When the new Ontario (Ford) government both loosened regulation on beer pricing, and tightened government funding for post secondary education I said "I wouldn't need to drown my sorrows in cheap beer if you would help pay for my tuition." But we live in a society where institutions encourage unhealthy behaviour as a means to deal with the everyday struggle they put us through. Great video, thanks for taking the time to make it.
Went and did some quick research about advertising in The Great Depression after watching this video, being that it was a financial crisis that ruled its decade with its titular mood, and while the medium was younger and balder. Owing to the vagaries of culture, the reaction of ad agencies is in marked contrast to similar circumstances of lessened consumer purchasing power and widespread cynicism about capitalism we see today: for the most part, there was a doubling-down on escapism instead of this effort to appear down here on Earth with us. Many ads quite aggressively prototype the classic 1950s sweep-it-under-the-rug nuclear-WASP-family conformity, as a way of creating a market demographic with needs to service. A shrunk pool in a system where one still must buy to live led to more vicious competition, engendering the proliferation of new, desperate tactics, such as product placement or doctor/celebrity endorsement. (Alas, the New Deal cut down some small part of their efforts to flat-out lie.) The firms that most aggressively marketed lived fattest (competitors that sensibly cut back being basically assumed to be going out of business or at least on the ropes, is the unsubstantiated inference passed around.) The nods to the disconnect between the fantasy and reality were firstly in pitching products, especially necessities like food, as the more economical choice even simultaneously to pitching them as conferring classiness and glamour, a tense anxiety. Secondly, in threat - sickly children and frail fathers, various dire consequences for failure to purchase and conform, making explicit what's implicit in a promise that buying your product is associated with success and joy. Thirdly, and I think most strikingly in light of the stuff contained in this video, there were in fact ads that directly engaged with the material realities of the time, which I believe to be an innovation of the times. Read this despairing copy put in the mouth of a fictional woman: "My husband is out of employment and has been for some time. He has tried to find something but it is not easy. Our savings are gradually disappearing, and I am so helpless. [...] However, I must do something! What am I going to do? That is the everlasting question which keeps me from sleeping nights." What are they selling? Why, money, of course. This is the basic pitch, over and over, of the rise of the get-rich-quick proto-MLM scam, where a company seeks to interpose you as an intermediary saleswoman so that you're on the hook for the costs of distribution, especially given your likely failure. It reminds me of the dodge of liability you find in the gig economy and their ethos centering your personal hustle as solution to a problem that somehow effects everyone you know but only you can solve for yourself, while the corporation gets to play averages and weasel their way into underpayment or even outright no payment for failing to meet quotas. It proposes you beat the system by playing the game. It's also, of the selection of things you can advertise, the most dastardly and damaging of them all: you need food to live, tobacco will give you cancer, but a scam masquerades as a real solution to your real problem that the company is fully aware will only mire you further in the muck. It speaks to the general insidiousness of ads that purport to relate, the type (in the form, IMO, of the attempts at funny ads for decades too) that has grown to encompass what feels like at least 90% of ads as the culture has grown deeply cynical of the barrage of the traditional aspirational-escapist advertising.
Wow. I'm glad I found this channel. You explain feelings I've had but had difficulty spelling out coherently in a way that makes the world feel somehow less insurmountable, even when the videos are about negative phenomena. It's sometimes good to see things clearly spelled out in overview, even if you're viscerally familiar with them from a ground-level perspective.
Found you through an errant signal tweet, and I definitely hope the algorithm gods smile on you because your content is definitely as good as other thoughtful youtubers who speak about video games or leftist politics who have thousands and thousands of subscribers.
I really enjoyed this and as someone who use to (and sometimes still does) use fast food as a way to be temporarily happy it hit very close to home. Thanks for making this video and I look forward to more.
