Deprogramming can only occur when we realize we must have compassion for a victim, not disagreement with an enemy

It is unrealistic to ask an individual that has been subject to brainwashing or behavioral manipulation to merely change their mind. It is important to remember that a brainwashed person is a victim that has been taken advantage of. This programming is the result of an outside entity systematically targeting specific fears and weaknesses the individual possesses, and this tie to vulnerability makes undoing the process difficult. To further complicate the situation, many victims of brainwashing believe that the propaganda that has been fed to them is their own opinion, not the opinion of others placed on them.

The first step in dismantling the damage done by brainwashing is to disconnect an individual’s identity from the opinions they hold.

Once an individual no longer feels that their identity is under attack, they are more willing to listen to information that might contradict the brainwashing.

How do you reach a person that doesn’t share your reality?

To help our fallen soldiers in a war that they didn’t join willingly, we must show compassion and judge only those that waged war, not those that were caught up in it. In this space we explore the tactics themselves that manipulate the behaviors of the public, explain their power, and prepare anyone willing to learn how to protect themselves against being used by power unknowingly.

It is only from a position of power that one can brainwash another individual. We could no longer stay silent when the tactics of our industry have been hijacked and weaponized. As marketers we urge the public to assess its relationship to the truth, and that relationship’s impact on our shared reality.

-Honest Marketing and Business Development

Understanding Influence

There are a myriad of techniques that can be used to influence every demographic imaginable. Many of these posts explore very effective techniques that should only be used to enhance honest communication with the public, and we ask that no one abuse the information they learn here. As marketers that require our clients to practice honest and transparent marketing, we condemn the all too frequent abuse of this knowledge in the marketing industry and in politics. Here, you will find information that reveals the considerations that go into materials meant to influence opinions and actions in a specific and desired manner.

Selling our democracy, one ad space at a time

Brittany Kaiser from Cambridge Analytica talks about Facebook’s role in everything from the destruction of our democracy to genocide around the world.
Judging a book by its cover

Marketing can change perceived value easily. A social experiment reveals our vulnerability to marketers made possible by our obsession with status.
The army of robots is here

Experts warn the public about computer-generated disinformation campaigns that obfuscate facts and real human communication.
Marketing 101

Most people don't have an understanding of what marketing is. Until this is clear, audiences won't be able to identify the influences in their life. Remember, marketing is not limited to the business world.
Dishonorable marketing is a choice

Marketing can be done honorably–an inside look at responsible approaches that work better than slimy tactics.
What "Disability" means in Marketing

An inside look at what good marketers consider to help include all audiences. Not all marketing tactics are bad.
Gender Habits & Desires

Marketing is so effective because it utilizes psychology. Studies identify preferences and habits of different demographics, which then can be used to enhance communication, or can be exploited.
Including or targeting the LGBTQIA+ Community

An argument for including LGBTQIA+ individuals in targeted audiences that isn't about politics or religion. Treating people equally and with dignity is the right thing to do, but it's also just good for business.
Advertising to Children

Understand the conversation that is being had about your children in order to protect them against targeting from malicious advertising or manipulation. Here are the main points.
Advertising to Teens

Teenagers are old enough to understand the conversation being had about how advertisers target them. Teens, avoid manipulation by asking, "what is their motivation to control my actions?"
Advertising to Different Income Brackets

Marketing can be a mirror for our society–ads only work because the people that created them understand what you want. Income inequality and the motivations that fuel it are quite apparent when talking about targeted marketing tactics. Do we like what we see?
Teaching our future to use slimy tactics

Tactics are taught in schools as tools to be successful in a job, and the marketing industry and university system look the other way when the tactic is at the cost of the consumer. An inside look into marketing industry tactics–unfortunately not all marketers value the truth, and many of the tactics used are forms of manipulation.
Diversity Marketing

Diversity marketing means adapting the message to the market, instead of trying to adapt the market to the message. Money spends no matter who you are–the result is a marketing industry that is more in tune with America's diversity than most Americans.

