Sponsored posts are a cringey ubiquitous evil of social platforms - a content paradigm that arises inexorably from the basic conditions of the world: brands want to get in front of audiences at any cost, and young people on social platforms have audiences.

The idea of “selling out”, once such a hot button, has become so passé that it’s hard to remember what it ever meant. On social platforms, selling out is aspirational: hawking cheap direct-to-landfill products is a sign of institutional success and a stamp of approval. Audiences, steeped in a culture that leads kindergartners to overwhelmingly list “Youtuber” in response to the classic “what do you want to be when you grow up,” are thoroughly unalienated by sponsorship - and perhaps even compelled by it. We've gone from no one wanting to sell out to everyone wanting to sell out.

The ability to sell out, perhaps ironically, is not democratized. Not everyone is sufficiently influential to be blessed by the Giant Brand Hand In The Sky. Still, we all buy products: if we cannot become paid shills for brands, we can at least attack them in unison. Anti Advertising Advertising Club is dedicated to reversing the flow of attention-economy juice through the top-of-funnel pipeline. If every user’s desire is to sell out, we’ll happily enable that impulse if it means we can punch at the companies doing the buying.