The Evolution of Advertising:
From Status Symbols to Social Media
The impact of reels and social media content today is reminiscent of the effect of advertising in the 70s and 80s, but on a vastly different scale. Back then, advertisements told you that purchasing a product would give you a certain lifestyle. They essentially reversed the cause-effect dynamic, suggesting that you didn’t attain that lifestyle through achievements or personal growth, but by acquiring specific items. This was the birth of the status symbol: a display of material possessions to declare one’s identity and social standing.
Today, Reels and other short-form videos associate happiness with an aesthetic. They tell you that if you do these things, if your home looks like this, drink your mocktail in that particular mug, or prepare your tea in a certain way, you will be happy. These visuals promise satisfaction and fulfilment. However, this format is subtler than traditional advertisements, because it doesn’t openly push a specific product. Instead, it ties an aesthetic closely to real life by using influencers who are not perceived as paid actors but as individuals who have made life choices—whether it’s going vegan, living the “van life,” grinding coffee at home, or crafting—that supposedly led to happiness and success organically.
These influencers appear as examples of a fulfilling life rather than just another vehicle to promote a status symbol.
But, just as purchasing a product doesn’t bring lasting happiness, neither does following a particular aesthetic. What makes this harder to recognize is that while it’s easy to understand that a product won’t deliver happiness beyond the initial dopamine hit, it’s more challenging to see the flaw when we conflate aesthetics with lifestyle and confuse its effect on the quality of life.
The Illusion of the Shortcut Effect
This phenomenon amplifies what I call the “shortcut effect.” It creates the illusion that to be healthy, strong, successful, and happy, you only need to follow a few simple rules (e.g., fasting and drinking plenty of water means you’re healthy; dedicating yourself relentlessly to personal entrepreneurship with a “mamba mentality” guarantees success and wealth). The dominance of this shortcut effect erodes people’s motivation and self-esteem. When you’re led to believe that massive results can come from minimal effort, but then you collide with reality and its inevitable challenges, you don’t blame the online world for its deception. Instead, you internalize the failure, thinking, “I must be incapable,” and this destroys your drive. You return to TikTok or Instagram for a new comforting narrative or a better shortcut.
For younger users, still shaping their ideas of adult life, the future, and personal fulfilment, there is a real danger in believing that having a shabby chic room, drinking a certain tea, or doing an ice bath is the key to happiness. The harm, in my opinion, lies in the deceptive format itself. It’s not overtly “advertising,” but it is designed to be decoded as informational, sharing, and generous (“Here are three habits of successful people” or “This Greek island is stunning and affordable even in August”). These narratives are tied to an aesthetic synonymous with success, confidence, and modernity.
Reassured by these “simple” solutions in a world that is complex and fragmented, when less experienced individuals face reality, they feel stupid and incapable, leading to a loss of self-esteem and trust. Worse, they might comfort themselves with the narrative that they’re simply unlucky (falling back on that consolatory story), believing that they lack access to the opportunities and resources that seem universally available to others in their social media sample.
The success of influencer marketing lies in the subtlety of its sales pitch, where users consume advertisements disguised as recommendations from trusted sources.
Emily Hund
Reflection on the Responsibility of Platforms
and Content Creators
In today’s hyper-connected world, platforms and content creators hold significant power in shaping narratives, influencing opinions, and disseminating information. With this power comes an undeniable responsibility—not just to create or share content but to foster an environment where users can critically engage with what they consume. The algorithms that govern the content distribution and the monetization rules play a key role in this context: it would be easy to blame content creators (and some of the major ones – like Mr. Beast – deserve severe scrutiny), but they are the last one in the revenue chain, why should we blame them for trying to increase their revenues by leveraging the rules that someone else established?
Media always created amazing chances and posed incredibly tough challenges in the context of educating young people and exposing them to the outside world, this is no different. These challenges were always best counteracted by a real interest in the kid’s lives, their ambitions, their dreams and their difficulties. The effort of understanding and having an open conversation with them (why do you find this interesting or attractive? What inspires you in this? Why this content speaks to you?) starting from their point of view is the only real way to help them decode these narratives, understand the dynamics behind this type of communication and supporting them in looking into their purpose and the path that bring them there.
In the end, it’s still the good old rule of listening and empathizing and it might help parents and educators as well, at least to keep themselves younger for longer.
Sources and References
About the author
With a career that started as Service Designer in an Italian hospital, and a past in digital-art collectives and punk-noise bands, Alessio’s main job today beside atrain’s is always be wrong in a family with a wife, three daughters, a female dog and two female cats.
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