Dark History - 65: How did we go from selling soap to selling our souls?

Episode Date: December 7, 2022

Welcome to the Dark History podcast. Have you always felt like someone is watching you? Well hate to break it to you sweetie, but they are. And when I say “they” I mean advertisers. In today’s episode we learn how the world of advertising went from war propaganda to listening to you through your phone. Talk about a drastic shift. Advertisers Include: SkyLight Frames, Apostrophe, Hello Fresh, and ShipStation.

Hi friends, I hope you're having a wonderful day today. My name is Bailey Sarian and I'd like to welcome you to my study and also to my podcast Dark History. If you don't know, this is a chance to tell the story like it is and honestly to share it like the history of stuff we would never think about. Don't worry, I've got you covered this season with lots of nonsense. So all you have to do is sit back, relax,

and just let me talk about that hot juicy history goss because baby girl Lisa, listen, it's good. It's real good. So listen, when it's late at night and work is all done, and I've had my microwave bubble dinner, and there's nothing to watch on TV. What do you, I was gonna say, what do you do, but what do I do?

I turn to social media, because sometimes you just wanna turn off your brain and just like, mindlessly scroll, you know? So I open the app and then I see two ads right away. One is for beer, and the other one is for dating app. And it's like, come on, come on. Like, I know my life is sad. I get it. I was kind of a little offended because one, these ads are a little too targeted. Okay. And two, I don't

even drink anymore. Like, they're like, this one needs to get drunk and she needs to get laid. Let's help her out. Is that bad? I don't know. actually, I might recount my statement. Anyways, but let me tell you, it got me thinking about how ads used to be. Okay, I personally have a big collection of old magazines and vintage Sears catalogs. And my favorite part is how they advertise products.

I begin, love it, okay. Let me just reju an example. There's just one advertisement for malt extract, which I don't know what that is, but it says quote, if you are well to keep well, if you are sick to regain your health and strength, makes graceful curves instead of sharp angles.

So beautiful, I don't know. I don't know, it's fun. I like reading them because it's like, they had to get really creative with their words back then. It's so beautiful. I don't know. I don't know. It's fun. I like reading them because it's like, they had to get really creative with their words back then. I know. It's like, how did we go from this to,

hey Bailey, get drunk on a first date and hopefully get some, you know? I don't know. I mean, advertising used to just sell us normal everyday products, but now, it's like, it's transformed into this creepy little worm trying to burrow into our heads and honestly violate our brains. Okay, listen. So we're gonna talk about how advertising went from an innocent ad in a magazine to changing laws,

making sex cells a thing, and eventually using tech to target us like predators. We need Chris Hanson to come in. I'm gonna be like, excuse me. Did she tell you how old she was? I'm like, oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm talking about. Okay, great.

So, like a good neighbor, Bailey is here. Maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's our history. Either way, let's get into it. If you've ever felt like the decision to buy something was life or death, you have one guy to thank for it, because this guy literally wrote the book of how to manipulate people into believing they need certain things. And with this knowledge, he changed the way companies sold things forever.

What an intro, huh? This man, his name was Edward Bernays. The first thing you should know about little Eddie over here is that his uncle was none other than Sigmund Freud. If you don't know, Freud was known as a father of modern psychology. And he kind of like changed the game forever with some pretty controversial studies. Yeah, no. Anyways, Freud was hardship in the 1920s, so being his nephew definitely gave Eddie some

credibility. People assumed he was also like this genius who understood how the human brain worked because of his uncle, and this for sure gave him, you know, a leg up professionally. It's all about who, you know, right? Or who you related to. Eddie dabbled in the world of Broadway and producing plays, which is super random. But I bring that up because Eddie killed it when it came to advertising like the Broadway plays.

He became known for selling out shows, which ended up catching the eyes of the US government, who at the time was trying to create propaganda for the war. The definition of propaganda is information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view, just in case you didn't know. If you're like me when you think of propaganda,

you think of like those really aggressive posters that are like and listen to the army, go kill yourself. I mean like go kill those other people in the other country, we hate. They're always yelling at you, okay? They can be very persuasive, usually feel a little threatened, right? And usually a bit one sided. So Eddie, he came in and was kind of like noodling his thoughts of how to make war cool to the public. Like how do I get them excited to join the army like I did to get them excited about the Broadway shows, right? So Eddie ends up making war posters that were more like movie posters that you'd see outside of a theater. So people walking by, they're stopping in their tracks,

and they're like, oh my god, I freaking love, I love that movie. Like there's one example or supposed to be King Kong. And it's like, oh my god, I love that movie, right? I want to go fight King Kong and save hot women. Where do I sign up? They just kind of, it looked fun, you know? So Eddie decides to take this little skill set of his and use it in the world of advertising. So he opens up his own agency and starts taking on tons of new clients. I'm talking about TV networks, hotels, huge companies like CBS, General Electric, Dodge Motors,

the list goes on. But actually one of his most famous success stories was for advertising the way for it. Hairnet? The hairnet. You know a hairnet? Yeah, that's his work. Random, I know, I love it. But listen, this is how it starts off

because there's one hairnet company who was in bad shape. Okay, this hairnet company is like, we got to get out of the slump that we're in. How are we going to do it? No one had ideas. So they reach out to Eddie. Well, at first Eddie thinks,

