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Hypocrisy: All They Want is Money

2010-02-08 · Hank · watch on YouTube · Economics · reflection essay

Hank rants that brand values are hypocritical marketing: Sony owned both sides of the UK Christmas chart battle, and Unilever, Time Warner, Kraft and others sell contradictory messages, because corporations' only value is making money.

What is said

00:00:00 — Greeting; Rage Against the Machine beats X Factor winner Joe McElderry for UK Christmas number one, but Sony owns both labels

  • ★★ Hank says Rage Against the Machine got a profanity-laden 1992 song to the top of the UK Christmas charts, beating X Factor winner Joe McElderry by about 50,000 units through an online campaign. — 00:00:29 · United Kingdom
  • ★★★ Hank says both acts' music is owned by Sony Music, through Sony BMG (McElderry's label) and Epic Records (Rage Against the Machine's), so Sony won the chart battle either way. — 00:00:43

00:01:08 — Topic: brands and their hypocrisy; brands exist to sell, companies don't care about brand values

  • ★★★ Hank says big corporations create brands to sell more to more people, aiming campaigns at demographics with specific beliefs, while not caring about those brand values as long as the brands make money. — 00:01:08

00:01:33 — Dove vs Axe (Unilever); media companies: Time Warner's Nuts and Hanna-Barbera, MTV, National Geographic and Fox News

  • ★★ Hank contrasts Dove's campaign that real women are beautiful with Axe body spray's pitch of using women for sex; both brands are owned by Unilever. (playful) — 00:01:33
  • ★★ Hank says media companies, owning around 10,000 properties, are worse: Time Warner owned both the UK softcore magazine Nuts and Hanna-Barbera; MTV runs channels for young children and horny men. (playful) — 00:01:54
    • number check: 10,000 — doubtful
  • ★★ Hank is extremely disappointed that the National Geographic channel, with its science and the wonder of diversity, is owned by the people who run Fox News. — 00:02:13

00:02:32 — Food companies: Kraft's Boca Burger and Philip Morris; Unilever's Slim-Fast and ice creams; Ben & Jerry's

  • ★★ Hank says Kraft promotes meatless meals through Boca Burger while selling hot dogs and steak sauce, and until recently was owned by Philip Morris, maker of Marlboro cigarettes. — 00:02:32
  • ★★ Hank says Unilever sells Slim-Fast for weight loss while owning about twelve ice cream companies, including Breyers, Klondike Bar, Good Humor and Ben & Jerry's. — 00:02:58
  • ★★ Hank finds it depressing that Ben & Jerry's, marketed as the quirky independent ice cream for hippie types, is owned by one of the world's biggest food companies. (playful) — 00:03:10

00:03:29 — Conclusion: one corporate philosophy, make more money; corporations have no conscience; sign-off to Maureen

  • ★★★ Hank concludes there is only one corporate philosophy and brand value, make more money; corporations do good things only when that makes more people buy their products. — 00:03:29
  • ★★★ Hank says big corporations have no conscience and only one goal; it is easy to forget, but it will always be true. — 00:03:43

Humor (significant)

  • An online campaign put Rage Against the Machine above the X Factor winner, yet Sony owned both. — 00:00:43 > «Except it turns out that we were raging against the wrong machine,»
  • After Dove's 'real women are beautiful' campaign, Hank voices the Axe body spray pitch. — 00:01:45 > «“Shhhh! I’ll spray myself, and then I can use women for sex.”»
  • Media conglomerates own contradictory properties; MTV's channels are the example. — 00:02:08 > «owning both television channels for young children and horny men.»
  • Kraft was owned by Philip Morris, 'possibly the most intense brand hypocrisy of all time': Kraft focused on family meals, and its owner... — 00:02:53 > «and Philip Morris, focusing on... killing people.»

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