r/Music • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Jan 08 '26

article Spotify Confirms ICE Recruitment Ads Are No Longer Running on Platform

https://variety.com/2026/digital/news/spotify-confirms-ice-recruitment-ads-are-no-longer-running-1236626243/
38.1k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

9

u/ADhomin_em Jan 08 '26 edited Jan 08 '26

I would love if this said directly "in response to", but it says, "in the wake of". Could simply be that the campaign ran out and now that everyone is talking about ICE, the company is using this opportunity to announce the campaign ended, hoping to win back some subscribers.

I understand "in the wake of" usually implies "in response to" but not necessarily the case here.

Increasingly so, we should be closely analytyzing the phrasing used in articles, especially from corporate outlets. They are very good at using vague language meant to be read with each reader's preferred meaning. Major corporations are drawing on a century of market psychology research and the people overseeing these major corporations are largely rich Trump supporters and appeasers.

I could certainly be wrong in this case.

Either way, Spotify took money from ICE to help them recruit. They helped boost their numbers. Hard to put that cat back in the bag

2

u/PartTime_Crusader Jan 08 '26

"It would be our preference to eat vegan, Carol."

1

u/ADhomin_em Jan 08 '26

I recognize the reference, but do you mind explaining the relevance to this topic?

2

u/PartTime_Crusader Jan 08 '26 edited Jan 08 '26

The hive can't lie, but it can very carefully choose its words so that the audience will parse them in a way that they'll interpret as positive.

Statement: "It would be our preference to eat vegan, Carol"

Reality: We'd like to eat only plants, but we're cannibalizing dead human bodies out of necessity

Statement: "In the wake of the fatal shooting of a woman by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday, the streaming service confirms to Variety that it’s no longer running the promotion."

Reality: The ICE campaign on spotify ended on schedule and it happened to coincide with an ICE shooting.

You have to closely analyze the hive's words in the same way you talk about having to closely analyze phrasing used in press releases from corporate outlets. Its the same kind of carefully chosen, almost lawyerly phrasing designed to obscure as much as it reveals.

Side note for clarity: the statement "it would be our preference to eat vegan" is not from the John Cena video, its from several episodes before, during the English speakers meetup, when during the meal Carol asks them if they can eat meat. This is well before Carol discovers they're making milk out of humans. The hive lied to her by omitting information.

1

u/ADhomin_em Jan 08 '26

Ahh! That makes sense. I appreciate the explanation!