okay, well, what if I get a bunch of female celebrities to tell the press that, you know, long hair is best to boost hair net sales, but in turn, that was a big flop, it didn't work. So he had to come up with a new idea. Something maybe a little shady, okay? He sprinkled in a little bit of his trademark propaganda spice,

you could say. And instead of trying to make long hair happen, he decides to use a more powerful weapon. Fear! Ah, yeah, fear always works. When in doubt, scare up. One thing Eddie knew for sure was that if you scare people into doing something, it works every time. Working for the government seems to have unlocked something in him. Like he realized

people just want to protect themselves and be safe. So if you scare them, they will probably do what you say. Okay, so how do you scare people with hair nets, right? Because that's the least scary thing I could think of. So Eddie consults with some experts and they tell him, fact, So Eddie consults with some experts and they tell him fact the human head sheds about 150 hairs per day. Now don't freak out. It's normal. Okay. Totally normal.

But Eddie thought, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm. What happens if like that hair gets near food or like something that's contamination, right? Like you could pick out the hair, but we could do something better, right? Like, you could pick out the hair, but we could do something better, right? Also, at the same time, something was happening within the workplace, machines were starting to show up in factories. Now, if you remember back to like the triangle shirt, waste episode, or more recently, the Guilted Age, you know that these machines were causing accidents every day. People were getting hurt, people were dying. It was brutal, okay?

So this ends up being a light bulb moment for Eddie. Eddie's thinking to himself, hmm, when did it suck so hard if your hair got stuck in one of the machines? You know, what if they use the hair net to keep the hair out of the face and out of the machine? Sounds like a hair net could save your whole life, doesn't it? Mmm.

So now he's got two things to work with. One, you should be afraid of hair in your food. And two, you should be afraid of getting scalped at work. Right off, bald. And there we have it, baby. For the low, low price of one hair net, you too can save your own life. That's how he was going to market it.

Also, Eddie introduced to everybody that hair in your food is really gross. There was no science behind it, which is kind of odd, right? There probably is. Some science behind it, I hope by now, but at the time, Eddie was just telling everyone hair in your food's gross and everyone just believed it. Anyways, Eddie also went as far as hiring a fashion expert to say that the hairnet gave women a cool, fashionable look. You know, because at the end of the day, women just want to look good. And Eddie knew that. So he's like, we're going to tell women that this is going to make them look so good, like

a Greek goddess. Oh yeah. Hello, hairnet. I mean, this guy is leaving no stone unturned. And it worked. So Eddie used his homey hookup at the US government and got several states to pass laws requiring factory workers and female food service employees to wear hair nets.

So Neenus to say this advertising campaign was a huge success. If you ever worked in the food industry, would you have to wear on your head, bitch, or on your beard? A hair net? Thanks, Eddie. Wow. Anyways, hair nets ended up becoming essential for millions of restaurant factory workers across across the nation. So this gave Eddie Jesus status. So this gave Eddie Jesus status. Like he was untouchable.

Everybody was like, holy shit, this Eddie guy. He freaking got everyone on hair nets. And if you could sell hair nets, I don't know, man, I think you could sell anything, right? And word starts to travel pretty quickly. Just around the businesses, the corporations. And everyone's talking like, if your company needs a boost, Eddie is your guy.

Eddie, let's be honest here, it was going to his head, okay, because he's like, wow, I just changed a bunch of people's minds about hair nets. And if I can change people's minds about the hair net, like, what else can I change people's minds about? Especially women. He got them to buy into safety, but could he get them to buy into empowerment?

I play with my nails too much, I gotta stop. Soon, one of the biggest companies in the United States of the time gives him a little ring. Ring, ring, ring, ring, you know, you get it. Phone, guess what company that is? I'm smoking a cigarette if you don't know. A company called Lucky Strike, the OG cigarette. Thanks, hello, fresh. In 1928, the brand Lucky Strike was killing it, okay?

They were the number one cigarette company in the United States. These cigarettes were being lit up and smoked by men all across the country, but that was also the problem. Lucky strikes were really only being smoked by men. Smoking a pancake, more gonna blitz.

You know, the company knew like they could make way more money if they tapped into a market that was untouched by every tobacco company in the country. A market that would guarantee them millions upon millions more customers if they could just convince them that it was okay to smoke. That market, well maybe you can guess it, they went straight to the source. Babies. I'm just kidding. If you guys remember that video, that toddler who's smoking cigarettes, just hanging out, he was like smoking like four, it went viral for it. Is he doing okay?

So anyone checked up on him? I hope he's good. Anyway, the real market that Lucky Strike needed to tap into or at least wanted was women. The problem was smoking. Smoking as a woman was heavily frowned upon in society, especially in public. Okay, society viewed women smoking in public as a sign that you had lose morals and you should know better. Even a few years earlier, a woman she had gotten arrested and tossed into jail for 30 days for smoking in public. I mean, it's fine if a man smokes in public, but you,

you little assay. So Lucky Strike realized in order to cash in on the lady market, they would need to literally change how society viewed women smoking. And how do you do that? Like, what's step one? This is important because you have to change people's perception on a huge scale.

