TL;DR
Cookie dark patterns. Fake urgency. 7 reminder emails. Impossible unsubscribe flows. Marketing isn't helping anymore. It's harassing at an industrial scale.
I am an open-source programmer in the digital signage industry. I love good marketing. The kind that actually helps. That solves problems. That makes you think, "Damn, I'm glad I found this."
But let's be honest: That's not what most of us experience anymore.
What we get instead is a pestering machine. Websites that manipulate you into accepting trackers. Shops that spam you before your order even ships. Services that make cancellation a psychological warfare exercise.
And the emails? Don't even get me started.
This isn't marketing. This is what happens when you optimize for metrics instead of humans. When you confuse "reach" with "bombardment."
So here's my rant about how modern marketing has turned into professional stalking with better automation.
Websites - Give Me All Your Data
You notice it especially when researching products or writing an article. Do yourself a favor: turn off your ad and tracker blockers. Just once.
Google makes you land on a page, and BAM — a cookie banner.
Not just any banner. A manipulative asshole of a dialog, designed to confuse you. "Accept all" in bright blue, bold, and prominent. "Reject"? Hidden. Gray. Small. Or buried three submenus deep so you'll give up and approve every damn tracker.
You fight your way through. Click through the obstacle course. Finally find what Google promised you at position #1. Start reading and – ZAP – a shitty overlay pops up.
"Subscribe to our Newsletter". Or a dump AI chat wanting to "help" you. Or both at once.
And then after removing you realize: The article is a scam. The headline had more substance than the entire text. SEO garbage, generated to farm clicks, not to help you.
Fly & Travel
Ever notice how on Agoda, Booking & Co., there's always "only a few rooms left"? What's this permanent manipulative bullshit? Do they think we're that stupid?
And Agoda? They've perfected the art of being annoying. You open the app. Not to book, just to look, and immediately: Overlay. "Sign up for 10% off!" You close it. Another overlay: "Enable notifications!" Close. "Download our app!" Close. "Last chance for this deal!"
You haven't even searched yet. You just wanted to check prices.
But no. Agoda won't let you do what you actually want until you've fought through their gauntlet of interruptions. It's not a travel app anymore; it's an obstacle course with a booking button somewhere at the end. Same for airlines, which manipulate you to book useless insurances, seats, SMS notifications etc.
Shopping
You buy t-shirts. Somewhere. It doesn't matter where. My concrete example was Alpenwert.
Before the goods arrive, half a dozen emails arrive. And a letter. To my home. Trying to convince you how clever I was to shop there. With a coupon. That I absolutely must leave a review. That I should buy even more.
After 7 days I asked where the goods were. Response: An AI-generated self-congratulatory email with a hasty apology. PS: "We're proud to be the only ones shipping plastic-free!"
Two days later: two t-shirts. In DHL plastic bags. Each is individually wrapped in plastic.
I unsubscribe. Write to support that I will never buy from them again; they should delete my account and want nothing more to read from them.
A few days later: More mail (snail mail). More email. "Rate your shopping experience!"
This isn't an isolated case. Almost every online shop thinks they need to keep bombing you. Newsletters that look like help but just scream "Shut up and buy!" "We miss you" emails from portals you visited once.
A week later: "Come back, here's 15% off!" Another week: "Your cart is waiting!"
Side Note: Ecological Bank Advertising
I got an advertising letter from my bank with a printing on the envelope. A green tree with the slogan "Banking ecologically sustainable."
What drugs are they on?
The Unsubscribe Hell
Try unsubscribing from Amazon Prime, Canva, or another service.
Never less than 4 or 5 clicks. At every click you're bombarded with messages about what benefits you're losing. "Are you sure?" "Really sure?" "But look at everything you get!"
And if you keep using the service until it expires? One wrong click. Bam – subscriber. Again.
Email Spam: The Curse of Reach
Apparently I've done something right the past few years. Especially those who think I could be a great customer have discovered me.
Offer Email. No response.
Reminder email. No response.
