Note: I am not the original author. This post originally appeared on Reddit, and the author has since deleted their account. I am archiving this post here so its advice isn't lost. I have made a quick pass in editing for typographical errors.

I'm a former art director in advertising, and thought I'd share a bit about ads

I had commented about advertising in a previous post, and got a bit of a reaction, so I wanted to share more in case anyone was interested in how advertising works.

First off, I'll say — I've been in advertising since I was 15, I'm 31 now. I quit the industry when I was 26 and am now doing UX design/branding for nonprofits, and super happy where I'm at now, still do a bit of advertising to promote the NPs.

Secondly — This isn't to say advertising is evil or bad or whatever, this is just what happens and how it works. I'm trying to stay very netural with the facts.

A few things about advertising

1. Modern advertising really only came to existence around ~1950s, you can research David Ogilvy. Basically he's the one who started really using storytelling in magazines to achieve a new imaginary lifestyle.
2. I'll highlight — Most consumer advertising is SUPPOSED to sell you on an imaginary lifestyle and teaches you that you lack something
3. Advertising targets your subconscious, You don't go around reading ads aloud all day, it's supposed to bypass your consciousness and target your fears/"desire center" in your brain. It triggers a tribalistic response from the fear of not fitting in ("Keeping up with the Joneses") or an "I'm lacking" response
4. There are teams of highly paid professional creatives and data scientists doing massive amounts of research to gain your attention for like 6 seconds, in order to subconsiously sell you a product or tell you you're missing something, fucking insane right?! But it's true!
5. It's all about winning your time and attention. At a certain point, it's not even about receiving your money, it's about planting the seed of "look at me, talk about me, remember me" because it will eventually turn into a profit somehow, whether it's you talking about it with your friends or actually purchasing the item.

Things we test in advertising

1. We hold focus groups to see which ads perform better. We pay "average consumers" for their time to interact with a product to make it more appealing to the general public (or maybe a target demographic)
2. They literally hold focus groups where they track pupil movement to see where people's eyes land on areas of an ad and for how long.
3. Lots of data is tracked, including heat maps on websites. Many websites will install heat maps to see where their users click the most, and then alter their websites as needed to gain more interest.

Here are ads that you may not know are ads

1. Every logo. Every logo is an advertisement. Nike has literally people PAY $$$$ to be a walking billboard for them... incredible!
2. "Native articles" — these are articles that are sponsored by, say, your local cable company. But it won't outright say that it's sponsored, it may have a tiny line on the very bottom of the article saying that it's sponsored by them. Many listicles are likely to be sponsored or paid for by whatever company is being promoted in the listicle.
3. Published studies. Now this fucking sucks and is why I very rarely read or believe anyone nowadays. Most published studies are funded by companies in their own self-interest. That article you read about wine being good for you? Probably funded by someone in the alcohol industry. Phillip Morris (cigarette company) both owns the cigarettes AND the nicotine patch brands. So this company is profiting off your addiction and your recovery and probably publishing studies with off-brand names quoting an "independent study" but it's really just them. The "doctors" they interview are likely to be paid sponsors. Many many many large companies have this going on, you, as an average consumer, probably just don't know about it.
4. Curated content — Social media influencers are the most obvious, they can make anywhere between $500–$100k on a post that has "product placement" in it, even if they aren't directly promoting it. Say you see a popular person wearing a Chanel bracelet in a post, you can guarantee Chanel sent them that for free (and maybe then some.) Influencers also include your million+ subscriber YouTube channels, even if it's some tech reviewer — he's likely being paid in products or whatever to say certain things, despite how much they claim they're not being paid for opinion. They're being paid to put a product in front of 1M subscribers, that's enough to sway public opinion.
5. Guerilla marketing. There are a lot of stunts being pulled in public that you may not know are marketing. Bartenders can be told which alcohols to promote. Grocery cashiers ask you if you want to donate to St Jude's Children's hospital. Someone on the street asks you to take a picture with their "Really cool Sony Camera". Etc. That's all advertising
6. Word of mouth advertising. This is the most effective form because it's person-to-person within your social group. How many times have you had a friend try something and then they're like "omg we have to go here!" that's word of mouth. Then they plan on taking you and 6 friends to this new nightclub. Now that night club has your business. And they didn't have to pay anything for you to say it.