And, well, if you can sell a hair net, then they knew there's only one man for the job. Sat Eddie. Eddie, Eddie. Okay, so Eddie was ready to take a little page out of Coca-Cola's book to get into woman's brains. So we did an episode on Coca-Cola, if you remember. But Coke was the first company to use a celebrity in their ads. Her name was Hilda Clark, and you know,

it was very successful to have a celebrity posing with the Coca-Cola huge hit, great success. So Eddie is like, hey, let's hop on that bandwagon. And he decides to reach out to a bunch of female celebrities at the time. I'm talking Betty Davis, Joan Crawford. Sorry, girl, not you. The actual famous one.

Betty Grable. I mean, golden age of Hollywood women, okay? Glitz, glam. People were loving it. Well, they loved Hollywood. So Eddie knew like, there's something here. So Eddie got lucky strike to pay them something like $75,000 a year to endorse the brand, to just like smoke or hold it or something, you know.

And this was a huge deal. First of all, it was a brilliant idea at the time, having huge celebrities promote a product. Today, it's not that shocking to us because we see it all the time, right, on social media. But back then, wow, wow. So he got these women photographed with cigarettes, sexily dangling out of like their mouth, smoking, being mysterious with the cigarette. It was seen as like kind of powerful too.

And guess what? It started to work. Women started buying cigarettes like crazy, but the campaign didn't stop there. Oh, na na. Eddie and all the other guys in charge hired a psychiatrist to tell them the age old question. What do women want? You know, our first thought is maybe we should ask a woman. No, of course not. They're not going to ask a woman. They know what we want better than we want. So the psychologists, men psychologists,

essentially tell them women want to be empowered. In 1920, women gained the right to vote, but I mean, that's not mean things were all great, dandy, you know? There were still huge biases against women. For example, let's say you're a woman. Great. So let's say you're a woman, great. Let's say you're a woman and you got prected. Well, back then you could get fired from your job. Okay, not cool.

Back then you couldn't have your own passport or credit cards. And the worst one of all, you weren't even allowed to wear pants. You know, could you imagine wearing dresses every day? My thighs ripped together too much the rashes. Oh, it's not like you can use baby powder. That's just gonna kill you. Why do they want to kill us? Anyways, so Eddie's like let's empower women. Let's do it. They want to vote. They want to smoke. So let's

make them feel like they have the same rights as the men. You might be thinking, oh hell yeah. Did Eddie team up with the government and get them to change the laws like he did for the hair nets? No, of course not. That's too much work. He was like, guys, we don't have to change the laws to empower women. We just have to make women think they are empowering themselves and sticking it to the

man by encouraging them to go against social norms for the sake of women's rights. So Eddie decides to take advantage of the New York Easter Parade that spring and uses the event for a little free publicity. You see what he did? He hired a bunch of beauty queens, very beautiful women. Now these women were like the picture of femininity at the time, and he had these women stand in the parade, gorgeous, beautiful. Ooh, right? And guess what they did? They pulled out a pack of lucky strike cigarettes and smoked them. Try them thinly, and people photographed the crap out of this, because first of all, a woman smoking in public was like running through a church naked or

something you know like heads were exploding left and right beautiful woman smoking oh shit you know it just didn't make sense but at least plan ended up paying off because after everyone saw these upstanding beauty queens smoking on television and and news, smoking Lucky Strikes became a symbol of defiance and power. A woman smoking a Lucky Strike wasn't just smoking a plain old cigarette. Nene, she was lighting a torch of freedom. That's literally how Eddie branded it. Torches of freedom.

Torches of, I can't, yeah, I mean, it's kind of fun, I get it. It's like light them up, stick up your middle finger to the man. Lucky Strike ran ads that said, women are free. And ancient prejudice has been removed for cigarettes. And when we're like, fuck yeah, you know, and just like that, baby. Society got over the whole, you're a whore if you smoke thing, wild. Almost overnight, lucky strike gained four million new smokers. Snaps, I mean, he killed it, come on. Yeah, smoking's bad, but he killed that.

I know I was a guy who reminds me of Crocs. In the beginning, everybody, everybody was roasting crocs and saying how ugly they were, remember? And then one day, we logged onto social media and supermodels and rappers were all wearing them and then everybody started wearing them. And I have some, I don't even know where they came from.

They just appeared one day. I'm like, I have crocs, I don't know why. So after this, Eddie's advertising techniques became the standard for every marketing department. I mean, everyone wanted to be like Eddie. Every company wanted their own Eddie. And Eddie was just a shit. He's a hair-nets and cigarettes.

He killed it, man. So women were feeling sexy and empowered, thanks to good ol' Eddie, but not for long, because pretty soon companies realize that their customers wanted something else. Even more than they wanted empowerment, even more than they wanted a cold drink on hot day, the customers wanted sex. You heard me, right? Now let's get back to our story. Now you might have heard this before. It's a phrase, sex sells, you know, but in case you haven't,

it's a type of advertising technique. There have been studies that show when our brain seems to see something erotic, it releases good chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, and adrenaline. Oh yeah, when you see a little, when you see a little titty, when you see a little, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, our brain is like, I mean, this isn't new information. The concept of sex sells actually like goes all the way back to the 1870s when another cigarette company

or tobacco company called Pearl Tobacco. They did something absolutely scandalous and they put a painting of a naked lady on their packages. Now this was pretty tasteful. When you look at it now, okay? And honestly, it almost looked like a, it's just a beautiful painting of Venus like coming out of the shell. But back then, it was kind of like, mm, you know, pretty soon after,

another cigarette company called Duke and Sons jumped on the bandwagon and started putting collectible cards of famous women inside of their packaging. So it was like a little Pokemon, you know, I had to collect them all. And some of the poses were very sexually suggestive. There's one where it's like shows a woman dressed up

in little fairy costume, love a good fantasy. And these cute little cards seem to really work because Duke went from selling 30 million cigarettes in 1883 to 100 million just the next year. Proving that showing a little skin can be a big win. That's wild. What do you think about it? Just showing a little skin. You only have to be naked. Just show a little... Shulder. Oh my shoulder. Oh, okay. But sex cells really took off in the 20th century, thanks to the advancements in advertising and print.

