– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

Companies spend billions of dollars

every year to manipulate your psychology

so you feel desire, loyalty, and

urgency. All in an effort to get you to

buy more stuff. This isn't a conspiracy.

It's [music] not even a secret. These

are strategies shared in boardrooms,

bragged about in tech offices, and liked

on LinkedIn. Brands hide their true

intentions from you through a slight of

hand. They seamlessly blend into

culture, track your every move, and hit

you with relentless messaging. Every

word, every image, and every offer is

tested and optimized to get you to buy

[music] more. And the more I looked into

it, the more I realized how

sophisticated it's gotten. This video is

sponsored by Surf Shark. I'll share more

about how they can help to keep your

data private later. If there's one thing

I want to get across from the very

beginning, it's this. Don't be fooled by

what companies say they value. It's all

[music] about the money. They'll claim

their mission is to make the world a

better place, to empower creativity, or

to build a community.

>> We're a company that focuses on

connecting people.

>> Let's be real, that's just the message

they want you to hear. The truth is much

simpler and far less romantic. They

don't want to empower creativity. They

want more people to make free content

for them. They don't want to build a

community. They want loyal customers

that keep coming back. They don't want

to make the world a better place. They

want you to buy more, more often, and

without thinking too hard about it. The

business model is simple. Capture your

attention, shape your perception,

[music] and turn it into profit. This

doesn't mean that every company is

inherently bad or that every advertising

strategy [music] is evil. It's just the

nature of capitalism. Maximizing profit

is the goal, and it's the same story

we've seen played out for decades,

except now companies are getting

smarter, using more sophisticated tools,

and making it so much harder for you to

resist. One of the oldest tricks in the

books is for brands to get you to like

them, to build genuine affinity and

trust. And it all starts with branding.

Most people today are savvy enough to

know that branding isn't just a logo,

colors, or style guide. It's carefully

engineered storytelling. Because

advertising doesn't just [music] sell

products, it sells values. Martin

Lindström, marketing insider and author

of the New York Times bestselling book

Biology, says, "Brands that create an

emotional connection to consumers are

much stronger than those that don't.

It's as simple and complicated as that."

Luxury car commercials don't talk about

gas mileage or safety ratings. They show

you freedom, success, power. Even

everyday products like deodorant or

shampoo are pitched as the key to being

a better, more authentic, or morally

ethical version of yourself. And you

know what? It really works.

>> Brands invest millions into crafting

their image, refining their message, and

building an identity that speaks to you.

Because they know it's going to help

bypass rational evaluation. You don't

buy a new car because you compared every

spec. You buy it because you want it to

say something about who you are. Think

about it. If you remove the logos from

three popular running sneakers, most

people, aside from sneaker heads, would

struggle to tell them apart. When so

many sneakers use the same materials,

shapes, and manufacturing processes,

it's the brand that makes the

difference. This was made very clear in

a 2018 stunt by the budget footwear

company Payless. Amid dropping sales and

on the verge of bankruptcy, Payless took

a big swing. They secretly took over the

lease of an old Armani store in Santa

Monica and turned it into a fake luxury

boutique called Paylessi. The pop-up

shop was extravagant and next to some of

the most expensive retailers here on

Third Street Prominade,

>> they had the same 20 to $40 shoes on the

shelves, but with fancy lighting,

minimalist displays, and high-end tags

that went up to $600. They invited

fashion influencers to the launch party,

and [music] it worked. People raved

about the quality, the design, and how

premium it all felt. Within hours,

Payless sold thousands of dollars worth

of inventory, beautifully demonstrating

the power of branding and how emotional

storytelling can shift your perception

of a product. And no, the irony doesn't

fail me that this itself was a clever

marketing stunt by a company looking to

sell more shoes. Brands have smartened

up a lot over the years. They know it's

much easier to tap into your current

emotions and behaviors than to

fundamentally change your beliefs.

>> This is one of Ram's most recent

commercials. Americans, we can do

anything we want

except one thing. We just can't stop

being American. If you were to reverse

engineer this ad back to its origins,

you'd probably end up in a room with a

handful of brand and marketing experts.

[music]

This is where it all begins. It's their

job to figure out how to make people

want a Ram truck. And they don't just

come up with this stuff out [music] of

nowhere. It's not based on their own

intuition or feelings. They look at

their competitors, panalyze [music] the

cultural climate, and study their target

audience. Learning, among other things,

that conservative Americans see the US

as the greatest country [music] in the

world. Even though among high-income

nations, it ranks 33rd in infant

mortality, 20th in education, 40th in

life expectancy, and has one of the

worst healthare systems in the world.