  • Is it Really Brainwashing?

    Brainwashing is a heavy term that as marketers we do not like to use without serious consideration. There is certainly a difference between tactics being used to communicate and influence for the purpose of advertising, and using those same tactics to create and control extremism. However, both can be described as: The systematic programming of the brain of another individual to react in a desired manner to a specific message, ideal, opinion, tendency, or inclination.

    The difference is mentality. When used honestly, marketing tactics can enhance communication with the public, but when used for dishonest or self serving reasons, the tactics become synonymous with brainwashing, and there is no discernible difference.
    A Note from Marketers

    Our concern is that the public is unaware that many extreme perspectives have been normalized, resulting in a blind spot that can be abused.

    The dictionary definition of brainwashing is: The process of pressuring someone into adopting radically different beliefs by using systematic and often forcible means.

    Honest Marketing and Business Development explains that “we often focus on the word ‘force’, imagining a brainwashed individual strapped to a chair in front of flashing images with their eyes taped open. This spycraft image we have, where years later the brainwashed individual hears a code word that triggers their programming, is imaginative for Hollywood, but is not reflective of the true nature of brainwashing in our society”.

    With information warfare, which is a form of brainwashing, the tactic is to create the same level of change without the individual ever realizing that they have been influenced or brainwashed. To the brainwashed individual, they don’t believe that their views have changed or that they have adopted a radically different perspective. This is extremely difficult to combat because it is impossible to know the alternate ideals that the same individual would possess without being exposed to the brainwashing influence.

    While brainwashing might not be apparent to the individual, the larger trends in public polling show very apparent turns to extremist ideals. This is also reflected in responses to extremism, which by nature is extreme itself in order to be proportionate. Similar to the method for boiling a frog, the public slowly is exposed to more and more extreme ideas, that to the individual, will feel normal as they escalate, due to the slow gradient of change.

    Is it extreme to call it brainwashing? Not at all.

    The strategy isn’t to convince you that their ideas are right, it is to program you like a computer.

    Brainwashing is a systematic programming of the human brain to react to information or cues in a specific desired manner. It is very subtle and highly invasive, and is done with the intent to alter everything from automatic responses to opinions, without the subject ever realizing anything has changed. Because it is nearly invisible, it can be difficult to see where one has been influenced.

    Below we explore some of the most common techniques used to manipulate the masses. Having an understanding of these common tactics is helpful when taking an internal inventory, because it highlights the intent of the sources we receive information from.

    It is extremely important to make sure that what we think, what we feel, and what we prefer was set based upon our experiences and factual information, not programming from outside entities.

    The following techniques are used in dirty marketing, propaganda, and information warfare, three distinctive, yet similar categories that we as marketers have watched degrade into synonymous with brainwashing due to abuse of power in corporations as well as government.

Fear

Fear is more powerful than we give it credit for. Secondary emotions that are born from fear can obfuscate the sources of our opinions and actions, making it difficult to recognize how our fears can be leveraged by others. Many times when we think we feel anger, we are actually experiencing fear, which is why fear so easily breeds hate. Hate is a fear accelerant, and alters our ability to see reality for what it is. When an idea or a term is connected to an individual’s sense of fear, it triggers self protection mechanisms that override our ability to see facts and reality objectively. In that state, an individual can experience fear when there is no danger, which is why fear can be used to alter behaviors for just about anything–not only situations that present a real threat.