And also, we can't forget Eddie Bernays advertising techniques. And guys, you'll never guess the ad that changed everything. The ad that made America way. So wet. America is so wet. No, it wasn't the Hattachi magic wand, what you think it would be. It was actually for a bar of soap.

Yeah, oh yeah. Advertising got very dirty to sell cleaning products, which honestly is very fitting, right? In 1920s, the Woodbury soap company, they rolled out these ads that ran in popular magazines, that featured paintings of young couples romantically involved. It was like a, ooops, lovers embrace, and the woman is like

fawning over the man's presence, and the man in the photo or the picture. He was just a man of who represented like masculinity and not just any man. He was a man who served his country, who's always wearing a uniform. So not only are they selling soap, but they're also kind of saying that men in uniform

are attractive and to be desired and like, oh, I didn't take a selfie bath. You know, that's what it looked like to me based off my observation. Now, this was a time before commercials and everything, so they really had to be they being the advertisers, the people who actually wrote the advertisers. They had to be really creative with their words and the words were seductive, intimate. Most importantly, they were selling a story, a story about your aspiration.

If you buy our product, you too can have this life. Here, I'll read you one of these ads. It's beautiful. This ad is called Miracle at Midnight. And let me remind you, this is for soap, okay? Breathless, you unmask. He takes you in his arms. A searchlight pierces your secret heart.

And plain as day, you see love walk right in. He whispers that it's you he wants forever and ever. Lovely as you are tonight. And well, yeah, bitch, do you hear anything about soap? May neither, but I want it. And, quote, yeah, bitch, do you hear anything about soap? Me neither, but I want it. Well, this is where you start to see ads getting really spicy. And instead of telling their audience about the product

or what it can do, they don't give a shit about that. The new thing to do was to make the customers feel like they were buying more than just a product. They're buying a lifestyle. They're buying sexual arousal. Or in this case, a sexy little soft core porn moment with a handsome soldier. Do you guys remember those Carl's Jr. commercials

with Paraselton washing the car while eating the burger? Yeah, that's how we all eat hamburgers. Now, we knew it would have nothing to do about burgers. It was just sex. It was hot. It was soap, right? But the message is the same. This product will make you hot and may even get you laid. That's like just the goal, right?

I think that Carl's junior one actually pissed a lot of people off from what I remember. That was a good ad though, because it got people talking. Woodberry soap wasn't done though, because they came out with another banger in the 1930s. They became one of the first American companies to use nudity in print ads.

Yeah, in the 1930s. They did that shit. These spicy little pictures were usually women in the shower or at the pool, and they were strategically covering their titties and like, hmm, their hoo-ha's, you know. And in the ads, it promised to deliver filtered sunshine, which is kind of okay, you know.

And how could you get this? Well, you could achieve this by using their soap, of course. This was a huge shift in the world of advertising because it went from sexually suggestive advertisements to straight up nudity to sell a product. But like that famous quote goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, and pictures can be very influential.

So instead of describing boring old soap, Woodberry could just show you like a beautiful image, tie the product to the image, and leave the consumer to connect the dots. Shaxi lady, show, yes, I'm just one more of soap away from being a sexy lady. I kind of feel that way about foundations and concealers. Like I always buy foundations and concealers

because I swear it's gonna make me like this hot bitch. I'm still me, you know? So when you really think about it, I mean these ads could really be selling anything, right? We know it's a soap ad because there's a picture of soap and the word woodbury at the bottom, but couldn't you just replace that with anything? Bingo, bitch, bingo. This is where we enter the era of companies selling a lifestyle. AKA this could be you if you buy our product. This is when it starts to get nasty, you know, by the mid 1900s, it was almost like it didn't matter what your product could do.

Or if it was really any good, it mattered how the advertisement could make you feel, right? And this is exactly the kind of tricks that were used to make diamond engagement rings a thing. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, whole Pinterest board of diamond engagement rings is because, so now let's get back to the story. Welcome to the 1940s. Negative ladies are selling you soap. Everyone's smoking honestly seems like a great time.

And diamonds are dirt cheap compared to today. So what the hell happened, right? Because diamonds are not dirt cheap. Well, there's this company called Debeers, which makes me roll my eyes because it's such a missed opportunity to sell alcohol, right? Debeers, they sell freaking diamonds, whatever. Anyway, so this company, they own up to 90% of the world's supply of the world's diamonds. of the world's supply of the world's diamonds. But they were very sneaky and they kept it a secret. So, thinking of it like this, Debeers, this company, they have all these diamonds.