Some thought/experiments to really nail in what's going on:

1. For every billboard you see today, I want you to imagine that there's a group of 10 people shouting at you to buy the product, because that's essentially what the team of creatives is doing. It just so happens to be a silent image that's doing all the shouting, but rarely do people understand or notice it.
2. Take an hour out while walking around your town to count how many ads you see in that time. Logos count! Shop names count! Like, if you pass by 20 cars parked, how many logos do you see that you finally become aware of. This is what your brain is soaking up even though you're not conscious of it. Your brain filters out a bunch of the noise, but there's a term "reach and frequency" that is why Nike puts its logos on every single item of clothing. Because seeing a logo over and over and over again is basically teaching you to remember it.
3. Take some blue painters tape, and tape over every logo you see in your house. Food labels, router logo, tech logos. This is just in your house.

There is an article somewhere that says an average person sees about 6000 ads per day. While I can't say that I've researched past that article, as someone who has been in the "war rooms" of ad agencies, I can absolutely say that I'm not surprised it isn't more.

You subconsciously have to say "no" over and over and over again, and a lot of people just don't have the bandwidth to ignore 6000 ads every day for the rest of their life. Something, somewhere, is going to give. Once you become consciously aware of advertising, it's easier to channel that "desire trigger" into things like "I know I'm gonna want to spend money, but I'm going to spend it on educational courses or on music lessons for myself or personal training sessions or investing, instead of crap I don't need."

So to end this, don't be hard on yourself if you can't avoid the ads. On a single day you probably bypass "thousands" of people trying to sell you things in the form of advertisements. It's a lot.

My suggestions is to: Go into nature more, meditate more, figure out what you want to channel your spending into, find free activities, opt out of buying from big companies, opt out of mailing lists, opt out of shopping malls, opt out of Amazon.

EDIT: Wow guys thanks so much for the really great comments and conversation and awards!! I really enjoyed sharing this and really happy you guys found this so interesting (advertising is definitely an interesting field). I tried to respond to as many comments as I could, but it's definitely worth the read in the comment section if you have the time to. There's more info from people in the industry too who have more insights than I gave on the original post

More avoidance techniques: Get an adblocker, take side streets instead of main streets (if it's safe to — less advertising on neighborhood/side streets), focus on the nature when you're walking down the street, spend time in front of water (ocean/lake/rivers/lagoons), cover up the logos in your house, get into brandless packaging.

Welcome, everyone! For anyone like myself who appreciates a nice, clean interface, I thought I'd write a quick guide on how to remove some of the extraneous stuff.

The first step is to open the settings page. This link will work if you're a lemmy.ml user, but for others you can click your username in the top-right corner and then click "Settings."

Type: switching from "Local" to "Subscribed" will show you only communities that you have subscribed to on your homepage by default.

Show Avatars: unchecking this will hide all user and community avatar images, making Lemmy more in-line with old Reddit.

Show Scores: unchecking this is certainly not necessary, but a bit of a more radical experiment I'm doing. I personally find that being able to see my vote scores can lead to me wanting to refresh my profile to see how things are doing. This setting removes that desire!

Hope this helps you transition to Lemmy. Have a great day!

https://www.freecycle.org/

https://buynothingproject.org/find-a-group/

I've also used Craigslist's free section to great effect.

What is Zero Waste?

Zero waste is a waste prevention and management strategy gaining popularity among individuals as well as industries, communities, and businesses. The goal — as zero waste is more of an ideal than a hard target — is to emulate sustainable natural cycles where all discarded materials are designed to become resources for other uses, which will themselves become resources for other uses, and so on. Therefore, ideally, nothing is sent to landfills or incinerators. Zero waste strives for reduced resource use, use of recycled or less impactful materials, longer product lives, repairability, product sharing, and recovery of materials from products reaching end of life.

Concretely for most individuals, zero waste means gradually trying to reduce their trash by avoiding unnecessary products or packaged products, avoiding single-use items like straws and cutlery, composting, considering full product lifecycle, and being more mindful consumers overall.

