RpNation

Who cares if it's a marketing tactic, honestly? Funny is funny.

Well this is a whole philosophical rabbit hole I'm not even sure I'm qualified to go into, lol...

But I guess I'd say it's good to be a conscious consumer and to be aware of the new and different forms of advertisements and manipulative tactics out there, and to know when you're being sold something...

...Especially when there're some more insidious advertising tactics out there. For example, advertisements designed to attack your sense of self-worth and body image in order to create a sense of need that the company can fill.

To be clear, not trying to shame anyone for liking Wendy's memes (especially since I like them too).

Oh, I wasn't trying to get all philosophical at all, really. Yeah, screw the shady, manipulative tactics of companies. Be aware of them. You can laugh at their jokes and still not support them, though. What's funny is funny.

Oh, lol. Well, I'm not gonna not jump at the opportunity to write a wall of text, after all. : P

As far as marketing tactics go, this is a pretty good one. It's creative and takes works, plus it contributes funny jokes. Marketing isn't inherently evil, and I like to believe a good chunk of the population knows not to immediately buy a product over advertisements barely relating to it.

No, marketing isn't inherently good or evil: It's neutral. But it has only one goal: to sell you something.

I have to disagree that the majority of the population knows not to go out and buy something when they see silly meme ads. Not because I'm cynical, but because: If the ads didn't get people through the door, they wouldn't exist. There's really no other reason that corporations would pay for them otherwise.

Ok, I gotta sleep now. It's 4:30 in the morning. No more essays on conscious consumption and the ethics of marketing tactics, lol

It's not like they don't get people through the door: it's just that, beyond that minority that goes and just buys whatever because of the add, there are others who attracted to the add and upon further investigation decide they want to buy the product. The goal of marketing is to sell you something, but being sold something is only bad if you don't want the product.

Well, that brings up the question of how much we really "want" the things that are sold to us. Every single person's psychology has been changed by advertisements. We recognize brands, we recognize hundreds of logos. We're even "faithful" to certain brands (Mac vs. PC, for example)...

...And that wouldn't be an issue except that overconsumption is really screwing us over.

Climate change is already having an impact on the world and it's only getting worse. That's the biggest issue, but there's also income inequality, worker exploitation, a Texas-sized ball of trash in the ocean, even corporate atrocities that nobody is ever held accountable for (looking at you, Nestlé).

For Wendy's, since I picked that specifically for my trash joke, they have some small part in the problem of the rising levels of obesity and the overconsumption of meat.

But this shit is exhausting to think about, and I wanna laugh at the stupid meme.

You can't completely take the responsability of the consumer's hands, and it's also unfair to say that someone can't call their attention to their product via clever advertising that isn't simply direct. Regardless of whether a product is good for you, if you're someone who decides to buy the product (rather than someone who just goes with the current, and even then...) then you want the product.

As long as a company doesn't attempt to deceive you, then it is YOUR responsability as a consumer to have some judgement about whether you want the product. The only exceptions to this are those who due to age or some condition are unable to make full use of their own judgement.