, hunger,
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  curbing side effects, and insisting that women reach for a
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  cigarette instead of dessert. I know that sounds crazy now,
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  but at the time they must have been eaten because those ads
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  worked. And it's honestly crazy.
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  Like if you look at women's magazines from the 70s, almost
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  all the cigarette ads mentioned weight loss or slimness, which
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  is clearly the play with these magazines targeting women.
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  And that association clearly runs deep, especially when you
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  consider that this all started around the early 30s.
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  Ideas are as effective as any weapon and could be more
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  dangerous than bullets. But now that we I got a little
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  propaganda history lesson and we've seen how propaganda has
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  been used for not so great reasons, it's time to ask the
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  question can propaganda actually be good or at least positive?
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  I mean, on an interpersonal level I don't think so, because
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  its purpose is to push a certain agenda regardless of true
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  authenticity or beliefs. And it's tricky to think in
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  these terms because the basis of propaganda is influencing people
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  to believe, behave and consume in a certain way for capitalism.
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  But it also is almost impossible to exist outside of that system
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  even if we did think of propaganda as like a neutral
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  thing. A neutral thing in the hands of
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  the American people can quickly turn into an evil thing because
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  of course how we choose to use it.
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  Overwhelmingly how we use propaganda can be downright evil
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  to secretly insidious, like endlessly promoting the same
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  product that was likely made with on TikTok shop.
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  And while the vast majority of propaganda is sinister, let us
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  remember that not all propaganda is created equal.
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  Like yes, swaying people through subliminal messaging or tactics
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  of deceit is never great. But hey, if I have to choose
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  between endless shadow work, TikTok shop ads, and being
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  subconsciously swayed to smoke cigarettes, one is definitely
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  worse than the other. But neither are truly great, and
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  it's really important to have discernment over which
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  propaganda is genuinely harmful or maybe just a nuisance.
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  And I really think about how often we as Gen.
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  Z are actively advertised to like, you really can't escape
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  any form of advertisement. You open any app and within a
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  few swipes you're already seeing an advertisement for a product
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  that's either paid for by the brand from the brand or being
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  promoted by an influencer. And honestly, that's being
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  lenient. Because if we're also talking
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  about just general product placement, it doesn't just stop
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  influencers, it also extends to your own social network.
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  Like for friends that post the products that they're using just
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  ads, ads, ads whether they're paid for or not.
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  Then you step outside and see advertisements everywhere, on
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  billboards, buses, cars, buildings, bus stops, subways,
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  like everything you think of. Like there's constant
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  advertisement and propaganda being thrown your way, which for
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  one, is already overwhelming for a generation that has decision
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  fatigue. And two, almost the more
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  sinister thing is that the irony of it all is that like, you
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  don't really have a choice to begin with.
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  It's all the illusion of choice. Now, you may be asking me, what
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  do you mean by this? Let me point you over to a
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  famous case, a study between Dove and Axe.
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  If you were born before, let's say the year 2004, do you
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  remember this ad? IT came out around 2006 and was
• 8:47
  considered revolutionary at the time for the way that it exposed
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  the industry. And to be fair, at the time, it
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  kind of was. It garnered public favor on
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  their side for their Dove Real Beauty campaign.
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  And if you go see it, Dove's ads did seemingly celebrate
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  diversity. But in that very same year, Axe
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  aired this ad. More get more.
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  And it wasn't just that one. They have many other egregious
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  offenses where women seem to be a prop for men's likability and
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  desirability, but only if they use axe.
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  Of course, they may be asking Rumi, what does a dove ad and an
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  axe ad have to do with each other?
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  Well, again, let's go back to the family tree.
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  Both of these companies are owned by Unilever, right?
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  So ultimately, whether you believe that all women should be
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  celebrated as they are or you think that they're objects that
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  should run around bikinis in the woods, either way, you lose and
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  they win. They don't care about beliefs,
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  they care about profits. And this is just one of the
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  examples of advertisements and brands playing both sides,
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  talking out of both sides of their mouths to get the most
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  amount of profit. And This is why I say that like
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  you don't really have a choice either way.