But facts don't sell trucks, feelings

do. So these brand experts decide that

they want to harness the feeling of

America is number one. After months of

research, meetings, script revisions,

production schedules, and expensive

shoots, this is what you get.

>> Americans, we [music] can do anything we

want except one thing. Lower the [music]

rates of infant mortality.

>> If you're anything like me, you watch

this commercial and see it as completely

absurd, out of touch, and embarrassing.

Like one YouTube comment put [music] it,

"The ad feels like a Grand Theft Auto

parody commercial." But if that's the

case, if that's how you feel, it's just

because you aren't the target audience.

They're not talking [music] to you.

They're talking directly to the person

who wants to believe America is number

one, who wants to see themselves as

tough, rebellious, free, and proudly

patriotic. They're saying, "If you want

to feel like a real American, then buy a

Ram." It's not telling you what to

value. It's figuring out how you think,

feel, and behave, and selling your

values back to you. This commercial is

just one very small example of how

brands show up in the world. 15 to 30

second commercials or TVC's as the

industry calls them are starting to take

a backseat to even more subtle and

effective messaging in the form of

organic content, email marketing

campaigns, user generated content, and

my favorite, comment marketing.

Microsoft Burger King, Gatorade, and

others use the comment section as

another touch point in their marketing

[music] strategy. With speed, wit, and

originality, they drop into

conversations to show the world, hey,

[music] I'm a multinational corporation

just like you. I mean person. I'm a

person just like you.

>> Every component a brand is sending,

every signal it sends, any interaction

you have with a brand is a brand. The

most effective brands in the world are

masters at storytelling across every

medium. Wendy's reinvented itself from

just another fast food chain into the

internet's snarky [music] friend. Liquid

Death is literally just water in a can,

but its content makes you feel

rebellious and irreverent. And if you

feel the urge to jump to the defense of

any of your favorite brands, that's most

likely because their marketing worked on

you. Look, it would be pretty

one-dimensional to just sit here and

say, "Brands bad, marketing bad." Plenty

of companies out there offer products

and services that genuinely add value.

We need razors to shave and jackets to

stay warm. And even beyond the basics,

there's nothing wrong with wanting a new

pair of sunglasses or noise cancelling

headphones. But if you're someone who's

trying to make more intentional

decisions about how you spend your time

and your money, if you don't like being

deceived into wanting things you don't

need, or if you've felt buyer's remorse

more times than you'd like to admit, the

problem isn't you. At the end of the

day, people know that they're being sold

to all the time. But what most people

don't realize is just how calculated and

manipulative it's become. And at its

worst, it crosses a line to being

completely unethical. Out of all the

advancements in marketing, the

sophistication of tracking and targeting

has arguably made the biggest impact on

what you buy and why you buy it. And

Facebook propelled this to an entirely

new level. People started sharing

personal information in a way they never

had before. Suddenly, advertisers didn't

have to guess who you were or what you

cared about. They had it all in a neat

little profile volunteered by you.

Today, datadriven advertising has gotten

so good, it often knows what you want

before you do. As far back as 2015,

advertisers were implementing haptic

targeting, picking up on your phone

sensors and physical cues to understand

what you're doing and then using that

data to sell things to you. So, if your

phone detects that you're running, you

might start seeing ads for a sports

drink. Or perhaps you just dropped your

phone. What a perfect time to send you

an ad for a rugged phone case. One of

the most common forms of advanced

targeting is called microargeting, and

it's used by virtually every big brand

today. Instead of blasting everyone with

the same generic ad, microtargeting

allows brands to send specific messages

to different audience segments [music]

like new parents, anxious college

students, or luxury shoppers. These

narrow groups are defined by shared

behaviors, interests, demographics, and

even emotional triggers. Exactly how

messed up does this kind of targeting

get? In April 2016, a leaked internal

document revealed that Facebook was

offering advertisers the ability to

target 13 to 17 year olds on its

platforms, [music]

including Instagram, specifically during

moments of psychological vulnerability.

That meant serving ads when teenagers

felt quote unquote worthless, insecure,

anxious, or stupid. They even identified

moments when teens were worried about

body confidence, making them prime

targets for products promising a fix.

Sarah Win Williams spent years inside

Facebook as the director of global

public policy and revealed in her book

Careless People how manipulative and

destructive this kind of targeting got.

