I think it's a strategy, as per the 2 quotes I also provided by Edward Bernais from 1930 - it's not even a new strategy! Bernays is the father of public relations, he got women smoking, gave us egg and bacon for breakfast, initiated throwaway culture via advertising, etc - he helped shape the culture we find. This was by design, as he says.
> The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.
Edward Bernays
Obviously, it's not a strategy that will be much discussed, as its such an unappealing prospect. But the situation we find makes far greater sense as a conspiracy than companies merely stupid (which I agree is a part).
I absolutely agree with this (this basically spills the beans [1] starting on page 21), but I'd bet good money most of this thinking originates from a single source and the others are just copycats. The reason why is that usually you can find one company/product that's "closer to the stream" in terms of purity and quality, while the others are noticeable knockoffs.
For example, a few years back there was a craze around workout wristbands (Jawbone Up, Fitbit, etc) and I'll never forget seeing Under Armour try to ship their own clone [2] and shouted (loud enough to startle the people I was with, not the rest of the store), in their store, "why the hell would you do that?!" The reason for the outburst was that I imagined the expenditure to make the thing—in terms of salaries, consultants, logistics, etc—dwarfed the actual sales (which any self-respecting CEO not caught in a mimetic haze would realize immediately).
You should read some of his other quotes - it's all very conspiratorial before that was even a term: https://libquotes.com/edward-bernays/works/propaganda
Here's a good one:
> The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.
Edward Bernays
Obviously, it's not a strategy that will be much discussed, as its such an unappealing prospect. But the situation we find makes far greater sense as a conspiracy than companies merely stupid (which I agree is a part).