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Ways You’re Secretly Tricked By Companies - Part 2 · Be Amazed

0:00
[SPEAKER_02]: I was in target mining my own business, and the next thing I know I'm buying party hats 12 bottles of market pantries, zesty, a tie, and dressing, and baby formula.
0:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Cash darn it, I don't even have a baby.
0:12
[SPEAKER_02]: How'd they get me?
0:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, ready yourselves, your favorite influencers, airlines, and that cute server you think likes you, came back for round two.
0:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Everyone can catch these hands as I tell you more ways you're secretly tricked by companies.
0:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Great things, Traveller!
0:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Say what funny looking clothes!
0:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, where are my manners?
0:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Tessai, good-end wizard-phase reveal!
0:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to the Kingdom of Amizatopia!
0:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Before beginning your quest!
0:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Want to buy this freaking dope sword for just $2.99?
1:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Nowadays, many video games use micro-transactions, tiny chargers which unlock and game digital items to bolster game revenue.
1:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Micro-transactions themselves aren't too bad, sure they're annoying, but they create a continuous dream of income to support game development, maintain servers and fix bugs.
1:20
[SPEAKER_02]: However, because these charges seem inconsequential, they can quickly spiral out of control.
1:26
[SPEAKER_02]: One runescape fanatic spent an eye-watering $62,000 on endgame items in a single year.
1:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Yikes!
1:34
[SPEAKER_02]: That's nothing compared to a Transformer's Earth Wars player who coughed up a staggering $150,000.
1:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Cheapers!
1:43
[SPEAKER_02]: How does someone end up spending so much?
1:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, here's the tricky part.
1:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Yoda won the developers behind the Transformers game, have a machine learning algorithm that can identify the players with the highest spending potential at a whopping 87% accuracy through their game behaviors.
2:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Knowing this information, Yoda won can unfairly target them with more opportunities to spend.
2:09
[SPEAKER_02]: On average, mobile gamers spend just over $24 a year, but the top 0.19% of spenders termed whales are the ones spending the real money.
2:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Their financial contributions make up almost half of the total money made from micro-transactions.
2:29
[SPEAKER_02]: So in-game, they're the ones wearing the super premium cosmetics like Mr. Catchme smooching your girl outside the grand exchange over here.
2:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Here, she's all yours, damn!
2:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I've grown up under our consumerist overlord Jeffrey Bezos' dictatorial regime, it's hard to believe that there aren't a bajillion copies of everything sitting on a warehouse shelf and an undisclosed location.
2:52
[SPEAKER_02]: But that's not always the case.
2:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Some companies make it deliberately harder to obtain their products.
2:59
[SPEAKER_02]: What?
2:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Why?
3:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, by releasing them in limited numbers, it generates more height.
3:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Anyone who's ever tried buying a game console on release knows how frustrating it can be.
3:10
[SPEAKER_02]: When the Nintendo Wii launched back in 2006, Nintendo were producing less than 1.8 million units a month.
3:16
[SPEAKER_02]: That might sound like a lot, but GameStores threw out the world we're struggling to keep their shelves stopped by keeping demand high and Nintendo created an exclusivity about owning a Wii.
3:27
[SPEAKER_02]: This made its appeal shoot up, at which point the company started producing more eventually resulting in total sales topping in astonishing 100 million units.
3:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's not just gamers who are feeling it.
3:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Streetwear does it too.
3:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Fashion brands supreme popularize the concept of that.
3:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Product drop by releasing limited edition products throughout the year.
3:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Diehard fans would scramble online or queue for hours to cop the latest limited edition drops which released every Thursday at 11 a.m. Fashionistas have literally bought anything that came out in the limited supply meant that demand on the resale market for anything supreme guaranteed good returns.
4:07
[SPEAKER_02]: People were flipping ridiculous items like Supreme branded bricks for $1,000, and fire extinguishers were $1,500.
4:15
[SPEAKER_02]: In the 1930s, baseball icon Babe Ruth became one of the first athletes to sign a brand deal.
4:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Fast forward to today though, Oxford George Foreman has made at least $250 million from endorsing grills and LeBron James' lifetime Nike deal could be worth a dizzying $1 billion.
4:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Hi, yes me!