>> The company is is always trying to push

further and further in the tools it

develops to [music] meet what

advertisers want.

>> In one example, she describes how

Facebook would retarget teenagers who

had just deleted a selfie, serving them

beauty product ads at that exact moment.

In her book, she says, "There's a reason

why you erase something from existence,

why a teen girl feels that it can't be

shared, and surely Facebook shouldn't

then be using that moment to bombard

them with extreme weight loss ads or

beauty industry ads or whatever else

they push on teens feeling vulnerable."

The weird thing is that the rest of our

Facebook co-workers seemed unbothered

about this. It's very very hard to wrap

your mind around the amount of data

[music] that this company has on each

person who logs on to its service.

>> Don't let Mark Zuckerberg's rebrand fool

you. Changing his wardrobe doesn't

change their business model. According

to Williams, nothing at the company

changed after these allegations were

brought forth. They simply put out a PR

statement to help repair their brand

image and proceeded on business as

usual. So, adding a brand sponsorship

into this video is a bold move. Let's

see how it plays out. So, one of the

main ways that I make an income and

invest back into my videos is through

sponsorships. And since I started over

10 years ago, I've been very selective

about the brands that I partner with. I

only recommend products and services

that I actually use myself and that I

can vouch for. That's why over the

years, I've only worked with about a

dozen or two brands, and I say no to 99%

of opportunities I get. But Surf Shark

is one of those rare companies that was

an easy yes for me. After years of being

lazy and giving away my data, I've

started to get more serious about

protecting it. Surf Shark is a VPN that

encrypts your internet traffic and hides

your IP address, making it much harder

for companies, trackers, and even

internet providers to watch what you're

doing. When everyone wants a piece of

your data, this is a very simple way to

put more control in your hands. Using

Surf Shark can help reduce the amount of

targeted ads you see and push back

against some of the psychological tricks

brands use. Additionally, Surf Shark

offers practical benefits that go beyond

basic privacy. It can help you avoid

price discrimination, a shady practice

where companies show higher prices based

upon your location. And it can also

protect you on public Wi-Fi by

encrypting your data, making it much

harder for hackers to intercept. Go to

surfark.com/mattavevela

or use code mattavela at checkout to get

an extra 4 months of Surf SharkVPN. And

remember, when you use my link, you're

not only getting access to a great

service, but you're also helping to

support this channel. So, thanks for

considering. Here's the thing. It's not

just about finding you at one vulnerable

moment. Sure, it helps, but to really

shape how you think about a brand or

product, they have to hit you again and

again and again and again and again. So,

marketers have long known that one

impression isn't enough. The classic

rule of thumb in advertising is seven

touch points. That's seven times to get

into your head and eventually into your

wallet. This number goes up or down

depending on a lot of factors, but what

brands know for certain is this. They

need to show up a lot to get [music] you

primed to buy. After all, you're a

respectable consumer. You're not going

to let Apple you on the first date. The

most effective companies in the world

have content creation engines, both

[music] paid and organic, that continue

to target you with brand messages

through their sales funnels. They are

trying to drive you from awareness,

hearing about the product for the first

time, to conversion, making the

purchase. This is what it might look

like. You learn about a new energy drink

in a viral stunt, then hear about it

from an influencer, spot [music] it in a

paid Instagram ad, catch it on a

billboard, and finally, you get a

special offer in an email that's not so

special at all. In fact, it's an offer

that they run 24/7 that really doesn't

make it much of a discount at all and

more of a strategy to change your

perception of value and make you feel

like you're getting a deal. You click

add to cart and get a sudden hit of

dopamine. You solved a problem. You're

trying something new. You're a consumer.

What a rush. The future of all these

marketing strategies is [music] getting

scary. Instead of generic messaging or

even microtargeted messaging based on

personality types, brands are going to

talk to you [music] directly at an

individual level with dynamic targeting.

Today, this marketing is still in its

early stages and [music] its

applications are most often used with

text and photo-based ads. An online

retailer can reserve the exact sweater

[music] that you added to your cart but

didn't buy. Or a travel site can show

you flights to a city you just Googled.

With AI, the future of dynamic targeting

is going to go even [music] further.

Imagine hyperpersonalized advertising

for every person connected to the

internet. 5 billion different

personality [music] profiles, 5 billion

different ad campaigns, 5 billion

different messages. Brands will shift

their messages subtly to speak directly

to you, your desires, your hopes, your

fears, and your dreams. [music] Instead

of just changing a headline or showing

you a product you looked at once, AI is

going to be able to generate completely

custom content [music] for you in real

time.