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  Propaganda has long been a mirror for culture using
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  people's beliefs and values to sway them.
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  And you can see that in those two ads and who their target
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  demos seem to be. In the early 2000s, low rise was
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  in fashion then was in, and it was honestly undeniable.
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  Deborah Lee that added a very particular and almost strategic
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  time where women were probably tired of seeing these
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  unrealistic beauty standards plastered all around them.
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  And dub seemingly allowed audiences to get a peek behind
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  the curtain to the authentic experience of how inauthentic
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  the industry actually was, thus swinging into the public's good
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  graces. They mirrored the values and
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  desires of their intended audience that they too fit the
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  descriptions of beauty and not just the models that we see on
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  billboards, because those models are not real.
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  Well, simultaneously under a sister company, I guess.
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  Simultaneously, the messaging behind the tax commercials taps
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  into their audiences desires and beliefs, showing that this
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  product can turn you into a ladies man hungered for by all
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  these beautiful skinny women in bathing suits.
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  Which again, is kind of in contrast to what they're saying
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  over at Dove. But it's also important to see
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  that like these both exist under the same parent company selling
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  similar products, meaning that the money's all basically going
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  to the same place. And when capital is king, there
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  are no values or morals, just assimilating to what your
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  audience wants to be chosen over the hundreds of other products
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  that are just like yours. There's a sort of of identity
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  politics to marketing companies change their campaigns and
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  so-called beliefs based solely on our audience behaviors and
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  desires instead of actually adopting and establishing their
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  own. And this kind of brings me to my
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  next point that branches into the larger conversation I was
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  having online around the overconsumption with influencer
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  gate. If y'all were on TikTok for that
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  and talking specifically about how propaganda has changed in
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  the era of social media. Now it used to be that
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  propaganda reflected our culture and beliefs at the time, but
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  with the rise of social media it seems that propaganda has began
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  to actually inform our culture and beliefs.
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  That's why all the nichification and line blurring of genre and
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  subculture seems to be so shallow these days.
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  Buy a velvet skirt and a bell sleeve top and all of a sudden
• 12:02
  your whims of goth get a Plaid skirt or light wash baggy Jean
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  with an oversized collegiate jacket and all of a sudden
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  you're preppy. Culture isn't created from the
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  arts, the community, history, or genuinely people anymore.
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  It's created as a commodity that you can buy off the TikTok shop.
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  It doesn't really feel like we dictate culture anymore.
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  It feels like we're just trying to acquire it and then move on.
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  Like, just think of all the times on TikTok, every time it's
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  a new season and you have endless videos of people saying
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  like, oh, hey, guys, what are we wearing to work this fall?
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  What are we wearing this summer? What colors are we wearing?
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  And like, I can go on to how that speaks like the whole
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  monoculture of it all that we're living right now.
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  But that's a whole separate video.
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  I think I actually did make a whole video on that.
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  You should go check that out. But like, how does this all
• 12:39
  apply to now? Well, there's been some Internet
• 12:40
  discourse for a while now about how people are tired of seeing
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  ads all the time. I am not staying and watching
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  your video if I see the TikTok shop icon in the bottom left
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  corner. Overconsumption has been
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  plaguing our generation a lot, especially since like the rise
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  in fast fashion and. Constantly being sold something
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  every time they open social media.
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  Like I said before, everything you see, especially on social
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  media, it feels like almost always our ads, whether you know
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  it or not. My researcher wanted to add a
• 13:07
  little note here saying that while she was researching, she
• 13:09
  was actually duped into watching an ad because she thought that
• 13:12
  it was a legitimate fight between like a student and a
• 13:14
  teacher, but it was actually just an ad for AI homework
• 13:16
  assistant. Very insidious, very nasty work.
• 13:18
  And if you actually look at the comments on the video, not many
• 13:21
  people are actually clocking that is an ad, which is scary
• 13:23
  because it's then served its purpose of getting people to
• 13:25
  check out whatever AI homework assistant the girls ranting
• 13:28
  about. And I say all this to say that
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  no one is immune from propaganda, even if it's on our
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  screens 24/7, whether we know it or not.
