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  "description": "Marketing: When God gives you lemonade, sell lemons - as commercial conditioning claps.",
  "path": "/blog/99-9-percent-gaslit/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-19T19:58:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:tyqadi4nl52kqm7wykhmysl5/site.standard.publication/3mmyiavqtgmpx",
  "tags": [
    "CULTURE",
    "POLITICS",
    "EXPLORATIVE"
  ],
  "textContent": "Marketing has made something deeply suspicious about the word ‘wellness’, which now sounds less like health awareness, and more like a three-tier annual subscription plan. It implies a condition beyond mere wellness itself, as though being well was no longer sufficient and now had to be turned into a scented doctrine. Once health became wellness, water stopped being wet and started being infused. You may want to sit down for this, but, I’m not always right, in fact, much like how disinfectants remove 99.9% of germs, my contributions tend to remove 99.9% of the actual facts from any discussion through a process I like to call, Volume-over-Veracity, – basically my own personal version of the ‘flood the zone’ strategy. It’s not intentional, it’s ADHD, it’s the combination of reading a lot of books whilst zoned out, remembering nothing of them, but then being haunted by snippets that may or may not have come from them. I once said, several times, that the engagement ring functioned as a form of security or financial guarantee for the woman in the event that the man broke the engagement. And in practice, this is kinda true. But, as I recently found out, this had nothing to do with big expensive diamonds, and certainly wasn’t the justification for a month’s salary. That, conveniently, came heavily manufactured through advertising from De Beers, who not only redefined what love looks like, but how much it should cost. For that, I apologise, happily, because apologies are less about admitting fault, and more about restoring usability. They function like conversational resets, allowing both sides to continue without having to examine the interruption too closely. The words themselves matter less than the permission they create – a mutual agreement that whatever just happened doesn’t need to become permanent. And arguably, it is in the foundations of mistakes, that authenticity wears its credibility. But ‘authenticity’ is one of those words that sounds meaningful for far longer than it remains useful. People say they want authentic people, authentic food, authentic experiences, as though sincerity can be vacuum-packed and sold in a farmers’ market. Arguably, the problem with authenticity is that the moment you become aware of it, it starts posing. The truly authentic never announce themselves. They just stand there being obscurely committed to a hat, or fermenting something in a jar. And for what it’s worth, ‘arguably’ is a curious word too, because it doesn’t strengthen a point so much as surround it with hypothetical defenders. It’s less about being correct, and more about implying that correctness could be arranged, if given enough chairs and the music never stops. But then ‘for what it’s worth’ is an oddly revealing phrase, because it admits uncertainty about its own value while proceeding anyway. It’s a disclaimer in disguise, giving the speaker permission to contribute without fully endorsing what they’re about to say. Which, if you think about it, is how most thoughts enter the world – tentatively, and with plausible deniability. Like all good curves snagging on lines, these aren’t just everyday tangents, they’re M&S tangents, but there is a point to all this, I think, – it’s hard to tell when you have ADHD. But I realised something recently, and I apologise, for this is absolutely a tangent, but if you stand far enough back, then it’ll hold the same comfort as relevance. For what it’s worth, the dominant theme in Donald Trump’s Art of the Deal, was that confidence matters more than numbers – whilst very ‘American’, it’s a philosophy that generally doesn’t hold up well as financial advice. However, the book branded its author as an expert deal-maker, that perception was arguably the reason his unwavering confidence worked. Essentially, the real art of the deal, was not just confidence, but to publish a book called The Art of the Deal. Oh, and nepotism, – for inherited privilege and financial backing from a wealthy father probably helped. But the post-authentification of the previously non-authenticity here is interesting. For you see, words speak louder than actions, and the game here is words, because words can make the internal external, allowing the external to become internal, and before you’ve even had chance to tick the opt-out checkbox, your herbal tea has become sentient and the cat is on fire. Marketing, at its most effective, exploits the gap between description and creation. It doesn’t just respond to existing needs, it names them, frames them, and in doing so, brings them into being. Ever wondered why women are expected to shave? How lucky women are that great brands like Gillette stepped up to help. But then consider the women in Western societies who, generally, didn’t shave their underarms or legs, and it wasn’t widely considered a problem. But early 20th century, Gillette changed that not by responding to a sudden demand, but by creating it. Their advertisements framed body hair as embarrassing and unfeminine, tying hair removal to modernity and social acceptability. What had been normal became something to fix, and the razor became the solution sold by the people who told you to fix it. – Not to mention the pink tax that came with it. What makes these examples so effective is how thoroughly they reshape perception. After a generation or two, the idea that women should shave or that engagements require diamonds stopped feeling like marketing, and just became, obvious. The original persuasion fades, leaving behind a norm that no longer needs defending. And this wasn’t limited to romance or beauty, the same trick has appeared in everything from hygiene to food. Mouthwash brand Listerine popularised the term halitosis, – turning bad breath into something that sounded clinical and socially dangerous. Toothpaste brands like Pepsodent gaslit your teeth by encouraging people to notice an invisible film on them – something you likely wouldn’t have worried about until you were told to look for it, because not only was it absolutely normal behaviour for teeth, it was unavoidable. Febreze to mask the smells you can’t even smell, bottled water, magnetic bracelets, anti-aging skincare, deodorants, teeth whitening, and even detox products trying to justify their own existence when everyone already has a liver. It’s a one trick pony wearing different coats. Find something ordinary – attach a quiet social cost to it, embarrassment usually, the vague suggestion that people in the office have noticed, then sell the solution. Repeat until the solution not only feels like it was always there, but that it wouldn’t make sense for it not to be. That’s what got me with the engagement ring thing, – it didn’t feel like marketing, it felt like history. And then I wonder, just how many of the problems I think I have are actually mine, and have not just been sold to me?",
  "title": "99.9 PERCENT GASLIT",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-26T22:23:40.000Z"
}