Dark Pattern Design

Using a variety of dirty tactics to trick the user into authorizing payment, signing up for unwanted services or advertising, or being redirected to an undesired location. This tactic abuses everything from pattern recognition to trust, and instead of having the goal of manipulating the public into willingly performing the desired action, the goal is to trick the user into the desired action by any effective means possible. This often utilizes the wiring in the brain that is cemented by performing repetitive tasks and can be as simple as switching the yes and no button options after the user has become accustomed to seeing them in a certain order or location. For a full library of tactics and reported running dark pattern scams, visit: darkpatterns.org

Herd Mentality

This tactic uses language that emphasizes quantity over quality, where the claim is not that something is the best, but is the most popular. Implying that most people do things a certain way – or that you are out of alignment with some kind of universal agreement – is a manipulation tactic intended to neutralize dissent. Using statements that evoke the feeling of exclusion or isolation for anyone in disagreement triggers fear and self doubt, and associates all paths except for agreement with unpopularity. In a state of fear or doubt, humans are less likely to go against the perceived flow, even if that flow is falsely manufactured.

False Absolutes

Statements that are only absolute in a certain context can be used as a starting place to manipulate audiences into believing the same statement is appropriate in all contexts. Wording a statement so that it sounds universal discourages audiences from checking to make sure that the information is true in all circumstances. This tactic creates black and white thinking patterns and dampens analytic thought processes that would reveal obvious exceptions and holes in logic.

Association To Universal Positive Statements

This tactic abuses our brain’s propensity to make associations as an effective way to store memories. Associations are fairly simple to create, sometimes only requiring proximity to form the necessary neural pathways to connect otherwise unrelated points. Commercials frequently abuse this tactic by showing an audience imagery that evokes strong emotion or stirs up a desired reaction, then connecting it to their brand. In a related abuse, companies and politicians establish false positive associations for themselves by creating connections to universally accepted positive or popular platforms. This lowers the risk of rejection and creates false approval from audiences that are unable to separate out the speaker from the speech.

Word Salad

Word choice is extremely important, but not as important as the rhythms and patterns of speech. By replicating familiar speech patterns, speakers can masquerade their word-salad as sensible content. Our expectations surrounding rhythm and inflection are so strong that if we aren’t paying careful attention, complete nonsense can take on meaning. Humorously, this is frequently done in media, where characters string together words with little meaning in a specific rhythm to sound like futuristic scientists or experts. Unfortunately, the line is not drawn at fiction, and this tactic is notoriously used by authority, especially when making statements attempting to mitigate wrongdoing.

Making Claims That Cannot Be Proven Wrong

There is no risk of being proven wrong if a statement is designed to escape fact checking. This tactic centers around claims that cannot be researched due to lack of access to surrounding information, or claims that address something that is beyond proof. If there is no manner to test the accuracy of the statement, audiences must form opinions that are based on other less reliable factors, such as confidence or delivery style. When speakers lack in substance, this tactic helps focus audiences on other qualities they might possess. Additionally, this tactic is often used to stall or deflect away from hardline questions when substantive responses haven't been prepared or don't exist.

Abusing Design Patterns of Authority

This tactic centers around the use of design elements or aesthetics that are commonly associated with authoritative entities such as government, science, or law enforcement. In marketing, psychology is used to assess how humans react to different forms, colors, and imagery, and this information informs how designers manipulate aesthetics to create predictable reactions from viewers. Aesthetics that were designed to re-enforce authority can be misused to prime viewers to ingest messaging as though they were coming from a more established or serious source, and can result in the spread of misinformation because of their formal appearance.

Normalizing

Like the frog that doesn’t realize it is being boiled, normalizing is a gradual process of changing perceptions about what should be considered normal. This tactic is often used as an attempt to mitigate outrage surrounding extremism. Labeling abnormalities as normal is an abuse of herd mentality, where people don’t want to be perceived to lie on the fringes of society or be left behind the pack. Unfortunately, normalizing is how many outrageous actions go unpunished. Normalizing interferes with the momentum of opposing parties by draining our sense of injustice and replacing it with acceptance of the new norm.

Creating False Connections

This tactic makes claims that two unconnected things should have an association. False associations, positive or negative, can be made by manufacturing a relationship or suggesting one thing is a catalyst for another. Implying or claiming proximity helps transfer pre-established associations without putting in effort to build a reputation from the ground up. In addition to being used as a shortcut, associations can be used to confuse or obscure true intentions by piggybacking onto trusted ideas, people, or products.