4:35
[SPEAKER_02]: On average, celebrity endorsements boost sales by a tidy 4%, that doesn't sound like much, but if you're a multi-billion dollar company like Nike, that's serious cabbage.
4:46
[SPEAKER_02]: However recently, we've seen our favorite faces take on new roles as ambassadors and shareholders.
4:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Part of a little thing called Prime.
4:54
[SPEAKER_02]: The beverage company is pushed by Logan Paul and KSI, but they only own 40% between them.
5:00
[SPEAKER_02]: The rest belongs to a merchandising company called Congo Brands who do all the heavy work, but would it sell as well if Paul's and KSI's young fan bases new over half of their money went to a company in Louisville, Kentucky?
5:14
[SPEAKER_02]: No.
5:15
[SPEAKER_02]: It's all about their influence.
5:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Still, primes way better than other sports drinks, right?
5:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Not really.
5:22
[SPEAKER_02]: It's about the same.
5:23
[SPEAKER_02]: It's pumped full of artificial sugars and underdosed in some of the key nutrients.
5:28
[SPEAKER_02]: It's
5:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Wait, my favorite celebs wouldn't have seen me what they- Oh, buddy, this little sting.
5:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Sure, and I know celebs are money hungry narcissists.
5:38
[SPEAKER_02]: However, some, well, some definitely are.
5:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Without a doubt, the worst have to be the Kardashians.
5:45
[SPEAKER_02]: They've taken money to remote some of the worst products I've ever seen.
5:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Ready?
5:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Daily Bops, Daymokshakes, Ditees, Skimsway Trainer, Bootyliff sneakers, Hero Vitamins, Crypto Scams, Bantees, a big music festival.
6:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And a Pepsi commercial which trivializes the Black Lives Matter movement.
6:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, I know, would be amazed you do brand deals too.
6:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I take sponsors, so I've got no problem with that.
6:13
[SPEAKER_02]: What I don't like is telling impressionable fans they can achieve a physique that cost thousands of dollars in nutritionists, personal trainers, and surgeons by drinking tea that
6:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Influencers have nothing without their fans, and if you think them by chilling on healthy products for a quick buck, you suck, and your fans deserve better.
6:36
[SPEAKER_02]: So, there's this cute waitress at my local Olive Garden, whenever I see her, it's like life's moving slow motion, and I think she's got the hats for me, too.
6:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Every time I go in, she gives me free red sticks and smiles at that.
6:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Score!
6:53
[SPEAKER_02]: But one of my homies says that restaurants only give you free stuff because it encourages reciprocity from the customer.
7:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Basically they do something generous, but it's only to get you to spend more.
7:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Wait, what?
7:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Say that basket of free bread you get at the start of a meal?
7:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Bread causes a spike in insulin, which may result in you ordering and eating more.
7:13
[SPEAKER_02]: It also delays you ordering your main course, meaning you're likely to order more drinks.
7:18
[SPEAKER_02]: And beverages are one of the most heavily marked up products in the restaurant, so they easily recoup any money they lost on the bread.
7:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Suddenly you spend way more money than you'd planned.
7:29
[SPEAKER_02]: The restaurant probably isn't losing any money from the bread anyway, sure it seems free, but it could easily be factored into the cost of other food you order.
7:38
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, when was the last time you looked at a bill and saw rent charges, gas bill, or paying for the chef's kid's swimming lessons?
7:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh god, he's right, I mean, used!
7:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh well, plenty more fish in the sea.
7:51
[SPEAKER_02]: I heard there's a Betty at Cranker Barrel given out free biscuits.
7:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Was that beautiful?
7:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Want to slather me engraver?
8:00
[SPEAKER_02]: in thing so.
8:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Jim might remember how sites used dark patterns to force you to accept all of their tracking cookies.
8:07
[SPEAKER_02]: You've seen this before, right?
8:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Were the except all button is more enticing than the reject button?
8:12
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's if there's a reject button at all.
8:15
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you click except all, but there's no Oreos, not a lot of those, not even a little Debbie's or a real creep-eye!
8:23
[SPEAKER_02]: wrong cookie nomnuts.
8:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Whenever you visit a website, your browser sends the server a request and the web page replies with a tiny text file it stores on your device.
8:32
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the cookie.
