Hidden Persuaders

Please Jesus, save us from digital deception.

Hello and if you’ve recently signed up to the weekly comic, welcome and thank you. I usually send out my weekly cartoon from the Observer on Tuesdays. Here it is (I’m a day later than usual today, in case I’ve confused you):

Vance Packard wrote a great book in the late 50s called the Hidden Persuaders about the psychological techniques used in advertising to influence us. I remember being gripped and shocked by what I was reading when I was introduced to it more than thirty years later. What he revealed then seems like a utopian scene in a 60s Ladybird Book compared to todays hyper personalised algorithms designed to hack our attention by tech giants. I wasn’t even that surprised when I smelled the recipe on my screen, I put it down to another trick being used. What did surprise me though was that I mistook it for a pleasant smell rather than the foul stench of rancid oat milk in damp carpet that it was. Happy to say that three tubs of bicarbonate soda and a dehumidifier managed to banish all smells.

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That’s all from me. I’m going to give a shout out for my dear friend Holly who is a weaver in New Cross London. I just love the beautiful work that she makes and her slow living ethos that she really does adhere to. I thought you might enjoy having a look at who she is and what she makes here

Have a wonderful week and all the best to you

Simone