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  Like back in the day, Youtubers used to be like hashtag, not an
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  ad or like hashtag ad to distinguish if like what they
• 13:40
  were saying was paid for, we're sponsored or not.
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  But it's clearly like no one really cares about the FTC no
• 13:45
  more because no one's really disclosing ads like they used
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  to. And it's becoming even harder to
• 13:49
  hold influencers accountable or not disclosing, especially when
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  the content is not shaped like a traditional ad.
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  And when I think we talk about things like influencers and
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  propaganda, people often say that when it comes to
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  influencers, the person themselves has actually become a
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  walking billboard with their lifestyle becoming the commodity
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  and the products that they advertise, allegedly bringing us
• 14:07
  one step closer to the life they live.
• 14:08
  But in reality, no matter how many affiliate links or TikTok
• 14:11
  shop items we buy, you can't really be like that influencer
• 14:14
  because influencers are cashing in for the products that y'all
• 14:17
  are selling out. Advertising is a billion dollar
• 14:19
  industry. Embedding and creating
• 14:21
  insecurities in people and specifically in women is easy
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  when there is just that much money and a lifetime of
• 14:26
  patriarchal standards put behind it.
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  And companies win when you feel insecure.
• 14:30
  Which unfortunately isn't super different from seeing the
• 14:33
  idealistic lifestyle of your favorite lifestyle influencer
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  and thinking you can emulate that life by buying the same
• 14:37
  product despite the actual differences between you and them
• 14:40
  being their work, their genetics, their time and effort,
• 14:42
  and the money that's been put into it.
• 14:43
  So you really just can't buy a new workout set and then
• 14:46
  magically turn into like, I don't know who's like, a popular
• 14:48
  lifestyle girly. Yeah, here on TikTok speaks a
• 14:52
  little bit about it and I don't agree with all their points I.
• 14:54
  Mean the TikTok talking about influencers make too much money
• 14:57
  and a lot of the girlies are like you're just mad because
• 15:00
  you. Want to be an influencer?
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  You're just a. Bitch, you could not influence a
• 15:05
  thirsty person to drink water. But at its core, to be an
• 15:08
  influencer is to be an agent of overconsumption, which I had to
• 15:11
  say as I am one of those two. There's so much money in forces
• 15:15
  that play behind making individuals consume, but also we
• 15:18
  as individuals have to take stock and personal inventory.
• 15:20
  Like how how often are we pressing that TikTok shop link
• 15:23
  and clicking buy? As this one creator puts it,
• 15:25
  consumerism is the perfection of slavery.
• 15:27
  Most media on the Internet these days is trying to sell you
• 15:29
  something. And it's not just products,
• 15:30
  beliefs, attitudes or political topics.
• 15:32
  And lifestyles is also seem to be hot commodities because
• 15:35
  everything is a virtue signal in this capitalistic society where
• 15:38
  we put our time in. Dollar ultimately says something
• 15:40
  about us for choosing 1 product over another.
• 15:42
  It's like buying a Hydro Flask versus the Stanley Cup versus A
• 15:46
  off brand name. Each choice seems to add an
• 15:48
  identity marker with the consumer.
• 15:50
  It seems like in late stage capitalism the main way we get
• 15:52
  to express ourselves is through external consumption.
• 15:55
  What artists do you support? What Car do you drive?
• 15:58
  What brands do you like and shop from the most and which ones do
• 16:00
  you not and which ones do you boycott?
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  I think it's now more common than ever that identities and
• 16:05
  personalities are based in consumerism, which unfortunately
• 16:08
  is a major win for corporations but is a massive L for us.
• 16:11
  Also low Cliff notes. I don't feel like talking about
• 16:13
  the rest of this fuck talk shop. I'm not somewhat.
• 16:17
  I'm not going to be hypocritical.
• 16:18
  It's gotten me because I'm constantly being advertised
• 16:22
  things and a lot of these things are tailored to my interests and
• 16:26
  things I want. I really like makeup.