8:33
[SPEAKER_02]: They enable the website to collect information like browser type and settings and remember your login information to streamline your experience.
8:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Be dough!
8:41
[SPEAKER_02]: But for every double stuff, there's a bell-beat up breakfast.
8:45
[SPEAKER_02]: But, not all cookies are good cookies.
8:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Some allow third-party websites, meaning that you or the site you're on to install files that silently stalk you across the entire internet, while they can't infect your device with malware malicious code hackers can exploit them to gain access to your web sessions and steal your information, and that's the problem.
9:07
[SPEAKER_02]: The double stuff and the Yucky Bell Vita Zromix together in a cookie jar.
9:11
[SPEAKER_02]: If he had accepted all and we all done it, you don't really know what you're giving the company access to.
9:16
[SPEAKER_02]: What do you think?
9:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Is this loss of privacy just the way the cookie crumbles?
9:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Our should more be done to protect users.
9:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Last time I was in the grocery store, I couldn't believe how expensive everything is now.
9:28
[SPEAKER_02]: And as well as my wallet being lighter, I've noticed my card getting lighter too.
9:32
[SPEAKER_02]: See, despite food prices going up, the amount of food you get for that price has fallen on average by 13%.
9:40
[SPEAKER_02]: That's because in order to dodge raising the price, some companies try and get away with selling get less of their product for the same price.
9:48
[SPEAKER_02]: This is called shrinkflation.
9:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Now before we get all mad, is there a good reason?
9:53
[SPEAKER_02]: The companies say that although everything along the supply chain has got more expensive, they still want customers to enjoy their goods, even if that means giving them less for their money.
10:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Hmm.
10:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Can anyone smell that?
10:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Smells like corporate poopy talk to me.
10:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Realistically, they're scared that if the price of their product increases customers won't buy it.
10:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Instead, they disguise a crap of your deal behind either the same price or a marginally increased one to protect their profit margins.
10:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And that sucks.
10:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Cadbury sold LGBTQ plus themed chocolate eggs at the same price as their regular chocolate eggs, even though the rainbow eggs contained
10:32
[SPEAKER_02]: So wait, they released a product specifically for this community, just to rip them off.
10:37
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like stealing candy from a baby.
10:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Actually, some companies will literally steal from babies.
10:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Pyrracee Baby shampoo used to be 64 fluid ounces, and now it's just 48 fluid ounces.
10:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Huh?
10:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Pretty sure babies haven't gotten smaller.
10:53
[SPEAKER_02]: Yep, it seems like every company is giving you last while making their pockets fatter.
10:58
[SPEAKER_02]: I bet the subway CEO is kicking himself from marketing his sandwich is based on their size now.
11:04
[SPEAKER_02]: My 6 inch sub-shanked to a 4-ancher.
11:07
[SPEAKER_02]: I'd be y'all raged.
11:08
[SPEAKER_02]: This world everything has a price.
11:11
[SPEAKER_02]: I'd say yours is 369.
11:17
[SPEAKER_02]: But because everything has a price, there are subtle ways companies make their prices seem more attractive than they really are.
11:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Say I've got two pens.
11:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Pena costs $2.00 and Pena B costs $4.00.
11:30
[SPEAKER_02]: If I charged $1.99 for Pena and kept Pena B at $4, only 18% of people would buy Pena B.
11:37
[SPEAKER_02]: However, Pena was $2.00 and Pena B was $3.99, that number shoots up to a whopping 44%.
11:45
[SPEAKER_02]: By shrinking the largest number, it tricks buyers into thinking they're getting a better deal.
11:50
[SPEAKER_02]: But this also works in the old Uno Reverse.
11:53
[SPEAKER_02]: Luxury goods are often sold with whole number prices like $40 instead of $39.99, so buyers associate them with superior quality.
12:02
[SPEAKER_02]: In fact, there are thousands of tricks when it comes to pricing goods.
12:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Many restaurants drop the currency symbol from their menu so diners don't create a mental association with spending money.
12:13
[SPEAKER_02]: But they also remove extra characters from the price so it looks more manageable.
12:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Here, nowadays companies aren't just after your money, they want your time, too.
12:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Big Tech has dedicated years to figuring out the most effective ways to hijack our minds and make their products as irresistible and addictive as possible.
12:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And some of these methods are so deceptively simple you'd probably never notice.
12:36
[SPEAKER_02]: When Facebook first introduced a notification icon to alert users of activity, it was initially blue, but there was a glaring problem, nobody was using the feature.
12:46
[SPEAKER_02]: So they switched it from blue to red, and suddenly there was a massive spike in user interaction.
12:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Surely it's not a straightforward as a color switch, right?
12:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Well pretty much.
12:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Red is symbolic of alertness and danger, so when users see the notification they're more likely to engage with it.
13:05
[SPEAKER_02]: When messaging service WhatsApp introduced their notification badge, user engagement shot up by over a hundred percent.
13:13
[SPEAKER_02]: What's more, there's no way to change this setting without hacking or using third-party applications.
13:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Software developers could easily create a feature that allows you to change this yourself, but it's not in their best interest, so they don't.
13:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeesh!
13:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Kind of makes me feel like a dirty little guinea pig, they're putting blue or red lipstick on it, waiting for a reaction.
13:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Have you ever gone to check your phone, then five hours later, you're still watching Kempie Borough videos?
13:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
13:46
[SPEAKER_02]: But is it really your fault?
13:49
[SPEAKER_02]: See, in 2006, Tech Genius Azeraskin developed a way to streamline user experiences on social media.
13:56
[SPEAKER_02]: He called the Endless Scroll.
13:58
[SPEAKER_02]: At the time, users had to click between each individual page they were following in order to access different content.
14:05
[SPEAKER_02]: and the scroll on the other hand, curated a constant stream of easily accessible content without inconveniencing the user.
14:13
[SPEAKER_02]: However, big tech firms manipulated this to the extreme.
14:17
[SPEAKER_02]: When we move from post-aposed, our brains release a chemical called dopamine, creating a little neurological high.
14:23
[SPEAKER_02]: This rush keeps us scrolling and scrolling looking for a big hit.
14:28
[SPEAKER_02]: And one hit leads to another, creating an addictive cycle who can useers on the continuous flow of information.
14:35
[SPEAKER_02]: So Big Tech Farms push the most addictive dopamine-producing content to keep users hooked for as long as possible.
14:42
[SPEAKER_02]: More engagement means more ads, which means more mullah!
14:46
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like the world's most powerful slot machine is sitting right there in your pocket.
14:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Every day an absolutely horrifying 200,000 human lifetimes are spent scrolling.
14:57
[SPEAKER_02]: And experts are saying it's causing productivity loss, mental and physical health concerns, and sensory overload.
15:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Look, I don't want to echo your parents, but take breaks, go outside, touch some grass, find your happy place.
15:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Become the Kabybada.
15:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
15:32
[SPEAKER_02]: However, companies know that limited-time sales like these can send shoppers like me, a little cray cray, and they use it to their advantage.
15:41
[SPEAKER_02]: According to a 2019 report, 87% of Amazon's Black Friday deals on the most popular products like TVs, cameras, and fitness trackers were no cheaper than at other times of the year.
15:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Instead, they use the hype and fervor around the day to drive people into making bad decisions.
15:58
[SPEAKER_02]: But this isn't just Black Friday deals, and applies to all of Amazon's lightning and daily deals, too.
16:04
[SPEAKER_02]: These offers usher shoppers into making hasty purchases by restricting how long the so-called deal is available for.
16:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Some sites even go as far as smacking a big old ticking timer on the listing to urge customers to pay faster.
16:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Whilst there are times when timers make sense, like ticker releases, most of the time it unfairly pressures buyers into snap decisions with
16:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Darn, if I had that perspective, there's no way out of a salt at that poor old woman!
16:33
[SPEAKER_02]: rip grandma.
16:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Dropping the prices one way companies trick you into spending more money.
16:38
[SPEAKER_02]: But so is giving you more stuff.
16:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, that's confusing, but picture the scene.
16:45
[SPEAKER_02]: You've gone into your favorite store to buy a plain white shirt.
16:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Nothing fancy, nothing special.
16:50
[SPEAKER_02]: And front of you are two options.
16:52
[SPEAKER_02]: One T-shirt for $10 or two of those same T-shirts for $18.
16:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Which do you choose?
