When marketing turns deadly

IMAGE BY GROK 2.0

Filling our feeds with promises to improve our lives, make us safer, healthier, and happier - it’s… marketing! The shadowy intersection of persuasive language for powerful products has a long history of manipulation and coercion. DATA SPLURGE takes a closer look.

From the weapons industry’s MORBID allure to Big Pharma’s sugar-coated promises, and gadgets that walk the line between cute and creepy, marketing’s power to reframe, rename, and rebrand has become a mechanism not just for sales but for hiding brutal truths.

“Battle-Tested” weapons - the ultimate Endorsement

Few industries benefit from language manipulation quite like the government-sanctioned murder trade. Companies that manufacture and sell weapons work hard to make their products sound as practical and benign as the latest air fryer.

This glossed-up language includes terms like “threat-spectrum”, which could just as easily describe an Amazon product as it does a system designed to detect and eliminate human lives.

Elbit Systems, a global weapons manufacturer, boasts an arsenal that is “battle-tested” in Gaza - what they don’t say, of course, is that “testing” involves the systematic killing of Palestinian women and children.

Consider the cartoon-inspired name of their AGM-142 Popeye missile. Popeye - a name that usually brings to mind an iron-deficient sailor - is ironically attached to an air-to-surface missile that’s been used to deadly effect in military strikes.

These innocuously named weapons echo the nightmarish “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” nomenclature applied to the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a sanitised sheen on atomic destruction that should make any product team question their intention - even those involved with the Manhattan Project.

Then there’s the “Iron Sting” mortar shell, which sounds like something plucked straight from an episode of He-Man, adding a layer of nostalgic comedy to a weapon that wreaks havoc on real lives. But sexed-up language makes deadly products easier to swallow - especially when that copy downplays bloodshed for the click of a cool, easy-to-digest brand name.

Pharma: Pain Relief vs. Addiction Marketing

In the pharma world, dangerous products are disguised by language that walks the line between clinical and caring, as if a bit of comforting ad copy could mask a drug’s deadly effect. Big Pharma’s seductive storytelling hit a new level in 1997, when the FDA legalised direct-to-consumer advertising.

Soon after, Purdue Pharma launched its infamous OxyContin campaign, claiming that this highly addictive opioid was a “less addictive” solution to pain. If addiction were on a scale, Purdue suggested, OxyContin was “low”. That’s as ridiculous as saying a cigarette is “less cancerous”. But that copy worked, and soon doctors across the U.S. were prescribing “less addictive” opioids in staggering volumes.

“Addictive design? Check. Bright, enticing ads? We’re on it. Promoting toxic habits to kids? Consider it done”

And it wasn’t just OxyContin. In a classic case of lessons unlearned, Purdue’s methods echoed the first opioid crisis of the 1860s. Morphine, once marketed as a 'soothing syrup' and sold as a treatment for teething infants, and Bayer’s infamous kiddie dope campaign for children’s heroin spun as 'A non-addictive morphine substitute' reflect a disturbing history of misguided medical marketing.

Such products were promoted as having “superior therapeutic properties,” with barely a nod to their addictive effects.

Purdue Pharma went even further, offering doctors a “free 30-day supply” of OxyContin to kick-start their prescriptions. And their reach didn’t stop at the clinic door - Purdue funded over 20,000 so-called “educational” programs, essentially event marketing schemes designed to push opioids as safe and effective, even as the addiction crisis spiralled out of control.

The cost of this killer copy? Hundreds of thousands of lives, lost to addiction and overdose. The Sackler family, the dynastic dope dealers behind Purdue, paid a $350 million settlement through their marketing firm, Publicis, following the first-ever opioid advertising lawsuit.

This number boils down to around $400 per lost life, a grim reminder of the price tag assigned to our existence by boardroom parasites that continue to plague the white market drug trade.

Tech: Smartphones for Kids - Because Addiction Is Adorable

Tech companies market their products as gateways to education and social connection. But for young users, these devices are far more sinister - a high-tech pacifier wrapped in pastel-hued branding.

Research shows that smartphones emit blue light at frequencies designed to addict, and young users are even more vulnerable. Tech companies have built devices that keep kids glued to their screens from an early age with adult-sized algorithms that perpetuate perma-scroll, while using names that make screen addiction seem as natural to early life development as shitting yourself.

Enter VTech’s “KidiBuzz™” smartphone and the “Touch and Swipe Baby Phone” - yep, a smartphone for literal babies. The idea of creating an “addictive user experience” sounds comparably innocent when it involves adults, but the fact that these features are now woven into devices marketed to young children expresses both lack of technological comprehension and regard for its application.

“The words ‘penetrate’, ‘capture’, and ‘dominate’ are lifted straight from the psyops playbook, designed to turn ‘campaigns’ into battles where consumers become unwitting ‘targets’”

Technology addiction, of course, is never described as such in the ads. Instead, we see products designed for “learning” and “engagement,” even though we all know they’re little more than digital drips. Kids are getting hooked on endless scrolling and flashing notifications before they even learn to tie their shoes.

The marketing strategy here combines the magnetism of tech with a façade of education, while coding children’s dopamine network to crave screen time. Addictive design? Check. Bright, enticing ads? We’re on it. promoting toxic habits to kids? Consider it done.

The Lethal Power of Language

Marketing is meant to persuade, but when combined with deadly products, language becomes a weapon in its own right. From life-threatening drugs to weapons and addictive tech, the power of words is used to serve up harm under the guise of convenience, comfort, and fun. In each of these industries, the language of marketing turns human greed into everyday products, hiding harsh realities behind bevelled copy and playful branding.

This isn't a coincidence. The aggressive language of marketing has roots deeper than you'd think - Madison Avenue's ties to the CIA are no secret. For decades, leading ad offices have collaborated with the public service snooping squad to shape public opinion, control narratives, and stir public sentiment.

Names like Ogilvy, JWT (J. Walter Thompson), and Saatchi & Saatchi have all worked directly or indirectly for government agencies. It's no wonder that marketing's word choices mirror the strategic language of warfare, invasion, and control.

the Words "penetrate", "capture", and "dominate" are lifted straight from the psyops playbook, designed to turn “campaigns” into battles where consumers become unwitting "targets”. Madison Avenue's early adoption of these strategies cemented an approach where persuasion is less about choice and more about dominance, control, and exploitation.

The next time we encounter slick, comforting descriptions on powerful products, we might think twice. Language is more than a tool - it can also be a weapon. And, as we’ve seen, in the hands of multi-million-dollar industries with close ties to agencies built for manipulation, that power can turn deadly.