• 16:28
  Suddenly it's advertising all of these eyeshadow palettes, all
• 16:32
  these different makeup products, when in reality, I don't need
• 16:36
  that many. Like it's just so unnecessary.
• 16:39
  Use this, get this lipstick, get this blush, get this lip liner.
• 16:42
  When in reality, you can use an eyeshadow palette for blush, for
• 16:46
  lip liner, for lipstick, for contour.
• 16:49
  So many things. You don't need to be consuming
• 16:51
  this. And I think now that it was
• 16:53
  everywhere, people are getting rewarded and getting paid for
• 16:57
  promoting random just junk. It's just junk.
• 17:02
  Now while in late stage capitalism it is hard to get out
• 17:04
  of the rat race of it all, my best advice for you if you are
• 17:07
  trying to seek other options is to shop small, shop local and
• 17:11
  shop mind, which I know all come with their own amounts of
• 17:13
  privilege and isn't possible every time for everyone.
• 17:15
  But if you have the choice to do it, our buying power is
• 17:18
  significantly stronger than you may think.
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  So yes, maybe if we're taking the de influencing content
• 17:21
  creators and slow down your shopping because you don't need
• 17:24
  to buy everything. But now let's take a big
• 17:26
  transition into one of the major discourses around this
• 17:29
  conversation, specifically around propaganda and
• 17:32
  consumption, and that is Taylor Swift.
• 17:35
  And I mean, like, what discourse hasn't been said about this
• 17:37
  album already, but I promise she really ties into this.
• 17:40
  Regardless of what you feel about her music, one thing that
• 17:42
  is undeniable about Taylor Swift is that she is a businesswoman
• 17:45
  first. And while I know the stands will
• 17:46
  come for me for this, I do want to say it is not just her that
• 17:49
  does this, but overconsumption is definitely encouraged under
• 17:53
  Miss Swifty. I see tactics like this where
• 17:55
  each vinyl variant is specifically marketed as having
• 17:59
  a different song on it that isn't on the previous variant,
• 18:03
  that you know will take months and months and months to make it
• 18:06
  onto streaming, and that there will likely never be a vinyl
• 18:10
  that contains all the different songs from all the different
• 18:12
  variants in one place. That is particularly
• 18:15
  manipulative, and I would be willing to bet money that this
• 18:19
  will not be the last final variant of TTPD that's released.
• 18:23
  That will have something exclusive to that variant that
• 18:26
  makes fans specifically want to buy it in addition to whatever
• 18:30
  they've already bought sight unseen or unheard or whatever.
• 18:36
  And they're just going to buy multiple things because it's a
• 18:39
  frenzy. Not only because it's a specific
• 18:42
  variant, but also because it's released for a very limited
• 18:46
  period of time while supplies last and you're never told when
• 18:50
  or if it will be made available again, creating a like false
• 18:54
  scarcity market. This new album has around I
• 18:56
  think 28 physical variants alone all using the limited stock
• 19:01
  only. Like this is peak over
• 19:02
  consumption core. It's all the same songs y'all
• 19:04
  are going to get digitally soon. And like yes bring back physical
• 19:07
  media but like why do you need 28 of the same album?
• 19:09
  And yes there are people that are buying multiples of this.
• 19:12
  Like it really feels like y'all are under spells and she's
• 19:15
  exploding your wallet. Like I'm an Ariana Stan I love
• 19:17
  that woman down. I stream every song every album
• 19:20
  on repeat and I know that she's released her variants.
• 19:22
  I'm personally not buying them. And like, don't get me wrong,
• 19:25
  like if this is some indie artist, like I get it,
• 19:28
  supporting your local small artist, but can we be real?
• 19:30
  This is Taylor Swift, 1 of the, if not the biggest artist out
• 19:33
  right now. What are we doing with 28
• 19:35
  versions? Like this is biblical levels of
• 19:37
  greed. And we're not going to talk
• 19:39
  about the waste that comes along with that.