Another reminder email. No response.
Another one.
And another.
The logic: "If I just bother him enough, he'll eventually bite."
Spoiler: No.
But nobody cares. The main thing is the automation runs. The main thing is the "cadence" is optimized. The main thing is some bullshit metric says that after the 7th email, the conversion rate increases by 0.3%.
Mobile Apps
Remember when apps were supposed to make life easier? Yeah, that was cute.
Now you open a free app, and it's just ads. Everywhere. Always.
You want to check the weather? Ad. Want to use a calculator? Ad. Reading an article? Ad between every paragraph. Playing a simple game? Ad after every level. And not just one—forced 30-second video ads you can't skip.
"Close in 5... 4... 3..." And when you finally can close it? The X button is 2 pixels wide, deliberately placed where you'll accidentally tap the ad instead. Oops, opening App Store. Again.
But wait, there's more! "Watch this ad for a bonus!" You watch. Another popup: "Double your reward for another ad?"
You watch. "Triple it?" At this point you've watched more ads than actual content.
And the notifications?
You're not using the app. The app is using you. You're the product, watching ads, generating data, clicking "Allow notifications" because the app won't work otherwise.
And the free trial trap? "Start your free trial!" You close it. Open the app again: "Start your free trial!" Every. Single. Time. Until you either pay or delete the app out of pure rage.
This isn't software. This is a hostage situation with a download button.
Social Media
Remember when social media was about connecting with people? Now it's an engagement farm that's perfected the art of manipulating you back into the app.
"People are looking at your profile!" No they're not. It's automated bait. Click through and it's some recruiter from nowhere, or worse. LinkedIn's own algorithm pretending someone viewed you just to boost their metrics. "You appeared in 47 searches this week!" Cool. Who? "Upgrade to Premium to find out!"
Facebook & Instagram
Your feed is 80% ads and "suggested content." You look at ONE piece of furniture, and suddenly it's couches for weeks. Want to post a photo? "Boost this post!" Translation: Pay us, or your actual followers won't see it.
Instagram Stories? Now 50% ads timed perfectly to look like your friend's content until — surprise, surprise — it's crypto trading or weight loss tea.
All of them
"Enable notifications so you never miss an update!" Translation: Let us interrupt your life 47 times a day with irrelevant garbage designed to trigger your FOMO.
You're not using social media. Social media is farming you for engagement, data, and ad impressions. And they've gotten so good at it, you don't even notice anymore.
Is drinking paint thinner a job requirement in marketing?
Seriously. I now keep a list of companies I will never buy from again. Because they bothered me. Because they couldn't stop. Because they thought reach means constant bombardment.
But that's not really the point. The point is, they have all forgotten what marketing actually means.
It's not about assaulting people until they give up. It's about making them happy to hear from you.
When was the last time a marketing email made you happy?
What Can We Do About It?
Here's the thing: We're not powerless.
Every time you hit unsubscribe, every time you choose a company that doesn't pester you, every time you close an app that's more ads than content, you are voting with your attention. And attention is the only currency these companies actually care about.
Practical steps:
- Use ad blockers and tracker blockers. Unapologetically.
- Unsubscribe aggressively. Make them work for every email.
- Leave honest reviews mentioning spam and dark patterns.
- Choose companies that respect your time. They exist.
And yeah, about that blacklist idea:
I'm seriously considering building it. A public web app where people can report companies that cross the line from marketing to spamming. With examples. With rankings. A crowd-sourced "wall of shame" for the worst offenders.
Maybe the only way to make this stop is to make the harassment visible. Public. Documented.
But I want to hear from you:
What's your worst marketing assault story? Which companies have you blacklisted? What features would make such an app actually useful? Should it be a wall of shame, a rating system, or something else entirely?
Drop your ideas in the comments.
Because marketing isn't dead. But it needs to remember what it's supposed to be: helpful, respectful, and something people are actually glad to receive.
Until then? Keep that unsubscribe finger ready.
Originally published at sagiadinos.com
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