17:00
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll give you a second to lock in your answers.
17:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Surely, two shirts for $18 is the better deal, right?
17:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Each shirt comes out at $9, which is cheaper than the $10 shirt, but you only want it one shirt.
17:14
[SPEAKER_02]: You spend $8 more than you needed to on something you don't need or want.
17:18
[SPEAKER_02]: These kinds of package deals catch you out by offering something that looks like a good deal, but it's on to make you spend more money.
17:26
[SPEAKER_02]: So next time you're buying up a spicy looking deal, ask yourself.
17:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Do I really need the better deal or should I just get what I came for?
17:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Fake sales aren't the only way online retailers are to officially make their products more desirable.
17:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, heck, no.
17:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's face it.
17:43
[SPEAKER_02]: When buying anything online, you have to kind of see what others are saying before taking the plunge.
17:48
[SPEAKER_02]: But not everything you see online is trustworthy.
17:52
[SPEAKER_02]: and less it's me, of course.
17:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Recently a growing problem with large online retailers such as Amazon and Wish are the swaths of fake reviews littering product pages, making it hard to know if something is actually any good or not.
18:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Seriously, as many as 61% of reviews on electrical goods are from Faker bought at accounts.
18:14
[SPEAKER_02]: What?
18:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Easy tag a boy got enough trust issues, okay?
18:19
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
18:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Even the real reviews can be grossly misleading.
18:24
[SPEAKER_02]: A recent batch of reviews for Facebook's portal device were written by the Facebook employees who made it.
18:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Of course, they're going to hype it up.
18:32
[SPEAKER_02]: You can actually join Facebook groups that offer cashback or voucher incentives for leaving 5-0 reviews on certain products without you needing to have bought them.
18:40
[SPEAKER_02]: You can actually join Facebook groups that offer cashback or voucher incentives for leaving five-store reviews on certain products without you needing to even have bought them.
18:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Amazon and Wish could limit reviews to customers who definitely bought the products.
18:55
[SPEAKER_02]: But they don't, because this way old Javebe can dig his hands into your pockets a little easier.
19:01
[SPEAKER_02]: What a turd!
19:03
[SPEAKER_02]: deep down we all want social approval.
19:05
[SPEAKER_02]: It's human nature to want to feel wanted.
19:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Back in 2007, engineer Justin Rosenstein knew this all too well when he developed the like button for Facebook so users could share a little virtual positivity.
19:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Now all.
19:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Remember that dopamine chemical I mentioned earlier?
19:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, people liking your poster updates also gives you that little end.
19:27
[SPEAKER_02]: But the powers that be at Facebook realize they could utilize this to target you when you're at your most vulnerable.
19:34
[SPEAKER_02]: So you've just changed your profile picture and you're feeling a bit insecure about it.
19:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Facebook knows your phone or will, so it gives it a little bump in your friend's news fees.
19:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Then, every time a friend likes or comments, Facebook sends you a push notification pulling you right back in.
19:50
[SPEAKER_02]: They know exactly when to pull the strings and get all your attention.
19:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Sure, a free little boost is nice, but not at the expense of exploiting your vulnerabilities for their gains.
20:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Nowadays, social media likes are treated as a kind of social currency, the more you get, the more important or influential you come across.
20:10
[SPEAKER_02]: If you make a post that doesn't get like this highly as you'd want it, it can be debilitating to your self worth, making you more dependent on that social approval.
20:18
[SPEAKER_02]: They're like a horrible little puppet master, so remember, whilst we all like having well received social media posts, nothing beats showing love to the homies, IRL.
20:29
[SPEAKER_02]: So social media is bad for your head, big will up, tell me something I don't know.
20:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, you asked for it, your social media likes are being harvested, so companies can discover personal private treats about you.
20:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Uh-huh, what?
20:44
[SPEAKER_02]: That click, follow her like you sent to show appreciation to something you enjoyed, can reveal your sexual orientation, political leanings, religion, intelligence, and emotional stability.
20:56
[SPEAKER_02]: And the data subset for this is shocking.
20:59
[SPEAKER_02]: If you like the Daily Show, Morgan Freeman's voice and, shockingly, curly fries, I've got good news for you.
21:05
[SPEAKER_02]: You're a clever cookie.
