Over the course of the pandemic, I’ve been assailed by targeted ads for ‘life-changing’ products – so I put a selection of them to the test
If, like me, you’ve been involuntarily participating in this wild ride people are calling “the pandemic”, you may have experienced the same embarrassing urge as I have. Which is to fill the wide, empty void in your life with things: gadgets, gizmos, subscriptions, speakers, a little brush for your facial hair. Buying stuff online is, simply put, something to do.
Thanks to mass online data harvesting, this new pandemic habit has already been widely monetized. It’s most noticeable on Instagram, where with every few scrolls we are hit with ads for products promising to change our lives, taking advantage of the fact that wherever you may be on the sliding scale of privilege, “life” is undeniably shit right now.