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> Why is today's marketing so filled with vile psychological tricks

Because we didn't outlaw them, and mostly liberalised regulations around advertising. If they can, they will. It really does seem to be as simple as that.

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You say today's marketing but this has been going on for a while now...! It's been at least sixty years since Vance Packard's [0] 1957 book, 'The Hidden Persuaders' was published, which was probably the first time the public learned about these tricks.

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vance_Packard

I was quoting parent, but the worst tricks have mostly been enabled by tech - the sixties through the millennium seem quite benign compared to today.

Doing this would be explicitly illegal in the EU in light of GDPR. Essentially it is unauthorised personal data collection and you cannot sanitize it enough in the device.

No, you cannot click through a drink.

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