Written on March 22, 2023

Companies are subverting our minds and they do this through advertisements. The advertisement industry is not harmless, it is based on the exploitation of people who do not agree to be exploited.

It maintains harmful stereotypes, attempts to strengthen or change social norms, creates false needs and manipulates the emotions, desires and behavior of people.

It hunts the insecurities of people and exploits vulnerable groups. It is designed to make people feel incomplete without a certain product or service. And this is not only unethical practice, but it is also harmful to our mental health and well-being.

An example of how the advertisement industry works, a website tracks someone's online behavior through cookies or JavaScript and sells this information to companies that specialize in reselling personal data.

Those companies then collect all this personal information in a demographic group in which they have decided that it fits in for other companies to buy. Afterwards, all this personal information is sold to advertisers who then force the original person to view their personalized advertisements.

Buying and selling personal data and placing them in harmful and often discriminatory demographic groups is a daily practice for these companies.

Blocking these practices from our lives by not using a service that forces advertisements on us, or by using a service to block these advertisements — for example, an adblocker — is not only the right thing to do, but also a moral duty towards yourself.

We have and must continue to have the power to resist their manipulative tactics. We can send a message to the advertisement industry that we will not be complicit in their exploitation methods.