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
#1 Immigrants ‘Taking’ Our Jobs
Immigrants are ‘taking’ our jobs, instead of employers seeking to pay criminally low wages to people with fewer choices.
Image credits: slackfrop
#2 Unpaid Internships
Unpaid internships. They should be banned
Image credits: marisquo
#3 Billionaires And Ceos Being Self-Made
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.
Image credits: Mcbagelflavor
#4 Global Warming Being The Responsibility Of Just The Individual
That global warming is the responsibility of the individual and not about 100 corporations.
Image credits: Fire__fall
#5 Work Culture
Working 5 days a week for 8 hours a day and still not being able to afford necessities.
Image credits: jollyrogerbumps
#6 Sugar Industry Blaming Fatty Foods For Obesity
Sugar industry blaming fatty foods for obesity, sparking the low-fat trends and ignoring how bad sugar is for your health.
Image credits: BlackSage8
#7 Referring To Insurance As "Healthcare"
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.
Image credits: armahillo
#8 Dandelions Being Weeds
Dandelions are weeds. They’re actually very nutritious and great for pollinators. Big Grass are a bunch of d**kheads
Image credits: culnaej
#9 Pharmaceutical Marketing
"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.
Image credits: patches181
#10 Attaching Health Insurance To Your Job
Attaching health insurance to your job and if you have a family and leave your job, you're f**ked.
Image credits: Ennion
#11 Weddings And Engagement Rings
Everything about wedding and engagement rings
Image credits: Justa_little_wrath
#12 Single-Use Packaging
That it is ok to produce a ton of single-use packaging as long as you don’t “litter” it.
Image credits: AmateurOntologist
#13 Plastic Recycling
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.
Image credits: FriendlyWisconsinite
#14 Politicians Being A Middleman For Corporations To Influence Government Policies
Politicians being a middleman for corporations to influence government policies, instead of middlemen for the people to influence government policies.
Image credits: OneTwoKnow
#15 Products That Wear Out After Limited Use
Planned obsolescence
Image credits: Lenny_III
#16 Logo T-Shirts
Logo T-Shirts. The consumer literally pays to advertise a brand.
Image credits: Powerful-Reaction284
#17 Bottled Water
Buying bottled tap water.
Image credits: Whosyouranimedaddy
#18 Precious Stones, Meat And Printer Ink
Diamonds.Real men eat meat.
That cost of printer ink.
Image credits: IndigoTrailsToo
#19 Sending Your DNA To Find Out Things About Yourself
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.
Image credits: ThadisJones
#20 Terms Of Service Agreements
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.
Image credits: WolfThick
#21 Breakfast Being The Most Important Meal Of The Day
"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day" was a marketing campaign used by Kellogs to help sell their cereal.
Image credits: -eDgAR-
#22 Baby Things
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.
Image credits: lexrp
#23 Monoculture Grass Lawns
Monoculture grass lawns.
Image credits: OwningMOS
#24 Work Grind And Everything Associated With It
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?
Image credits: claire0
#25 Companies And Taxes
Companies like Intuit have lobbied to make sure filing taxes can't be free and easy.
Image credits: FunnOnABunn
#26 Commercials
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
Image credits: Psychological-Site-9
#27 Diamonds Being Indestructible
That diamonds are forever.. as in indestructible.
Image credits: RonDeoo
#28 Mother's Day
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.
Image credits: _Royal_Insylum
#29 Using A Lot Of Toothpaste When Brushing Teeth
An entire nurdle of toothpaste on your brush.You don't need that much. A pea-sized amount is enough.
Image credits: starstarstar42
#30 That You Need To Drink Milk In Order To Get Calcium
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!
Image credits: ur-squirrel-buddy
#31 Various Holidays
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.
Image credits: Share-Shuffle
#32 Proposing With An Expensive Ring
Buying a diamond ring when you propose
Image credits: thealchimistguy
#33 Credits
Credit Ratings
Image credits: DexterJameson
#34 Apple Marketing
AppleWhoever 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
Image credits: Brian_Gay
#35 Women Shaving
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.
#36 Carrots Helping You See In The Dark
Carrots helping you see in the dark was WW2 propaganda to confuse the Germans.
Image credits: -eDgAR-
#37 KFC In Japan During Christmas
People eating KFC during Christmas time in Japan because of KFC's marketing campaign that promoted their products as a traditional Western Christmas treat.
Image credits: ClementinaGriffie
#38 Not Discussing Your Income With Co-Workers
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.
Image credits: Chico119
#39 Debts
“You should pay off debt by getting more debt!”#40 Cars
I'm surprised I haven't seen someone say the idea that cars are indispensable, at least in the United States.Unless you live in one of about 15 cities in the US, life is much more complicated and difficult without a car, and even then our cities are almost completely designed around accommodating car access and traffic.
#41 Merchandise
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.
Image credits: TheMiddleManz
#42 Jaywalking
Jaywalking.Jaywalking or Jay-Birds was a derogatory term coined by automobile manufacturers to get pedestrians off of the road so more cars would sell.
#43 Chocolate Diamonds
Someone mentioning diamonds reminds me of """""chocolate""""" diamonds.What are they in actuality? Industrial diamonds (if I remember correctly) that are more common and/or less 'nice' than normal rocks, but clever marketing has convinced some women that they're "exotic".
Image credits: Blue_Dog_Democracy
#44 Food Pyramid
i think i heard the food pyramid is a scam
Image credits: mpga479m
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