Hey Yaz, this video came at a rough period in my life and was one of the greatest things I remember from that era. Me and my partner still talk about your videos to this day, hope you're doing well out there💙
I think you'd be a lot happier, and a lot healthier, if you sought answers in science, rather than Burger King advertisements. I've been an avid student of diet, and other lifestyle parameters under my control, using books, the popular science press, science blogs, and the scientific literature, my whole life. God help me if I tried to figure out how to be happier or healthier by turning to pompous academic pundits criticizing our economic system. I don't have any difficulty keeping thin, or being free of aches and pains, not because I'm clued in to how much money big companies make, but because I actually avoid the kinds of foods that make you gain weight or cause inflammation and auto-immune issues. If I ever get the urge to piss and moan, and get fatter and less healthy, I'll start reading pompous socialist claptrap. Otherwise I'll stick to science, thanks. If people keep buying Burger King and gaining weight and getting depressed, guess what Burger King is going to do. It sure does taste good. Enjoy it while it's in your mouth, because after that it's a metabolic s*** show. If people like me buy healthy, organic, naturally grown food, free of what science has discovered is bad for us, guess what other companies will do? Yup. Capitalism, baby. The market will supply what we are willing to buy. By the way, when I was young, finding really healthy foods was very hard. With the mind blowing diversification of the economy since then, I have so many choices for healthy food, it makes my head spin. I can buy organic foods grown everywhere on our planet, organ meat from grass fed pasture raised animals, etc., etc, etc. , and buy it in about a half dozen stores within a 10 minute drive, or have it delivered to my door in a couple of days. Don't take this for granted! For someone who lived at a time when this wasn't available, it's like living in the garden of Eden.
Ah yes, because as we all know the market exists naturally and independently of all human activity. It is in no way constructed by the state or the firms that operate within it to maximize profit. Sugar, fat, and cholesterol are all addictive in high enough quantities. As mentioned in the video, these companies scientifically engineer their food to be addictive, then dump money into advertising or sometimes even outright misinformation campaigns. It's the same shit the tobacco industry used to pull, and still pulls really. Who is more to blame, the addict who seeks a modicum of contentment, or the company selling them poison while saying "it's fine".
I think before anything we should how recognize that one "problem" in capitalist society is the abundance, like how hunger has almost vanished from it. In fact, it's the exact opposite of a problem.
@@speakerofreason Really? Where, please tell me more? Anyway if famine is almost here why are we talking about fast food? And why not tell us why capitalism is bad while all we see is less and less poverty on the global scale?
@@todomachii well, look at Yemen. Also, look at the damage that's been done to the United States midwestern farmers this year, and the damage done to New South Wales and Queensland by flooding and drought this year as well. Now, realize that this isn't an anomaly but is going to become increasingly frequent.
@@speakerofreason First Yemen is the exact opposite of what you'd call a capitalist society and it's at war. And about the USA, we see no sign of famine or in any other capitalist country. You tell that something will happen that will be dire and I will respond to you that it has been predicted that we will face a shortage of oil... It was in 1970 and it never happend and the USA have been the most important oil producer for a time something that nobody predicted. To be short every dire predictions have been revealed as wrong and the definition of capitalist countries is the abundance of anything as it is shown in the video.
@@todomachii we easily could see, at the very least, a food price shock this coming spring. look at what's happened to the midwest (out of season snowstorms, biblical flooding in nebraska, 150 tornadoes in ten days, more insane flooding) and what's going on in Australia (500k+ cattle killed in flooding, drought destroying New South Wales) and the heatwaves currently hitting India and Scandinavia. We have an oversupply, but there's only so much damage our system can take.
When the new Ontario (Ford) government both loosened regulation on beer pricing, and tightened government funding for post secondary education I said "I wouldn't need to drown my sorrows in cheap beer if you would help pay for my tuition." But we live in a society where institutions encourage unhealthy behaviour as a means to deal with the everyday struggle they put us through. Great video, thanks for taking the time to make it.
THE EYEBALLS LED ME HERE I SERVE THE EYEBALLS
Good stuff.
