[jjj1232]

I’m going to conflate packaging with advertising here but I think it’s the same idea and a little easier to visualize:

Our cogniitive biases act as shortcuts to save energy when making decisions, and advertisers exploit those shortcuts. If you’re on high alert while shopping, catching and recalibrating for your biases at every step of the way then yeah you can probably escape most marketing but for most people that doesn’t come naturally.

If you’re not careful I bet you too slip up sometimes. I know I’ve caught myself at the grocery store reaching for one product over another just because it’s in unbleached cardboard packaging (signaling to me that it’s somehow more local or organic or whatever).

These tricks become obvious when you consciously work through them (ex: obviously some megacorp can package their items in cardboard the same way mom and pop small businesses can) but most of the time we aren’t processing consciously, and that’s how marketing works.

[noir_lord]

Fair points, as I mentioned elsewhere I have a pathological loathing of been manipulated so I do pay attention to everything u buy - the missus however likes brands and does most of the food ordering.