Norwegian Consumer Council spoofs ‘enshittification’ in hilarious ad
AD of the week ★★★★★
Norwegian Consumer Council takes down ‘enshittification’ in an hilarious film.
The Norwegian Consumer Council has released a darkly comic ad that takes aim at “enshittification” – the term coined by Canadian journalist Cory Doctorow to describe how digital platforms gradually deteriorate once users are locked in.
Launched alongside the organisation’s report the film imagines a professional whose job is to make products steadily worse.
What starts as a smooth, useful digital service slowly becomes cluttered with pop-ups, intrusive ads and paywalls, while once-standard features are quietly moved behind subscriptions.
The protagonist proudly explains the craft of making things shitty. Hook people with something simple and valuable, make them dependent on it, then begin charging for the basics while frustrating them with broken updates and useless chatbots.
In its report, the Norwegian Consumer Council explores how enshittification shapes today’s digital economy, arguing that many platforms shift value away from users and towards shareholders once they dominate a market.
The film comes from NewsLab, the creative team behind the viral satire Oslo, Is It Even a City?, and again uses humour to unpack a familiar issue.
Directed by August Jorfald, and DP Alexander Herlev Christoffersen the work turns a familiar scenario into an entertaining debate that the internet was not meant to work this way.
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