I would include the presence of the Burger King mascot in the content warning
Went and did some quick research about advertising in The Great Depression after watching this video, being that it was a financial crisis that ruled its decade with its titular mood, and while the medium was younger and balder. Owing to the vagaries of culture, the reaction of ad agencies is in marked contrast to similar circumstances of lessened consumer purchasing power and widespread cynicism about capitalism we see today: for the most part, there was a doubling-down on escapism instead of this effort to appear down here on Earth with us. Many ads quite aggressively prototype the classic 1950s sweep-it-under-the-rug nuclear-WASP-family conformity, as a way of creating a market demographic with needs to service. A shrunk pool in a system where one still must buy to live led to more vicious competition, engendering the proliferation of new, desperate tactics, such as product placement or doctor/celebrity endorsement. (Alas, the New Deal cut down some small part of their efforts to flat-out lie.) The firms that most aggressively marketed lived fattest (competitors that sensibly cut back being basically assumed to be going out of business or at least on the ropes, is the unsubstantiated inference passed around.)
The nods to the disconnect between the fantasy and reality were firstly in pitching products, especially necessities like food, as the more economical choice even simultaneously to pitching them as conferring classiness and glamour, a tense anxiety. Secondly, in threat - sickly children and frail fathers, various dire consequences for failure to purchase and conform, making explicit what's implicit in a promise that buying your product is associated with success and joy. Thirdly, and I think most strikingly in light of the stuff contained in this video, there were in fact ads that directly engaged with the material realities of the time, which I believe to be an innovation of the times. Read this despairing copy put in the mouth of a fictional woman:
"My husband is out of employment and has been for some time. He has tried to find something but it is not easy. Our savings are gradually disappearing, and I am so helpless. [...] However, I must do something! What am I going to do? That is the everlasting question which keeps me from sleeping nights."
What are they selling? Why, money, of course. This is the basic pitch, over and over, of the rise of the get-rich-quick proto-MLM scam, where a company seeks to interpose you as an intermediary saleswoman so that you're on the hook for the costs of distribution, especially given your likely failure. It reminds me of the dodge of liability you find in the gig economy and their ethos centering your personal hustle as solution to a problem that somehow effects everyone you know but only you can solve for yourself, while the corporation gets to play averages and weasel their way into underpayment or even outright no payment for failing to meet quotas. It proposes you beat the system by playing the game. It's also, of the selection of things you can advertise, the most dastardly and damaging of them all: you need food to live, tobacco will give you cancer, but a scam masquerades as a real solution to your real problem that the company is fully aware will only mire you further in the muck. It speaks to the general insidiousness of ads that purport to relate, the type (in the form, IMO, of the attempts at funny ads for decades too) that has grown to encompass what feels like at least 90% of ads as the culture has grown deeply cynical of the barrage of the traditional aspirational-escapist advertising.
Wow. I'm glad I found this channel. You explain feelings I've had but had difficulty spelling out coherently in a way that makes the world feel somehow less insurmountable, even when the videos are about negative phenomena. It's sometimes good to see things clearly spelled out in overview, even if you're viscerally familiar with them from a ground-level perspective.
Found you through an errant signal tweet, and I definitely hope the algorithm gods smile on you because your content is definitely as good as other thoughtful youtubers who speak about video games or leftist politics who have thousands and thousands of subscribers.
Yaz's videos keep getting better. This one particularly hit home. Thank you for making these.
I really enjoyed this and as someone who use to (and sometimes still does) use fast food as a way to be temporarily happy it hit very close to home.
Thanks for making this video and I look forward to more.
Loved the video, especially the ending. KING!
Came from Thought Slime this was really incisive.
I just had to come see the video so highly recommended by thought slime ❤
Watching this after getting stomach issues from overeating!
Hey Yaz, this video came at a rough period in my life and was one of the greatest things I remember from that era. Me and my partner still talk about your videos to this day, hope you're doing well out there💙
What an absolutely fantastic video! I can only hope to see more from you!
really well put together!
This was an incredible video. You should feel proud, it hit hard. Just wow.
Fantastic work Yaz
Thank you.
this is a great video, really makes me feel like a burger king
Really interesting video, thanks for making it!
killin it, yaz! another great video
captions please!
great video! gained some new insight
Brilliant video, thank you.