Hey Matt, as an American man with a

smaller than average penis, you deserve

more respect. That's why you need a new

Ram truck.

>> I mean, listen, I'm not a great

marketer, but you can imagine how they'd

use it. Just because these tactics are

widely used and highly effective does

not mean they are easy to implement.

Even the biggest brands in the world

make mistakes or go bust. But the ones

that succeed have the deepest pockets

and [music] the most experienced

marketers asking three main questions.

How can we turn this product or offering

into a feeling? How can we get as much

data about our audience as possible? And

what's the precise message our audience

needs to hear in what order to get a

sale with the least amount of money

possible? The winners answer these

questions, break through to cultlike

affection, and create affinity with

millions of people around the world.

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
manipulate /məˈnɪpjəleɪt/ B2	verb - to influence or control someone cleverly or unfairly
brand /brænd/ B1	noun - a product made by a particular company under a particular name
perception /pəˈsɛpʃən/ B2	noun - the way you understand or think about something
profit /ˈprɒfɪt/ A2	noun - money that you make from business activity after costs
advertising /ˈædvətaɪzɪŋ/ B1	noun - the activity of promoting and selling products
consumer /kənˈsjuːmə(r)/ B1	noun - a person who buys goods or services
strategy /ˈstrætədʒi/ B2	noun - a plan designed to achieve a particular goal
target /ˈtɑːɡɪt/ A2	verb - to aim or direct something at someone or something
identity /aɪˈdɛntɪti/ B2	noun - the qualities that make a person or group different
loyalty /ˈlɔɪəlti/ B2	noun - faithful support or allegiance to a person or organization
affinity /əˈfɪnɪti/ C1	noun - a natural liking or sympathy for someone or something
sophisticated /səˈfɪstɪkeɪtɪd/ C1	adjective - complex or advanced in design or understanding
desire /dɪˈzaɪə(r)/ B2	noun - a strong feeling of wanting something
persuade /pəˈsweɪd/ B1	verb - to convince someone to believe or do something
vulnerability /ˌvʌlnərəˈbɪləti/ C1	noun - the state of being easily harmed or influenced
resist /rɪˈzɪst/ B1	verb - to fight against something or try not to be affected by it
data /ˈdeɪtə/ B1	noun - facts or information used for analysis

Key Grammar Structures

• Companies spend billions of dollars every year to manipulate your psychology so you feel desire, loyalty, and urgency.

  ➔ Subordinating conjunction ('so') to connect clauses

  ➔ The word 'so' is used to introduce a result or consequence of the previous clause, showing the purpose of the manipulation.

• Brands hide their true intentions from you through a slight of hand.

  ➔ Prepositional phrase ('through a slight of hand')

  ➔ The prepositional phrase 'through a slight of hand' describes the method by which brands conceal their intentions, emphasizing deception.

• They don't want to empower creativity. They want more people to make free content for them.

  ➔ Parallel structure ('They don't want... They want...')

  ➔ The parallel structure emphasizes the contrast between what companies claim and their true intentions, making the statement more impactful.

• Martin Lindström, marketing insider and author of the New York Times bestselling book Biology, says, 'Brands that create an emotional connection to consumers are much stronger than those that don't.'

  ➔ Relative clause ('marketing insider and author of the New York Times bestselling book Biology')

  ➔ The relative clause provides additional information about Martin Lindström, clarifying his credentials and expertise in the field of marketing.

• If you remove the logos from three popular running sneakers, most people, aside from sneaker heads, would struggle to tell them apart.

  ➔ Conditional sentence (Type 1)

  ➔ This conditional sentence describes a likely result if the condition (removing logos) is met, highlighting the power of branding.

• They're not talking to you. They're talking directly to the person who wants to believe America is number one.

  ➔ Contrastive correlation ('not... but')

  ➔ The contrastive correlation highlights the difference between the general audience and the specific target audience, emphasizing the precision of marketing strategies.

• With AI, the future of dynamic targeting is going to go even further.

  ➔ Future continuous tense

  ➔ The future continuous tense indicates an action that will be in progress in the future, emphasizing the ongoing development of dynamic targeting with AI.

• Just because these tactics are widely used and highly effective does not mean they are easy to implement.

  ➔ Correlative conjunction ('not only... but also') implied

  ➔ The sentence implies a contrast between the widespread use and effectiveness of tactics and the difficulty of implementing them, using 'does not mean' to emphasize the point.