21:07
[SPEAKER_02]: But, if you like hard or David's engine, burn Michaels, sorry buddy, I'll get you some crayons.
21:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Or at least that's what one study by the University of Cambridge found.
21:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Shockingly, the same study predicted certain traits for a large subset of the population with an outrageous 95% accuracy.
21:25
[SPEAKER_02]: But sense of information you might not want to share like sexual orientation is being collected and sold to companies, governments and potential employers, all because you have frivolously liked if you cat the Griffin Posts.
21:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Look, my life on the deal list was seminal television in the mid-delay 2000s and I will die on this hill.
21:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Is anything sander than buying yourself a little gifty like some new snakes just to find out yet don't really like how they look Hey at least I've got 30 days to return them.
21:57
[SPEAKER_02]: There's no rush
21:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Funnily enough, generous return policies like these often work in the company's favor.
22:04
[SPEAKER_02]: The longer my little gifty sits in the corner, the more likely I am to become attached to it.
22:09
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm also much more likely to trust the company and buy from them again.
22:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Don't believe me?
22:14
[SPEAKER_02]: U.S. would retailers, Zappos found that customers with the highest return rates were also the most valuable to their business.
22:21
[SPEAKER_02]: So they offered an unprecedented 365-day returns policy.
22:26
[SPEAKER_02]: And if you buy on February 29th on a leap year, this is extended up to four years until the next leap year.
22:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Yoanks, that's crazy.
22:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Zapos found that by focusing on customer retention rather than maximizing initial sale opportunities, customers are far more likely to show loyalty and come back for repeated purchases.
22:46
[SPEAKER_02]: up.
22:47
[SPEAKER_02]: So, both parties are happy, finally something we're celebrating.
22:52
[SPEAKER_02]: This is the type of trickery at all, mind.
22:55
[SPEAKER_02]: If you consume any kind of online media, you'll have been bombarded and recent years by subscription services wanting a piece of your chatter.
23:03
[SPEAKER_02]: These companies are very clever at taking your money for something that most of the time is pretty bad value.
23:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Firstly, they promote their subscriptions everywhere from podcast, social media science, to news providers, and with low-cost entry deals for 50% off for the first month free, eventually you're exposed so much to it that you break and decide to try it out.
23:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Then, once you're in, the effort of getting out just doesn't seem worth it.
23:28
[SPEAKER_02]: How is canceling my $8 unused, audible subscription going to make my life any better?
23:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe I'll get into audio books again soon?
23:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Sounds familiar, right?
23:39
[SPEAKER_02]: When you break it down, the discrepancy between cost and use of these services is terrible, but they're just so convenient.
23:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Why go to the shot to my groceries when HelloFresh can deliver expensive meals to my door?
23:53
[SPEAKER_02]: that's the kicker.
23:54
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not about giving you something amazing or even good.
23:57
[SPEAKER_02]: It just has to be barely a track of enough to stop you from canceling.
24:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Jim memberships have massively high levels of inertia.
24:05
[SPEAKER_02]: People paying for a membership and not actually going.
24:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, guilty.
24:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Most Jim goers who pay over $70 a month, pay 70% more than they would pay under a pay as you go contract.
24:18
[SPEAKER_02]: But we kid ourselves that we will go and then outweighs the financial obligation.
24:23
[SPEAKER_02]: You're back, canceling all my subscriptions?
24:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, maybe I'll just leave them another month.
24:29
[SPEAKER_02]: And the UK branded moisturizer targeted it, men were found to be almost three times costlier than the female equivalent.
24:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe that's why British men look so haggard.
24:39
[SPEAKER_02]: The point is, companies reinforce negative gender stereotypes, whether that's female's most valuable assets being their looks or men being scissy for looking after themselves.
24:48
[SPEAKER_02]: to justify higher costs.
24:51
[SPEAKER_02]: It's so out of hand that you could government banned commercials showing harmful gender stereotypes like men not changing nappies or women being bad drivers.
25:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And if you're thinking the blue-haired liberals snowflakes win again, you don't appreciate how harmful this can be.
25:06
[SPEAKER_02]: ads aren't just how companies try to sell its products.
25:09
[SPEAKER_02]: They reflect societal values and help us see our places in it, and most of the harmful stereotypes they perpetuate aren't even true.
25:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Think women being bad drivers, men are three times more likely to crash, but you wouldn't see that in an ad, would you?
25:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Traveling really is one of life's greatest pleasures, but whether you're a city breaker or a beach bomb, you've probably noticed travel companies hike their prices up just for looking at their services.
25:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Picture the scene.
25:36
[SPEAKER_02]: You've decided on your destination search for flights, look for a hotel, then gone back to book your flights and boon!
25:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Within the space of five minutes, your very affordable flights are suddenly much more expensive.
25:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Why are y'all up?
25:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Flight operators use a revenue management system which tracks sales and demand on each individual flight and it's super sensitive to even the slightest website traffic.
26:01
[SPEAKER_02]: So as more people show interest in a flight the price goes up.
26:05
[SPEAKER_02]: However if it goes up so much that people are willing to pay and flight stops selling the prices begin to drop again.
26:12
[SPEAKER_02]: But the success of the system is about finding the right seat for the right customer at the right time.
26:17
[SPEAKER_02]: That means passengers on a flight have likely all paid different prices for seats that are pretty much the same.
26:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Now it's not just happening on flights, popular travel company Airbnb have also started raising their prices incrementally with each visit.
26:32
[SPEAKER_02]: They allow independent hosts to offer guests somewhere to stay instead of an expensive hotel, but the extra revenue made from bumping up the price doesn't get passed on to the hosts.
26:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh no, it goes straight into the company coffers.
26:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Looks like my dream was spending two weeks in quam next summer or over.
26:50
[SPEAKER_02]: It's another stay K&M Mimi's Newark New Jersey for me.
26:55
[SPEAKER_02]: No Mimi, no kisses, please!
26:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Mama always said, don't eat yellow snow.
27:00
[SPEAKER_02]: It's one of the top two pieces of advice she ever gave me.
27:03
[SPEAKER_02]: The others that real estate agents are sleazy little so-and-soes.
27:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Back in 2016 real estate agents in the UK were caught engaging in a practice known as portal juggling.
27:14
[SPEAKER_02]: This simple scheme entails delisting and re-listing a house so the date of the listing is updated, giving the impression that the place is fresh to the market.
27:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Then along comes an innocent little buyer who sees a chance to jump at a brand new listing and beat the curve of interest.
27:29
[SPEAKER_02]: The little bit they know then house has actually been uncellable for a number of years.
27:33
[SPEAKER_02]: By delisting and re-listing the property with minor differences, real estate agents can manipulate the market into making the products seem far more desirable than it actually is.
27:43
[SPEAKER_02]: This was enough for UK property trade regulators to deemed portal juggling as fraud, making it a serious crime.
27:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Yikes!
27:52
[SPEAKER_02]: You bet your bottom dollar that some of those grubby, greedy little reelters are still trying there locked though, so if you suspect anything, report it.
28:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Ah, do you know, I spent all year trying to get some of your body ready, just a rock out of the beach looking like an uncook chicken.
28:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Turns out all these sugar-free health foods I've been buying aren't actually good for me.
28:14
[SPEAKER_02]: In fact, they're not even sugar-free!
28:16
[SPEAKER_02]: By law, they can contain up to 0.5 grams of sugar.
28:20
[SPEAKER_02]: However, that's not the problem.
28:22
[SPEAKER_02]: In order to compensate for the lack of sugar, they often have obscenely high levels of fat.
28:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Making them just as unhealthy if not more so.
28:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Many of these products are also packed full of sugar substitutes which despite being talented as a healthier option are arguably worse than sugar.
28:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Zero calorie sweeteners greatly increase the risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes and they also have a negative impact on metabolism appetite and gut bacteria.
28:49
[SPEAKER_02]: The fact is huge companies know we're getting more health conscious and they're trying to capitalize.
28:55
[SPEAKER_02]: The health and wellness food market is estimated at a staggering $840 billion.
29:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Phew, that's a lot of carrots.
29:05
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you're trying to get that summer bud, remember everything's okay in moderation.
29:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Happiness is a healthy relationship with food, not the scales.
29:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks for listening to the podcast.
29:17
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll see you again next time.
29:19
[SPEAKER_00]: You'll want to be amazed.