They're cheap, they have a bunch, they can't sell them. Nobody wanted them. They weren't rare, plus they're clear. They're boring, they're basic. So, the company is like, nobody wants these. How do we make them want these? We have so many, it's just a waste. So, Debeers hires an advertising firm

to help make diamonds the new it girl in the rock world. So, in 1948, Debeers rolls out their famous, a diamond is forever campaign. Diamonds offer a vote! Yes, yes, yes. And after this campaign, the story of engagement brings was forever changed. So first, the beers jacked up the prices of the diamonds

by claiming that diamonds were extremely rare and difficult to get, which is lie number one. Difficult to get? Sure, I mean, I can't get one in my backyard, you know, but rare? Ah, no, not so much. In fact, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires are all more rare than diamonds.

And they knew this, debiers, they knew this. But as we know, feelings can be really powerful in pushing consumers to buy a product. I mean, you mess with someone's emotions. That's how they get you. And the debiers company knew that. So they exploited one of our most basic and simple emotions. Love. And baby, we love love. We love love. Right? We love love, we love love, right? We love love. And using newspapers, magazines, movies, and even going across the country, giving lectures at high schools, right?

Debeers representatives convinced America that diamonds equaled love. They pushed baby, they pushed hard. And not only that, the bigger and more expensive the diamond meant a stronger, more loving relationship. They even came up with their own statistic. Maybe you've heard of it before, about how a proper engagement ring

should cost about three months of your salary, which, a side note, I didn't know, that was a thing. I've never heard that before, until we started doing research for this story. And I was like, you better not be spending three months of your salary on a freaking ring, you guys. Are you guys doing this? I'm not judging, but come on.

Are you okay? That's a lot of money for a ring? It's not even that, whatever. I mean, do we want your life? And if you have the money, that's fine. But I hope you're not going into debt over a ring. You know, like that makes me sad. And plus, it's just like, whatever. I mean, do we want your life? And if you have the money, that's fine. But I hope you're not going into debt over a frame. You know, like, that makes me sad. And plus, it's just like,

we kind of been conditioned to think it's just old ancient tradition, but no. The beers just had some extra stock and they needed to make some money. That's what it comes down to. But there, this worked because people started to believe the hype that diamonds were not only highly valuable, but the ultimate way to express your love. And again, you love love. Right? And diamonds equal love. Right? They knew that they messed with us, they're playing with us.

All right, makes me sick. Hey, but do you wanna know a fun fact though? This is actually super handy. This could actually save your life, okay? I think I learned it on Oprah or something. Diamonds can literally save your life. I hope you're never in the situation, but if you're in a car and let's say you drive into the lake, bless your soul, you're going down.

Water rising, surrounding you. Guess what? If you have a real diamond, the diamond can break the window. Yep. Break the window, get out, save your life. I'm not kidding. That would be a really bad time to find out that it wasn't a real diamond. But if it is a real diamond, it will break the windshield. They should really lean into that for an ad. Diamonds can save your life like that would. Just have a diamond, you have a diamond on deck, just keep it in your car, you know? You're welcome.

Subscribe for more life-saving information. Anyways, so that's the one thing that's nice about diamonds, I guess. Take a break of windshield. Oh no, I hope I didn't just give people the knowledge to start breaking into windshields. No. So debiers teamed up with Hollywood to put diamond ads on the big screen. Like the James Bond movie, diamonds are forever, right? And they got the money to fork out like whatever these people, so they could get diamonds in front of an audience, right?

And if you see James Bond being all sexy and hot, would talk about diamonds, like it's so rude, right? It's so rude. Anyways, ads for debiards engagement rings usually shows like a picture of young lovers getting married in beautiful locations or on sexy little honeymoon. And debiers has convinced the American public that diamonds were the perfect stone for an engagement ring because of allegedly how strong they were compared to other gemstones. Do you I mean, they're pretty much telling you like, do you want a man to prove he loves you by spending a stupid amount of money or not? I mean, yes, of course you do, you know?

Nothing wrong with that, but just keep in mind, someone told us to think that way. Don't go into debt over it, you know? But what I'm getting at is how scary advertising is because this shows how powerful this one campaign was, this one about diamonds. And we all believed it. I mean, I always thought diamonds were so expensive. Like, it meant luxury, money. It's a status thing, right? But in reality, they're not even that special.

You can call it out to beers. Unless you want to gift me some diamonds, I'll take it, you know. you can call it out to beers. Unless you wanna gift me some diamonds, I'll take it, you know? Anyway, the whole rebrand really pays off for the beers. To this day, a diamond is forever is known as the most successful ad campaign ever, ever. Before it's something like 10% of engagement rings contain diamonds, but after this campaign ran in 1948, diamond sales went bonkers.

Today, 87% of Americans report that they prefer diamonds for an engagement ring. You might not even know the brand debirs, but if you've ever thought about wanting a diamond engagement ring, you're doing exactly what they want. Spooky. When you really think about it, right? But I guess at the end of the day, a diamond ring

is a status symbol, just like a designer bag or private jet. I don't know. So and again, like I'm not judging if you have a diamond ring or anything. Do what you want. Get what you love, right? I'm just giving you the factual information that they fooled us into thinking, you know, it's rare. that they fooled us into thinking, you know, it's rare. Damn it. Anyway, so over time, companies have just gotten better and better exploiting basic human emotions. They try convincing us, if you don't buy this thing, how are you supposed to show someone you love them?

