The lies we tell content consumers

I’ve been lied about many things during my lifetime, but my favorite lies were told when I was a child.

I was told “money doesn’t grow on trees” and that “you need to work hard to make money.”

This is, of course, 100% wrong. Money does, in fact, grow on trees, because a tree is worth money. If you chop it down into little pieces and turn them into a cutting board, it’s worth even more money.

In fact, I would argue, a tree is worth more money dead, than alive, but I digress.

This concept is called lie-to-children, sometimes referred to as a Wittgenstein’s ladder.

I was lied to about money because my brain was too small, too naive, and too inexperienced to encompass the complexities of financial systems, investment strategies, passive income, societal privilege, and economic disparity.

But we don’t just lie to children, we also lie to adults, particularly when it benefits us.

And as marketers, our most frequent lies are directed toward other adults whom we lovingly call: consumers, users, and targets.

In our defense, however, we can’t really see these adults beyond numbers on a screen, so does it really count as lying?

In any case, here are 10 of the most common lies we, marketers, tell content consumers:

1. “Your feedback is important to us” – if I get around to reading it.

2. “Clickbait equals quality content” – or a sign of a “good” marketing team.

3. “All reviews are genuine” – except those that are not.

4. “Privacy policies are here to protect you” – but primarily me.

5. “The algorithm is impartial” – it is as objective as the humans that programmed it.

6. “Download my ‘free’ online tool” – just pay with your data.

7. “I know you because I am you” – I can also see your data.

8. “Organic ‘overnight success’ thanks to a viral post” – just don’t count the sleepless nights.

9. “Product made perfectly to fit your needs” – and everyone else’s, depending on what page they land on.

10. “Look at all of these influencers that love us” – because I paid them.

BONUS LIE – “It is completely up to you whether you want to buy or not” – all you have to do is ignore all of the remarketing campaigns flooding your online experience for the next 21 days.

We’re not bad people, we’re just caught in a bad system that is putting our self-interest at the expense of your self-interest.

We’re rewarded for disrupting you (who needs stability anyway) and now AI has made it easier than ever to tweak, test, and tinker with your attention until you’re as engaged and enraged as we need you to be.

We’re also beholden to our profit-seeking stakeholders who like it when graphs go up and to the right. We have quotas to fill and commissions to reach. We are forever chasing our tails adapting to new algorithms, new technologies, and new performative “consumer protection laws.”

The business books we read are written by serious men with three names and no ethics. There are no real regulations for the marketing practices we deploy which means we are exploited and expected to sell anything to anyone.

We do not get paid enough to worry about the hedonic, over-consumption model, we’ve helped build and certainly not enough to think about its environmental implications.

You are just caught in the crossfire.