• 19:40
  But what we are going to talk about is Taylor Swift herself.
• 19:43
  Miss America's propaganda darling.
• 19:45
  Many people have called her out for her lukewarm white feminist
• 19:47
  stances in the era of political correctness, namely her Miss
• 19:51
  Americana documentary when she cried about caring so much about
• 19:53
  feminism despite her family's beliefs right now.
• 19:56
  Put that in contrast, now that conservatism is in full swing
• 19:59
  both politically and in the general zeitgeist that she's
• 20:02
  made ties with the NFL, her circle is looking more
• 20:04
  homogeneous than ever and her lyrics are offering questionable
• 20:07
  at best in microaggressive at worst messaging.
• 20:09
  So see how there's a changing of behaviors and attitudes to meet
• 20:13
  the times. It seems that she just kind of
• 20:15
  goes wherever is most profitable at the time.
• 20:18
  Now I know people have analyzed her lyrics to death, talking
• 20:20
  about how some of the lyrics can be seen as microaggressively
• 20:22
  racist, later with pygmyisms, misogyny, and generally kind of
• 20:26
  conservative. You know, just generally keeping
• 20:27
  it interesting. But one thing that really stood
• 20:29
  out from all this is who it was coming from.
• 20:31
  She's one of the most lucrative stars, selling stadiums out.
• 20:34
  She has the life of the famous star, a life many people dream
• 20:37
  of. She's successful in her own
• 20:39
  right and has this whole empire around her.
• 20:41
  Yet she's here saying that despite all of this glitz and
• 20:44
  glammy life, all she wants is to be by her man and to have his
• 20:47
  kids and to live the nuclear family in the sub Arabs with a
• 20:50
  basketball hoop in the backyard. And while people can aspire and
• 20:52
  wish for whatever they want, it is important to understand the
• 20:55
  times in which we are operating. It's just really interesting to
• 20:59
  hear this messaging come from someone who historically built
• 21:02
  her brand up by being this independent girl boss and is now
• 21:05
  telling her majority women fanbase that hey, even though I
• 21:08
  am like the peak independent woman and can do it all, what I
• 21:10
  really yearn for is the all white American family dream.
• 21:14
  And if that doesn't sound like some propaganda given the times
• 21:16
  that we are currently in, I don't know what does.
• 21:18
  In an era where women's rights are being stripped,
• 21:20
  conservatives blaming women for the reason that the birth rate
• 21:22
  is so low, to the rise of things like tried wives and the
• 21:25
  ideology that like, I'm just a girl so I don't want to think
• 21:27
  you're like do hard things. All of these things that seem to
• 21:30
  exist independently all hodgepodge to a kind of
• 21:34
  problematic and regressive rhetoric if you think about it.
• 21:37
  And it's undeniable that Taylor Swift is a powerful political
• 21:40
  force. When she told people to register
• 21:41
  to vote, they took it serious. And while it's unclear to know
• 21:44
  exactly how many people were registered from her posting that
• 21:47
  it is known that 400,000 people did.
• 21:49
  Click the link, which I think is important to note in the context
• 21:52
  of her impact. Especially with younger
• 21:53
  demographics engaging in politics, she's positioned
• 21:55
  herself to be in a place of influence and as previously, use
• 21:58
  that when it benefits her and her bottom dollar, getting her
• 22:00
  fans to support her whichever way the pendulum swings.
• 22:03
  And if the pervasive messaging right now is for motherhood,
• 22:05
  nuclear family, and nationalism, then that's where we're going to
• 22:09
  go. All this is to say that no one
• 22:10
  is above or immune to propaganda.
• 22:12
  It is everywhere. And while some may be more
• 22:14
  citizen and insidious than others, it is still important to
• 22:17
  understand when you're being advertised to, how you're being
• 22:20
  advertised to, and why you specifically are being
• 22:23
  advertised this specific ad. Because at a time where
• 22:26
  overconsumption is ad heights as important to distinguish whether
• 22:30
  what you want is truly what you want or just what brands told
• 22:33
  you to.