Which is a gigantic lie, you know? Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm. What are we gonna do about this? Diamonds all forever. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Now is that it's literally everywhere, back in the day, back in the olden days. Radio and magazine ads were everything, but after World War II, the United States was on like a major upswing. People could afford cars. They could buy a house.

They would get the series catalog and be able to buy stuff in there on like a single salary. I know. Can't, what is that like? So the American middle class shows up on the scene and they're just like living it up, right? Buying stuff. And then you know her, you love her.

You're probably watching her right now. I'm talking about the television. Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba. The television comes onto the scene. The boob tube as some people call it, which I learned while researching today's story, that they didn't call it the boob tube because there was boobs on TV. No. Boob is another word of saying dummy. And some people believe that if you watch too much TV, they would become a giant dummy. Boob tube. How come women's parts are always

Come a giant dummy. Boop tube. How come women's parts are always like an insult? You know, boob, why is boob dumb? Boob gets life. Boob feeds babies. You like boob's. Why are we shaming them? That's not the point.

Okay, look. It didn't matter though. Boob tube didn't matter. If it made you dumb, didn't matter. People wanted when everybody wanted a TV. It was new. It was exciting. It was technology. It was the the fricking future. But before World War II, there was only a few thousand Americans who owned a television, and by 1955, it was said that half

of the country had one in their home. I mean, I don't know about you, but I think that's a big jump, you know what I'm saying? So this had companies salivating. Why? Because now they could promote their products directly to their consumer in the comfort of their own home, visually. So think about how vulnerable you are on the couch. You're probably there. You got no pants on, looking like a mess, and like companies are showing up like, you need this, you need this to be beautiful. It's like yeah, companies knew that. They knew it. And they got ya. So the rise of television, more people are tuning in,

more people are watching it. And the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which has been around for a freaking hour. And also the Super Bowl, we're bringing in millions of viewers. Millions of people are watching this. And advertisers realize that they could get maximum exposure on television. They don't have to worry about where to put a billboard or like, who buys what magazine everybody was watching TV. So for example, the Super Bowl in 1990 had 80 million viewers, which is like insanity. So companies and advertisers are seeing this thinking like jackpot, we've got to get in front of these people, right? But the thing about the Super Bowl is that it's only so long,

not every company can get a spot, right? So bidding wars began to get a hold of those coveted advertising slots. The price of airtime goes up and up and up and bitch. Companies were paying essentially like $1.8 million for a 30 second commercial. Where's that money going? I wanna know, right? And it's always for something stupid like beer, right?

And people are gonna buy it anyways. I don't know, give me an ad for something I haven't seen. But what I'm getting at is like this was a hot commodity. Okay, you wanted one of these spots. TV owned the advertising game for quite some time until one thing exploded onto the scene in the 90s. I'm not talking about giz. I'm talking about the dial up baby, the world wide web, the www.al.com. www.gocities.com. www.

Sorry, let me ask you guys something, a little personal question, get in real close, it's very intimate question, I'm about to ask you. Do you ever feel like somebody's watching you? She's right there. intimate question I'm about to ask you. Do you ever feel like somebody's watching you? Anyways, so no, not in like your backyard like in a stalker way. I mean being stalked online. My companies, I know you, everyone can relate to this. You're talking to your friend, your friends telling you like, oh my God, I bought this cool little bug zapper thing. This literally

just happened to me like to their day. I got this bug zapper thing. It zaps the bug, the bug bite, whatever. And like 20 minutes later, boom, there's a little advertisement for it on your social media. And it's like, what the hell you guys? Are you listening? Yes, I will buy the thing, but like on my own terms, the ads I get on my social media are wild. Sometimes I feel like somebody like implanted

a tracking device in my brain. It's like, how do they figure this shit out? It's creepy, it makes me uncomfortable. But I'm addicted. So it's like, you know, but it gets you thinking like, how are companies doing this? It's very complicated how they do this. So I'm giving you the light version, okay?

So let me just tell you this straight up, straight up, and everyone should know this. You are indeed being stalked, okay? Facts. Companies are getting better at knowing what we want, what we're looking at, what we're doing. They're tracking everything, okay? On your phone, your computer.

Anything with technology or like connects to the internet, they're tracking your ass. Remember back in the day, with like TV and stuff before the internet, everyone used to see and hear the same ads, right? One of my favorites was J-E-L-L-O. It's a live. Yeah, that was, I like that one.

But now, ads are very sneaky. They're everywhere. Everywhere, especially on your social media, and they're trying really hard to not look like ads. The first president of Facebook actually called social media a quote, social validation feedback loop. Meaning big companies like Instagram and TikTok, they learn exactly what we want,

and then they use that information to keep us scrolling, keeps us on the app longer. And also because it feels like the app was made just for you. And guess what, it was made just for you. This is when things get real complicated, because it went from like advertisements that we all saw to now personalizedize advertisements. There's this little man who lives in her phone. His name is Al Gore-Rhythm.

