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Stealth Marketing Through Memes

James_H

And I like to roam the land
Joined
May 18, 2002
Messages
7,626
An article claiming the surprised pikachu face - the most popular meme format of 2018 - was harnessed by Warner Bros to produce their Detective Pikachu movie. Unproven but compelling, and ties into ideas that memes may be harnessed for the purposes of manipulating people for non-commercial concerns.

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I bought a KitKat and it told me to murder 14 people. And buy more KitKats.

I haven't got to the second bit yet.
 
This is undoubtedly the case.

From ads made by big companies that were never meant for mass broadcast (the VW "bollocks" series) to subtle placements (TikTok is a rich source of this) in popular content, many companies use clandestine and obfuscated techniques to sell you shit.

The obvious attraction of a meme for its deep penetrative ability must a be a constant source of study.

The thing is, I have seen various efforts by various companies, from advertisers and vendors to think tanks and academia, to determine the formula for making something go viral - they rarely work.

Just look at the current sea shanty vibe - what does the wellerman meme mean?

Are they trying to sell us sugar, tea or rum? Or something more subtle?
 
Advertising, whether stealthy or not, is totally wasted on me. Ad Blocker on the current lap top shows 500,146 blocked adverts - shows how hard advertisers try.
 
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