4 marketing campaigns that were pure lie

In order to gain more consumers, create new needs for potential buyers, and convince the population of certain ideas, marketing people sometimes make use of dubious tricks. Melanie Radzicki Mcmanus of How Stuff Works has put together a series of marketing campaigns throughout history that were pure deception, and we at Mega Curious have selected four examples for you to check. Look:

1 - Diamonds are rare

As you know, diamonds are supercars, and the reason would be that these stones are very rare and hard to find. However, in reality, they are relatively abundant on the planet, and there are other stones, such as rubies, which are much more unusual and difficult to find. So how did diamonds become so select - and even one of their favorite gems to give to beloved women and get their hands on marriage?

It all started in the 19th century, when Cecil Rhodes, a British tycoon who owned several diamond mines in South Africa, decided to acquire as many mines as possible, restricting its supply around the world, and thereby controlling oil prices. stones.

For at one point, Rhodes came to dominate 90% of the entire rough diamond market and hired the services of an advertising agency called NW Ayer & Son, which in 1914 developed the “Diamonds Are Forever” campaign. It has been over 100 years, and to this day the famous slogan is used around the world.

2 - Iraq and weapons of mass destruction

Do you remember the Iraq War? The conflict began in mid-2003, after a US-led international military coalition invaded the country, resulting in the occupation of Iraqi territory by Western forces, the capture and execution of Saddam Hussein, the outbreak of a civil war. and the death of a huge number of civilians.

The main justification for the actions was that the Iraqis were developing weapons of mass destruction that threatened global security. However, even after the UN Chief Inspector stated that no weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq, the US people were persuaded to support the military invasion through a well-designed public relations campaign.

First, then-George W. Bush's government bombarded the population with misinformation to convince Americans that Iraq had ties to al Qaeda and was involved in the attacks on the Twin Towers. In addition, to heighten the sense of danger and urgency, the political propaganda campaign even "sold" the idea that Iraqis were producing biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.

The Bush administration also produced documents that were handed over to the UN stating that an enormous amount of weapons of mass destruction had been found - and these documents were later found to be false. In addition, many media outlets published photos of the Iraqi people supposedly celebrating the invasion, when in reality very few celebrated the situation.

3 - Women's rights and tobacco

In the 1920s, shortly after the end of World War I, it was considered extremely bad taste for women to be seen smoking in public. As such, cigarette manufacturers (well to say) had the market limited only to men - meaning that the other half, made up of the female share of the population, could still be exploited by the tobacco industry.

However, it was also in the 1920s that the suffrage movement, which fought for women's rights, began to gain momentum - and the American Tobacco Company seized the opportunity to develop a ruse to plant the idea that public smoking was not a right. men only.

Thus, in 1929, an elaborate campaign called “Torches of Freedom” - or “Torches of Liberty” - was launched, which involved gathering a large group of women to march smoking during a parade that took place in New York on Sunday. of Easter. In addition, cigarettes were described as symbols of equality and female emancipation, and public smoking was encouraged despite the social taboos of the time.

The event was recorded not only by hundreds of photographers, but also through video, and was a complete success, as many women - who, as the campaign's creators wanted, associated the idea of ​​public smoking with women's freedom - started to smoke cigarettes without fear. But ultimately, what the strategy did was to encourage an extremely harmful health addiction.

4 - The causes of global warming

Global warming has been a topic that the world has been debating for years, and you may have heard that even scientists are discussing whether it is really happening or not. On the one hand, many researchers claim that the climate changes that have been affecting the planet are the result of human actions, but on the other are those who argue that nothing is happening or that, as a matter of fact, the earth is warmer due to processes. natural.

However, in reality, although we have the impression that opinions are overly divided among the members of the scientific community, there is not such a big discussion. In 2013, a group of researchers decided to evaluate more than 4, 000 abstracts from global warming studies and found that over 97% of the papers admitted that humans had an influence on climate change.

In addition, at least in the US, nearly 90% of Democrats, 70% of Republicans, and nearly 80% of Americans who are not affiliated with either party believe that the temperatures of the planet are rising - at least in part - on account of it. of our actions. So how did the idea that climate change has nothing to do with human influence become so strong?

It turns out that scientists who deny that global warming is our fault, although they are a very small group of professionals, have important political connections around the world. Thus, these researchers have for decades been launching campaigns with the support of some powerful to confuse public opinion on environmental issues, creating the illusion that there is huge disagreement among experts on the subject.

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