You know, Mr. Rhythm, he's keeping track of anything and everything you're doing. Yeah, Mr. Rhythm, I'm looking at you. So one ad that always follows me everywhere is freaking revolve. Yeah, I'm calling them out by name. Revolve. Okay, you guys harass me. Okay, you need to stop it. Because like, I'll be looking at shoes or something. Guess what? Those shoes are literally foaming all over the place. I'll be on like ancestry.com. Like, oh, well, my great grandmother. Oh, revolve. Like, it's like, leave me alone. You know, I don't

want shoes. I know. I have a grandma died. I don't know, I don't know how my grandma died. You know, maybe you were looking up those engagement rings Barbara, and then everywhere you go, you see them. Every website, just engagement rings. It just follows you, tracks your every move. But what are you supposed to do, delete Instagram? I know, that's like the realistic answer,

but you're not going to. I wanna know what my friends are eating for dinner. And I also wanna show everyone how good I look today. And that's the whole point. These social media platforms they wanna keep you on the platform. You're addicted to it because of those chemicals like we mentioned earlier with the sex cells.

It's the same thing. You get serotonin, adrenaline and dopamine hits when you're scrolling on social media and getting fed targeted ads. And that's all done on purpose because when it comes to digital advertising today, tracking is everything. Where you drive, what you drive, when you drive, where you shop, how often you shop, what you buy. I mean, literally everything.

And a lot of people don't even realize how much advertisers are following us. If you're carrying your phone with you, it's fair game, really. The worst part is when you really sit down and think about everything that you confess to Google, right? We tell Google our deepest, darkest secrets, fantasies, whatever. And most of us would probably be very embarrassed if other people found out what we were googling. You know, like last night I was up googling, who gave me this purple rash? I'd like Google's supposed to know, I don't know. But beats me. Well,

reports say that millions of people trust Google with their secrets more than their spouse. And I totally get it. I get it. Google doesn't judge. No, she does not. Most importantly, you assume that it's private, like writing in your diary, but mm-hmm, it's not, it's not, every day I'm thinking you do and search online is tracked and then turned into data that they then use to sell you shit, which this part gets a little confusing because like data, it doesn't get confusing. It's actually quite simple.

Let me just explain. Let's say you're shopping for a blue light to do some like undercover ancient ghost, splood, chignor, old ass house. In other words, I bought a blue light because I wanted to see if there was like, jizz in my house, facts. Okay, look, I did. But look, there were so many blue light options.

And I was like, which one's the best? I don't know, so I got overwhelmed and I exited out over the next couple of days. Bitch, all of the ads everywhere were about blue lights, orange lights, black lights, ghost lights, strobe lights, flash lights, flash lights. I was like, damn, I didn't know that there were so many options.

Okay, and now I was just like too overwhelmed. There's ads in your Instagram Reels, you're getting those annoying pop ups. Your friends are getting ads because the company is really living on a prayer, hoping your friend will buy the product or maybe, I don't know, they'll buy it and then recommend it to you or something, you know?

So this actually has a name. It's called poll advertising. This is a little fun little snippet. It's advertising that is pulling you towards a product like a lasso, like a fishing line. But it's different from a billboard or a magazine ad where a company pushes out a product in hopes that you see it, which totally makes sense when you think of it like that. They're trying to pull you in versus a billboard. It's just pushing a product out.

Plus the billboard doesn't follow you home at night, right? And before we leave this section, I just need to say, if something is free to use online, be very suspicious. All companies have to make money somehow. And all those free websites and free apps that we use, yeah, they're making money off of us.

Like Instagram, that's a free app. So how in the how did they make like $30 billion last year of the app is free? Because we paid for the app not with our money, but with our data. They're selling your Google searches, your app downloads, where you're driving. With time, you leave the house. How many Starbucks you pass? They're selling all of that information to advertisers. And we're not the only ones that are watching online. One of the biggest and most valuable audiences, the children.

But what about the children? Yeah, the children. They are targeted harder than anybody else. Millions of kids under the age of 18 use social media. Actually, the company that owns Instagram meta just got sued for taking advantage of the children in the UK, not here because we don't care. Just a little while ago, when kids signed up for Instagram, their accounts were automatically set as public. So anyone could view their profile.

Besides the purfs coming out to play, it also meant that these kids were goldmine to companies because they could just bombard them with ads. You gotta get them young, penetrate those brains. Now a lot of us adults know when and like, how to keep scrolling when we see those ads, right? But kids, they don't know any better. They don't know that it's an ad. They just don't realize it like we do, okay? Then once they click their phone numbers and their emails and personal

information, we're getting collected. And then things we're getting really dangerous. And for once, Instagram actually got in trouble for it in Europe. Because here in America, they don't get my shit. I guess parents in Europe sued Instagram for violating the hell out of child privacy laws. And like good for the parents, good because the courts also were behind them, they agreed. And now Instagram is on the hook for a $400 million fine and had to find ways to keep kids safe. Yeah, so I'm just gonna go ahead and say I don't trust them. I mean, they did in Europe, but they're not gonna do it here. So it's like, do they care? No, they don't. They never did. They care about money in our data. And then don't even get me started on TikTok. TikTok is so

dangerous. And I know nobody likes to hear it because it's such a fun app, but they are so bad. They also got hit with millions of dollars and fines for violating the privacy of kids just so they could sell ads. And then in 2021, Tiktok made about $4 billion in advertising revenue. And bitch, this is just the tip of the stocker iceberg because you don't even need an account for Tiktok to track you. So it has a friend ever sent you a link to a TikTok. Well, if you clicked and you watched it, they've gathered some information on you.