Where to Start

First things first: you don’t have to go run out and purchase anything.

As zero waste has grown in popularity it has unfortunately been commoditized since it has opened up a space in the market and made it profitable to attract well-meaning consumers who are looking for more sustainable products. This means companies will “greenwash,” or market their products as eco-friendly despite not making anything substantially different to warrant such a label.

The Five R’s

When actually starting their zero waste journey, many like to follow the “5 R’s” rule. It comes from Bea Johnson's family and can provide some guidelines to zero waste decision-making. Here’s a brief description and thought process behind the guideline:

1. Refuse — Refuse what you do not need. This is the first line of defense against generating waste. As everything we consume/purchase will eventually reach an end of life, it is important to limit it to what is only necessary. It has become customary for many establishments and companies to give away free items despite them not being always necessary. Therefore, refusing them helps limit how much waste is generated out of them.

• Refuse single-use cutlery and straws from eating establishments
• Refuse single-use bags at stores
• Refuse marketing material from companies
• Unsubscribe from junk mail
• Refuse hotel and airline toiletries and other single-use travel items
• Refuse gifts for the sake of gifting

2. Reduce — Reduce what you do need. After determining what is necessary and what is not, the guideline suggests evaluating whether the items we do consider necessary could be reduced, or the waste they typically generate could be reduced. As mentioned above, even what we do need will eventually reach an end of life and reducing the amount of waste it will generate at that point can be significant. In addition to that, reducing the consumption of these items and products at a larger scale reduces the market demand, further decreasing the resources used to produce these items. This also ties with environmentalism and climate change advocacy, where swapping to an alternative with a lower carbon footprint or smaller impact on the environment is a part of reducing waste.

• Reduce unnecessary packaging
• Do not participate in fast fashion
• Reducing meat and dairy consumption
• Purchasing second-hand, or refurbished

3. Reuse — Reuse what you already have. As we reuse the items we have or repurpose them in some way, we reduce the need for new items that would have fulfilled that purpose. Some purchase items whose sole purpose is to be a reusable form of something previously disposable so as to reduce the amount of single-use items.

Reusing also includes repairing items so as to extend their life before having to replace them. Upcycling and visible mending are great resources for creative ways to reuse items and fixing those for further use.

• Use reusable water bottles and coffee cups
• Bring cloth grocery store bags
• Opt for reusable period products (menstrual cups, cloth pads)
• Switch to stainless steel safety razors

4. Recycle — Recycle what you cannot refuse, reduce, or reuse. At this step, we are mostly looking for as much of our waste to be able to enter a more circular life cycle, where it becomes a resource once again before it ultimately becomes waste. Whether through municipal programs or private companies, it is possible to recycle a lot of our waste. That said, recycling has its own issues as an industry and is therefore not a solution to our waste problem and the reason it is so far down in the list of R’s.

Some materials can be recycled more easily than others. Glass and aluminum are both nearly infinitely recyclable, while plastic tends to be “downcycled,” or made into inferior products before ultimately going to the landfill. When possible, opt for products packaged in materials that are recyclable in your area.

• Recycling packaging of many items (plastic, glass, aluminium, paper, cardboard, etc)
• Reclaiming materials from electronics that have reached their end of life

5. Rot (Compost) — Rot the rest. Here the rotting refers to composting, the process by which organic waste decomposes naturally back to soil. Organic waste makes up around 30% of what gets sent to landfills, meaning composting is a meaningful way to significantly reduce waste. In addition to that, landfill conditions (low oxygenation and mixture with inorganic matter) hinder the proper decomposition of organic matter, which in turn releases methane: a stronger greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, which exacerbates the effects of climate change.

• Start a home composing solution
• Participate in a local composting group at a community garden
• Advocate for green waste solutions in your city

Do a trash audit!

One of the easiest ways to get started with zero waste is to analyze the waste that you create each week. Go through your trash bag — starting with the stuff going to the landfill — and see what takes up the most space, and what's the most harmful. Got a lot of plastic coffee pods, or spray cans from having cream? Make it your goal this week to find an alternative.