Hmmm. Borger King.
"That's what the rich are for". Fuckin' hero, man.
What song is playing during the Robocop scene?
"Reaganomics" by Lemon Demon
@@yazminsky9645 Thank you.
Not gonna lie, I think this ad was partly a dig at McDonalds.
this hucking based vid
* mic drop *
viva la revolution
Stunning video. So well researched and so compellingly argued.
I’m vegan
I think you'd be a lot happier, and a lot healthier, if you sought answers in science, rather than Burger King advertisements. I've been an avid student of diet, and other lifestyle parameters under my control, using books, the popular science press, science blogs, and the scientific literature, my whole life. God help me if I tried to figure out how to be happier or healthier by turning to pompous academic pundits criticizing our economic system. I don't have any difficulty keeping thin, or being free of aches and pains, not because I'm clued in to how much money big companies make, but because I actually avoid the kinds of foods that make you gain weight or cause inflammation and auto-immune issues. If I ever get the urge to piss and moan, and get fatter and less healthy, I'll start reading pompous socialist claptrap. Otherwise I'll stick to science, thanks.
If people keep buying Burger King and gaining weight and getting depressed, guess what Burger King is going to do. It sure does taste good. Enjoy it while it's in your mouth, because after that it's a metabolic s*** show. If people like me buy healthy, organic, naturally grown food, free of what science has discovered is bad for us, guess what other companies will do? Yup. Capitalism, baby. The market will supply what we are willing to buy.
By the way, when I was young, finding really healthy foods was very hard. With the mind blowing diversification of the economy since then, I have so many choices for healthy food, it makes my head spin. I can buy organic foods grown everywhere on our planet, organ meat from grass fed pasture raised animals, etc., etc, etc. , and buy it in about a half dozen stores within a 10 minute drive, or have it delivered to my door in a couple of days. Don't take this for granted! For someone who lived at a time when this wasn't available, it's like living in the garden of Eden.
Ah yes, because as we all know the market exists naturally and independently of all human activity. It is in no way constructed by the state or the firms that operate within it to maximize profit.
Sugar, fat, and cholesterol are all addictive in high enough quantities. As mentioned in the video, these companies scientifically engineer their food to be addictive, then dump money into advertising or sometimes even outright misinformation campaigns.
It's the same shit the tobacco industry used to pull, and still pulls really. Who is more to blame, the addict who seeks a modicum of contentment, or the company selling them poison while saying "it's fine".
I think before anything we should how recognize that one "problem" in capitalist society is the abundance, like how hunger has almost vanished from it. In fact, it's the exact opposite of a problem.
don't worry famine is coming back
@@speakerofreason Really? Where, please tell me more? Anyway if famine is almost here why are we talking about fast food? And why not tell us why capitalism is bad while all we see is less and less poverty on the global scale?
@@todomachii well, look at Yemen. Also, look at the damage that's been done to the United States midwestern farmers this year, and the damage done to New South Wales and Queensland by flooding and drought this year as well. Now, realize that this isn't an anomaly but is going to become increasingly frequent.
@@speakerofreason First Yemen is the exact opposite of what you'd call a capitalist society and it's at war.
And about the USA, we see no sign of famine or in any other capitalist country.
You tell that something will happen that will be dire and I will respond to you that it has been predicted that we will face a shortage of oil... It was in 1970 and it never happend and the USA have been the most important oil producer for a time something that nobody predicted.
To be short every dire predictions have been revealed as wrong and the definition of capitalist countries is the abundance of anything as it is shown in the video.
@@todomachii we easily could see, at the very least, a food price shock this coming spring. look at what's happened to the midwest (out of season snowstorms, biblical flooding in nebraska, 150 tornadoes in ten days, more insane flooding) and what's going on in Australia (500k+ cattle killed in flooding, drought destroying New South Wales) and the heatwaves currently hitting India and Scandinavia. We have an oversupply, but there's only so much damage our system can take.