Taking Advantage Of The Lay Person

At its heart, this tactic takes advantage of the average person’s level of expertise–or lack thereof. Dishonesty and manipulation can be hidden by talking over the heads of lay people, which is an abuse of both the public’s tendency to be uninformed, and lack of education in certain individuals. This tactic falls apart easily when fact checked, however the goal is not to defend statements against scrutiny, it is to take advantage of anyone overly trusting or unmotivated to properly research or confirm information. Even if claims are later shown to be false, the tactic has already done damage by confusing lay people that may not be inclined to believe fact checking against what they believe to be a trusted source. Abusing the loyalty of lay people is no more honorable than a parent misleading their child, and much like the therapy required to recover from abuse, those taken advantage of with this tactic are in for a long road back to the truth.

Isolation

In situations where the desire is to normalize extremes, isolation is a common tactic. Where one context might highlight a behavior or ideology as outlandish, another context can be designed to make extremes appear typical. Isolation prevents outside ideas from conflicting with ideology, which allows for extremism to grow unchecked. Isolation can be achieved abstractly or physically, and often includes behavior and language modification to re-enforce separation from groups or norms. To maintain separation, fear tactics are common, and the more isolation a group can achieve, the more power that group has over its members. Additionally, prolonged separation makes it challenging for members to reintegrate into norms, which often leads to individuals remaining in the isolated state–furthering extremism in a cycle that is difficult to break.

Micro Targeting

When speaking to a very specific audience of a certain demographic, messages are designed to tap into that demographic’s known preferences and dislikes. The more specifically that an audience is targeted, the more extreme the messaging can be because the speaker isn’t worried about including considerations for a wide range of opinions. This creates a powerful and influential illusion of connection when it is in fact merely a product of research and targeting.

Deflecting Accusations By Making Accusations

This tactic helps guilty parties avoid taking responsibility for wrongdoing by distracting audiences with wrongdoing elsewhere–“I did this, but they did that”. Deflection and distraction mitigate consequences by adding confusion to the situation, and by normalizing bad behavior. If everyone is doing something wrong, then any singular person’s wrongdoing won’t feel as substantial as it would otherwise.

I’m Rubber You’re Glue: Accusing Others of Your Crimes

This tactic is used to confuse the public, especially an uninformed audience, by accusing an innocent person of the behavior or crime that the accuser committed themself. Unless the audience is already familiar with the relevant facts of the situation, it will be difficult to discern which party is being honest. The tactic is usually used in circumstances where an audience cannot have access to relevant information for whatever reason, or where the accuser can rely on a lazy audience not doing research which would uncover contradictory or revealing evidence.

Word association Through Repetition

Repetition tends to annoy humans, however it is a tactic that is used despite annoyance because of how effective it is. To associate two words, one must use the words together in extreme repetition, often causing audiences to roll their eyes, while the tactic works its magic. Repetition is an abuse of our physical brain’s system for retaining knowledge because it takes advantage of what we know about how neural pathways are formed. Instead of making convincing arguments, the tactic seeks to hardwire a human brain to respond in a purposeful manner to set “triggers” that then can be called upon. This sort of wiring bypasses analytical thought and causes affected individuals to respond before thinking.

Lying

In marketing there are laws that protect against false advertising, however there is no real way to regulate lying. Outside of the industry, lying is even less regulated, and there are no laws that punish lying, other than offenses within the justice system. Regardless of what liars claim, lying is not a universal flaw, and to make a confusing matter more complicated, liars tend to mimic honest people and honest language, making it very difficult for audiences to believe anyone. Lying has lowered the baseline for what we can expect the minimum to be, sewing distrust everywhere, even where lying isn’t occurring. This lack of shared reality, and the burden of research it places on the listener, should be viewed as motivation to implement punishments for those that get caught lying. Instead of losing trust in an entire population, the best protection is to call out lies when you see them to help create a culture that no longer accepts lying as merely a part of life.