Oh, yeah, you don't even need an account. They scanned your photos, they scanned, they got you a bitch. But here's the thing, pretty much every website does this. Every single website you go to, they do this. The minute you land on their page, they are taking notes on you. You are the product. You are how they make money. Now I know what you're thinking like, but I bought a ton of stuff from social media that I love. And was that because I found it or was it because it was served to me? And I don't know. I don't know.

I'm just some girl on the internet, you know? But what I do know is that the pickle crab or I bought on Instagram, it lets me grab the pickles without getting the juice on my fingers. Yeah, it's really great. That was a good one. Thanks.

I don't like pickle fingers, you know? I love the pickle. So some of you probably like, okay, whatever, whatever about all this, but you should be concerned about your data because it's so much more valuable than you think. More than any one company would admit, no one would admit that you entering your information into an app is like 12,000 people staring into your living room window while you think you're alone. Advertising started as something we saw when we drove by, and like that was it.

It was on a billboard, but now literally follows us everywhere. It just doesn't stop. There's no boundaries. We're safe, nowhere. And even these smart TVs and bullshit, like the smart refrigerators give me a fucking break. You don't need to know how many times I'm buying milk. You know, it's just intrusive. Oh my god that's a good word. Intrusive. Intrusive. Intrusive. Intrusive. So listen to me. Advertising doesn't have to be the bad guy here, right?

Good things come from advertising. Small businesses when it normally get exposure to so many people without social media advertising. Or maybe like you wouldn't have found that really cool new hot dog place down the street without a targeted ad. It's not 100% about thing. But as more of our lives move online, it's easier and it's going to be easier to track every single thing that we do and think. They're predicting what we're thinking and it's fucking creepy. So it's more important than ever to ask ourselves,

is this product that's being advertised as something we truly want or is this something someone else has convinced you that you want? It's like hello, diamond engagement rings, are they doing that with something else? Sometimes it's like, you know, when you see like an advertisement for like a new show and it's like, I fucking get it.

Like I'm not gonna watch the show because you keep advertising it to me. I'm not gonna watch it. I guess there's no endage to that story. It's just annoying, you know? I don't know about you guys, but I feel like something that we should be talking about with one another is getting laws in place to protect us and our data. It feels like things are

getting very out of control. And if you're going to sell my data and information, I think you should pay me, bitch. Fuck you. Pay me. It's mine. I made it. That's my data. You know, yeah. We should be demanding. Our data is worth a lot of money. We sold our souls. We, I don't know.

We need to think about this and start marinating on some ideas, OK? I don't think we need to get rid of the advertising thing. But there needs to be some kind of boundary in place, right? We should be a little concerned. So Eddie Brinay, he taught companies how to manipulate people into buying things that they think they need. So right from the start advertising has always been deceptive.

I mean, it's always kind of been propaganda. It's been a predator taking advantage of people. And it's almost like he predicted all of this data advertising was going to happen. Honestly, I mean, there's no sign of that stopping anytime soon. The global ad industry brings in about $800 billion right now. So you think they're going to stop? I'm probably going to get my radar to watch. And it's only going to get bigger. It's expected to hit like a trillion dollars by 2025. I am in the wrong

industry. You know, now I'm going to leave you with a quote from Eddie Bernays' book, which is literally called propaganda. He said, quote, those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government, which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. And, quote, snaps, daddy snaps. Now, don't get all conspiracy theory on me. I'm talking about advertising here. Let's just, you know, but it's true.

These people in charge are telling us what to buy, what to think, what we want. It's disgusting. I feel violated. I feel penetrated by ads. So what I'm getting at is stay safe out there and honestly be suspicious of who you give your information to. Easier said than done.

I totally get it. I'll scroll on TikTok for hours so annoying and the next thing you know I come out like who's the president? Where am I? You know it's gross we're disgusting I'm a slut. Well everyone thank you for learning with me today. Remember don't be afraid to ask questions to get the whole story and stay curious because we deserve that and I think we deserve to know what's really going on right debiars We want to talk about it debiars. You want to say something for yourself to be ours?

I love to hear it. I love to hear your guys' reaction to today's story So make sure to use the hashtag dark history over on social media so I can follow along Also join me over on my youtube where you can watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs. And while you're there, don't forget to check out Murder Mystery and Makeup. Yay! I hope you have a really good day today. You make good choices. Remember, if you're drowning in a car, look for the diamond ring.

And if you don't have one, bon voyage. Talk to you next week. Goodbye. I hope you don't die in a car. That is not so. Dark History is an audio boom original. Talk to you next week. Goodbye. I hope you don't die in a car. I didn't know that's so. Dark History is an audio boom original. This podcast is executive produced by Bailey Sarian,

Junior McNeely from Three Arts, Kevin Grush, and Claire Turner from Made in Network. Writers, Katie Burr's, Alison Filobo's, Joey Skaluzzo, and me, Bailey Sarian. Shot and edited by Tafad Sua, Nimeroarune Dway, and Hannah Bocker. Research provided by Exander Elmore and the Dark History Researcher team. Special thanks to our expert, Jeff Richards, and I'm your host, Bailey Sarian. Say bye, bye.