Attack Ads! The Podcast

Has anyone ever wondered what might happen if untruths both large and small continue to be used by people to sell shit, perhaps in diabolical ways, and "increase engagement"?  Actually, several have, years ago.  And now we're close to living that dystopia, on which I comment in this Episode 284: Bath Bombing the Internet. Find the Show Notes Page at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2026/06/e...

In this Bonus Episode I read excerpts from former President Theodore Roosevelt's 1910 Commencement Address to the graduates and staff of the Sorbonne in France (referred to by some as the "Man In The Arena" speech). Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2026/06/bonus-episode-teddy-roosevelts-1910.html

I completely realize that my insistence on correcting other people's mistakes is a complete mistake on my part.  Still.  I do it.  For me, forget about capital, and concentrate on usufruct.  It's something I do here in this Episode 283: Privilege Requires Usufruct! Find the Show Notes at:  https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2026/05/episode-283-privilege-requires-usufruct.html

Modern advertising and military propaganda efforts share quite a few common elements.  How many they share should surprise and even shock us all.  I explore this topic in this Episode 282: Many Voices Make Lies Work.  Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2026/05/episode-282-many-voices-make-lies-work.html Find the Show Notes for Episode 34: https://attackadspodcast.blogspo...

Using computers that can more or (mostly) less function as if they were "intelligent" is all the rage today, especially in business.  Why hire a person when a machine can do the job?  Others are goofing around with these machines as well, including my own brother.  I explore some of his recent goofs in this Episode 281: My Brother's Experiment. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blog...

Definitions can be difficult sometimes, especially when the word you are floundering to define doesn't really have a concrete definition, but rather a multitude of different applications and associations.  It's best then to define something with double negatives, as I try to demonstrate in this Episode 280: Sky Father The Uncrumbly. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/202...

Categorizing certain things is important.  Over-categorizing them, though, can be more damaging to one's understanding than not categorizing things at all.  Lately, I've realized that categorizations have impeded understanding our world to the point that perhaps we should just jettison certain categorizations altogether.  Hence, Episode 279: Why Capitalists Don't Exist. Find the Show Notes at: htt...

I've mentioned before that advertising often takes advantage of those it targets psychologically, triggering latent vulnerabilities in all of us.  Maybe it's more than just psychology, though, that makes ads tick.  I explore one possibility in this Episode 278: The Magical Manipulation of Desire. Find the Show Notes Page at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2026/02/episode-278-magical-manipul...

Sometimes, the difference between entertainment between two countries is profound due to cultural differences.  Today, I'd like to suggest that there are differences well beyond culture that affect two peoples, even those separated by a common language, in this Episode 277: Ratcheting the Ridiculous. Find the Show Notes Page at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2026/02/episode-277-ratcheting-...

For reasons I hope to make clear soon, advertising is not foremost on my mind right now.  I made a realization that a great change will quite possibly befall us, and… I have no idea when.  To understand my thinking on this, though, I feel it's necessary to give some background.  Hence, some background in this Episode 275: Nullius In Verba. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot....

What's that phrase?  One step forward, two steps back?  For every positive step our society takes, it seems there are invisible forces trying to drag every step in a quite negative direction.  I'll explore one example of just this in this Episode 274: Our New Normal… Is Abby. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/12/episode-274-our-new-normal-is-abby.html

I never cease to be amazed at how bad some corporate decisions are… until I finally figure out why those bad decisions were probably the best way for the company to make more money.  I explore one revelation concerning my need to connect a simple device to the internet, only to be forced to chat support, in this Episode 273: Chattel Trapped in Chat Hell. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspo...

There are far more thinkers whose writings can explain phenomena better than most; but thanks to ruthless historical suppression, those thinkers are not even considered.  I'd like to frame a few economic problems many of us are facing today to the philosophy of Henry George in this Episode 272: Henry Saw This Coming. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/11/episode-272...

Just in case you don't get enough advertising in the privacy and sanctuary of your home, good news! Refrigideezers will soon show you ads on a screen on the door! It's true! I react to this silliness in this Episode 271: Baffling Ripples of Synergy. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/10/episode-271-baffling-ripples-of-synergy.html

I lately find myself dwelling on not the existence of new technology, but on questions about how we humans should treat it. After all, nothing in our cultures or languages has evolved to accommodate, for one example, ASoLs. In the interest of discussing these geegaws and thingamajigs with someone who actually not only uses them, but doesn't actively hate them, I have a chat with KMO as we start th...

Every so often, a book emerges that gets a lot of buzz from the media and gets tongues wagging.  Sadly, too often those books say things that stretch credulity to the breaking point and start to smell a lot like a massive propaganda campaign stuffed into a hardcover.  I follow the abundant evidence of one such book being bunkum in this Episode 269: An Abundance of Lies. Find the Show Notes Page at...

While most of us have heard of the Sherman Act, few have savored Senator John Sherman's speech to the Senate in defense of that act.  Today, I present to you my reading of an edited version of that speech, in this Bonus Episode: Senator John Sherman's Address to The Senate.

Monopolies are nothing new. Government allowing companies to merge and acquire and metastasize into monopolies, though, that is relatively new. The ideas that support monopolies come from a handful of jerks supported by other jerks, who provide trucks full of money. I focus my hairy eyeball of criticism today on one such full truck funded fuck in this Episode 268: Rich Uncle Money-Bork, Welfare Qu...

Propaganda is not just a thing that happens in the here and now. Dig well enough, and you might find old institutional knowledge that started originally as a conspiratorial plot designed to sway society. Make such propaganda profitable enough, and we find ourselves in a world described by the title to Episode 267: Breathing Together, Choking Apart.  Find the Show Notes Page at: https://attackadspo...

When propaganda falls, it can lead to social impacts more powerful than kinetic weapons.  The troubles come when the propagandists conceal their manipulation of society with misdirecting propaganda that we have trouble detecting, let alone responding to effectively.  Which brings us to today's Episode 266: Garbage Fires and Angry Weasels. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.c...

As I've quoted before, "ideas need patrons."  I'll dive into economic ideas bought by the wealthy and spread by those Chicago school economists in this Episode 265: A Stringent, Crystalline Vision. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/06/episode-265-stringent-crystalline-vision.html

Perhaps for the first time in human history, we people can now buy things more easily than we can fix them. Repair shops have become a thing only on television, even though so much of value could be repaired. I spend most of this Episode 264: Archeologists of a Bygone Age, planning my next big repair.  Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/05/episode-264-archeologists-...

Ethics often interfere with profits.  When more profits are "required," companies often face a hard choice…or an easy one.  Results vary.  I look into two compromises/profitable opportunities in this Episode 263: The Hits To Our Privates Just Keep Coming! Find the Show Notes at: http://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/05/episode-263-hits-to-our-privates-just.html

I'm reminded almost daily about how the current elevation of private enterprise has made our lives crap.  It's helpful to remember that this industrial fetish had an origin, and can be reversed, as I discuss in this Episode 262: The Shitcaca Sküll. Find the Show Notes at: https://attackadspodcast.blogspot.com/2025/04/episode-262-shitcaca-skull.html