[dhimes]

Exactly. Or that innocuous Medium post that just seems like some guy talking, when in fact it is a carefully crafted piece of psychological manipulation.

[oldsklgdfth]

Lifestyle marketing isn't a new idea. It's part of what made tabacoo successful. But they were making educated guesses on what might work, i.e. the cowboy smoking.

The difference I see is that there is feedback on the ads other than sales and it seems like you could closely tailor ads to specific demographics.

[skybrian]

Hmmm, how about amateur psychological manipulation that went viral because it's emotionally effective?

I think this is the risk we pay by reading the Internet? The filtering implicit in things going viral is a mixed bag.