>Not a single human being alive in the world believes that drinking Coca-Cola "leads to success and happiness."
And yet somehow we still reflexively choose it, because something in our brain associates it with big smiles, success, happiness, being fit, etc., almost as if we've been fed imagery every day of our lives to try to convince us of that fact.
If you honestly believe that people drink Coca-Cola because they subconsciously associate it with "big smiles" and physical fitness I really don't know what to tell you, man. Everyone I know who drinks it has one because they want a soda every now and then.
Plenty of people are entirely capable of knowing that drinking a thing is not an objectively healthy act - soda and alcohol are the two big ones that come to mind - without pathologizing the act or pretending that the people making money off of it are Mr. Burns-level caricatures or mustache-twirling super-villain billionaires.
And yet somehow we still reflexively choose it, because something in our brain associates it with big smiles, success, happiness, being fit, etc., almost as if we've been fed imagery every day of our lives to try to convince us of that fact.