I (straight male) think a woman smoking a cigarette is really really hot. Like it turns me feral when I see it.

I have to constantly remind myself that is just marketing from cigarette companies haha

About a century, actually. Marketing began in the US after ~~WWII~~ WWI when we suddenly had the ability to create more products than people needed. People needed to be convinced to buy shit they didn't need, and thus marketing was invented.

The first notable marketing campaign was cigarettes for ladies in 1929. Cigarette companies were missing a whole section of consumers because women weren't supposed to smoke, especially in public. A group of beautiful young models were hired to smoke cigarettes at a big important parade that was going to get lots of coverage in the newspaper. A reporter was paid to "report" on their "carefree" and "liberated" manner as they smoked "torches of freedom" out at the festivities. Equality, feminism, yay!

Associating male virility with vehicle choice was next. Both were brain children of Sigmund Freud's nephew, Edward Bernays, who was very interested in his uncle's ideas about people's actions being influenced by their subconscious mind, before it was popular in America.

This is a four hour documentary about the social manipulation of the last century, including the above, getting young progressives to vote for Regan in the 80s and much more. Century of the Self (BBC 2002)

"WHATZAAAAAAAAAP!!!"

It could also just be the beginning of a new fad.

Fidget spinners were uncommon and kinda weird before they really took off.

Natural early adoption of a thing solely by word of mouth looks almost the same as marketing.

🎵 Rügenwalder Mühlenfest 🎵 ...

Social Media, just like all media, does not exist to "earn money with ads", or even profile you. It is about being able to influence you through controlling the availability of content you don't even realize. It doesn't matter if you interact. All the other bullshit is intentionally published to distract, on media. Chat bots have a bias. They don't exist to help you. They exist to control the responses.

Or theatre students. They used to send them out to act weird in public to get over feeling self conscious.

And yes, USAian hollywood films are just ~~large marketing campaigns~~ propaganda.

In all likelihood some of your own interests and habits were put there by a marketing department. Not because it's good or right or useful but because it profited... somebody who could afford to hire a marketing department.

[off topic?]

"The Source Of The Nile" by Avram Davidson. Science fiction short story.

Ad man is always looking for the next big thing. One day he notices some kids wearing their sneakers cut up. A few days later he realizes that the fad has exploded. He patiently tracks down where the fad started. It turns out there's one family that starts all the fads. It's never explained why or how, just that somehow these people are the ones who decide what's going to be popular for the rest of the world.

Motorbikes are only considered cool because of ~~propaganda~~ marketing.