VPSIM And Why Modern Marketing Is Getting Tiring

Your favourite characters will gaslight you into buying socks

I saw this on my twitter and I knew I had to write a piece about this: the incessant need for VPSIM aka Virtual Parasocial Interaction Marketing.

Quick review before that Superman 2025 was mid.

I was scrolling on Twitter destroying my brain’s communication center…..and probably libido when I noticed this post by Clark Kent working at the daily planet. Which if you are 3 years old or aren’t aware isn’t a real person.

He posted a thread of tweets about his interview with the fictional man of Lex Luthor, it is treated as a synopsis of an actual interview. After reading it I just felt a wave of disgust, and it’s not because I consider the movie mid, but I have seen something like this before.

The Seraphine Scandal

If you don’t know Seraphine is a game character from the hit game league of legends, and no I don’t play that nor have I ever play that game, I waste my time bed rotting instead.

To promote Seraphine Riot, the company that owns League of Legend, created a twitter and had the person in charge of the account started tweeting like they were Seraphine, mental illnesses and all.

Considering that Seraphine was a member of the fictional K-Pop band KDA, who had at a certain point in time tens of millions of fans, the potential danger should be obvious. Normal parasocial relationships are already highly corrosive to the human mind, and I would argue society as a whole, If you have being a fan of Charlie Kirk or Hasan Piker as a requirement in your hinge prompts you’re part of the problem.

Parasocial relationships carry dangers, even though the need for social interactions are completed, that doesn’t mean that everything that comes with it is acceptable. Parasocial relationships makes it easier for the audience to get influenced. The audience is the one without the power in the relationship, that causes negative self comparisons.

….Even though I don’t think anyone is thinking about being as humble as Clark Kent right here….

A sense of intimacy is created and formed, but without the lack of true accountability that happens within a relationship of general equals.

Parasocial relationships have three types:

Entertainment-social PSR is when you're entertained by a celebrity, you're a fan of theirs, and you talk about them with others.

Intense-personal PSR is also known as celebrity worship. With this PSR, you may believe you’re in a personal relationship with the celebrity, or that the celebrity is your soulmate.

Borderline-pathological PSR includes fantasies and compulsions you can't control. You might have delusions that your favorite celebrity would like you to show up at their home.

The reason why VPSIMs, Virtual Parasocial Interactive Marketing, are especially dangerous because just like gacha games the most profitable way to gain the most profit would be to hyper focus on whales, those who have a penchant for addiction and more extreme reactions and behaviours. Whales is a term meant for the top payers in a mobile game setting.

When it came to Seraphine a lot of fans of League of Legends rightfully complained that the fact that the Seraphine account talking about mental illness would gather people of a similar kind towards that account, and even if that audience was aware that Seraphine was fake, the feeling of getting someone like you, someone who is also suffering, to feel better about themselves is a powerful kind of drug.

The way to get that drug is to buy the new $250 USD Fractured Jinx Skin, otherwise fake seraphine might feel like an imposter. As in not accomplished, as in someone who is posing as a fictional anime pink haired pretty girl.

Next time Lois Lane might turn out to be Bipolar, maybe that’s why she runs around with a cape.

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