A bizarre new form of advertising has taken over — much to one consumer's annoyance — in an unexpected place: fortune cookies.
In a Reddit post shared to the r/enshittification subreddit, one user shared an image of the so-called "fortune" that reads more like a marketing pitch, saying, "My Fortune Cookie Fortune is an Ad."
The actual message on the cookie read, "Imagine earning cashback just for eating," along with an image of a QR code to scan, presumably leading the recipient to the advertising company's website.
While advertising being slipped into personal spaces is not a new concept, the invasion of a staple like fortune cookies seems to have hit a different nerve. Beyond the initial strangeness of the development, this kind of advertising strategy contributes to a larger issue — overconsumption.
On every front, overconsumption poses a threat. It is thought that nearly 40% of food in the United States goes uneaten — a number that is equivalent to nearly 400 pounds of food waste per person, per the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The same is true of other forms of overconsumption, including e-waste, which is the largest growing source of waste in the world. Other data points to the fact that we are using resources 1.7 times faster than the Earth can produce, per Earth Overshoot Day, giving a clear conclusion for overconsumption: It is not sustainable.
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If it continues at the rate that it is currently at, the sheer amount of dirty energy will threaten the quality of life on our planet and increase air pollution.
Users on the post shared their frustrations with advertising schemes like these, calling them out for what they are.
"Googling 'openfortune' takes you to their site (I won't link it here), where they're boasting about 'We transformed the fortune cookie into the ad world's best kept secret' as if that's a good thing," said another commenter on the post.
While it's easy to laugh at the absurdity, the trend of marketing saturating every aspect of life has real consequences. Maybe the real fortune we need is one that reads: Think more, buy less.
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