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A comment on Jury told that Meta, Google 'engineered addiction' at landmark US trial. Parent comment

Re:Jury told that Meta, Google 'engineered addiction' at lan... by cm2012 on Tuesday February 10, 2026 @01:27PM (#46964482)
The only products that sell this in advertising actually provide those brand features. Essentially people pay money to increase their perceived status.

Like, if you sell a luxury handbag. When people buy it, they know 70% of the value comes from the advertising saying "this is a high value product" as a status signal. I think that's really dumb, but that's what people want.

It also existed a long time before ads itself did.

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Re:Jury told that Meta, Google 'engineered addiction' at lan... by Dylan16807 on Tuesday February 10, 2026 @02:23PM (#46965404)
So you've never seen like, a beer ad that promises status and attractiveness?
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Re:Jury told that Meta, Google 'engineered addiction' at lan... by cm2012 on Tuesday February 10, 2026 @03:08PM (#46966061)
Beer/liquor is in the same category of status good. People pay a lot to show the brand.
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Re:Jury told that Meta, Google 'engineered addiction' at lan... by Dylan16807 on Tuesday February 10, 2026 @05:31PM (#46967902)
Some liquor brands are like that. 95% or more of beer ads that imply status are just lying to you.
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Re:Jury told that Meta, Google 'engineered addiction' at lan... by anonymars on Tuesday February 10, 2026 @06:16PM (#46968423)
Similarly, something must have been missing from the AXE body spray instructions
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Re:Jury told that Meta, Google 'engineered addiction' at lan... by tremon on Wednesday February 11, 2026 @08:49AM (#46974937)
> they know 70% of the value comes from the advertising

So, you are aware that advertising is in large part responsible for shaping what is perceived as high-value status signals in society. You're also aware that for certain products the only distinction between those and their alternatives is that specific high-value association.

How come you started out from the position that advertising is "just showing off different aspects of the product" then?

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