As the weeks go on, each successive trash audit should result in more and more waste being reduced. Once you've tackled the non-recyclable stuff, move on to the recyclable stuff. While many materials can be recycled well, others cannot, and it's always good to move up in the 5 R's from Recycle to Reuse!

Live Better, With Less

The concept of simple living is difficult to clearly define, and means something different to everyone, but it does have one similarity across most of the descriptions that we've compiled: less.

Just what exactly people are doing better with less of, exactly, varies a lot. You might find that not all of these topics are for you. And that's okay! The internet is an amazing place with many different communities. While we allow all different kinds of simple living related content here, there are also many more specific communities that may cater to you. If you know of notable places in the Fediverse that deserve a shout here, let us know!

Here are some examples of some of the common themes of what people often speak of going with less of when it comes to simple living, and a list of what that might look like:

Less Stuff

For one reason or another, some of us feel like we're drowning in stuff. Excess possessions fill one's living space, make moving more difficult, and require more cleaning and maintenance. Much of it isn't even stuff that we really wanted, but stuff that we felt pressured or compelled to buy.

• Decluttering
• Going on a low-buy, or no-buy
• Joining a tool share, or thing library
• Learning about the Story of Stuff

Less Work

A full 40+ hour work schedule can leave a lot of us feeling very unfulfilled and without enough time to do what we actually love. And though it can be financially difficult, with careful planning it is possible for many to trim down to fewer hours, or to retire early.

• Finding a more fulfilling job
• Working fewer hours at your current job to allow for a better work–life balance
• Continuing to work, but saving money and reducing expenses in order to retire early (often known as "lean FIRE")

Less Stress

This one is harder to qualify, but there are many ways to reduce stress in one's life. Removing the stressors is the best option, but that would encompass far too many topics to link here.

• Meditating
• Cognitive behavioural therapy, or Stoic practice
• Learning to set and uphold personal boundaries

Less Technology

In the modern day, many people can feel like they're "chained" to their phone, or to technology in general. Social media is engineered to keep people in a cycle of engagement, often preying on outrage to keep up scrolling, clicking, and arguing.

• Taking an "offline day"
• Switching to a feature phone
• Using apps to limit notifications, and/or apply timers to your screen time
• Disengaging from social media

So, what does Simple Living mean to you?

Part of the difficulty of creating a clear description for this community is that simple living can mean something very different to each person you ask. Exactly how someone lives better with less is entirely up to them. This is why this community cannot help you determine a direction if you don't know what you want out of your life.

Imagining a simpler life for yourself requires self-reflection. Mindfulness is an important skill that can help you achieve this goal.

Eliminating the Bad

During moments where you find yourself overwhelmed by something, take a moment to center yourself in the moment and analyze your thoughts and feelings.

• What is causing you stress in this moment?
• How could you take steps to reduce this stressor in your life?

Every time you move towards reducing these stressors, you're taking a step towards simple living.

Cultivating the Good

But simple living isn't just reductive! We also need to cultivate happiness in our lives in the extra space and time that we carve out of our lives through that reduction, and focus on what's truly important. When you find yourself having a moment where you're experiencing joy, take a moment to center yourself in that moment and ask yourself some questions:

• Why am I so happy in this moment?
• Is this something that I can cultivate more of in my life?

And finally, there is the more neutral task of reflecting on your longterm desires. You can do this any time you have the time, but it is likely to be more productive once you've achieved some clarity about what you truly like and dislike about life.

• What does an ideal day look like for you?
  • How do you wake up? On your own terms, or with an alarm? Early, or late?
  • How do you do about your morning routine What kind of rituals do you have?
  • What kinds of activities do you carry out?
  • Do you spend time with other people?
  • Is your environment different in this ideal day than it is in your current life? How does it differ?
• What does an ideal week look like to you?
  • Is your ideal day something that you would only need on weekends, or is it something that you'd like to experience more often than that?
  • If you do have work in your ideal week, is it structured, or unstructured (self-directed) ? How many days per week do you work? How many hours per day?

The intention of these exercises is to get to the root of what you truly value. Consider this the framework for the simple life you aspire to — it may just be a dream that you try to incorporate aspects of into your daily life, or it may be a longterm goal that you work towards.