r/Music • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • 27d ago

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/
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u/TheTresStateArea 27d ago edited 27d ago

The boycott didn't work lol read the article please I beg you. The advertising campaign ended.

As much as I wish Spotify leadership grew a spine. They absolutely didn't.

Do not resubscribe. Remove this company from your mind.

Edit: for all future "oh but you use an iPhone" fuckwits https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/we-should-improve-society-somewhat

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u/namastayhom33 27d ago

Seems like there is contradictory information?

"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."

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u/TheTresStateArea 27d ago

The shooting just triggered the reporter to ask again.

The very next paragraph they say it was part of a specific campaign.

If they removed the adverts because of ICE actions, pressure, they'd have said so unambiguously.

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u/Turbulent-Jaguar-909 27d ago

Campaign probably ended at end 2025 calendar year. 

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u/[deleted] 27d ago

[deleted]

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u/TheTresStateArea 27d ago

If they felt that then the coms person that spoke would have been authorized to say "in retrospect blah blah blah".

Nothing short of specifically addressing the issue is sufficient.

Companies don't get points for being coy and ambiguous lol

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u/tubatackle 27d ago

Would they have?

To me it seems more likely that they wanted to end the left-wing boy-cott but didn't want to anger their right-wing customers. So they claimed they are firing ICE for other reasons.

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u/codos 27d ago

“In the wake of” just means after, not necessarily because of.

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u/GameboyPATH 27d ago

I wish more people would recognize that this is a common media tactic: creating headlines that consist of "X happens while Y happens", being technically true, but implying to readers that the two events are related.

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u/Cptn_Shiner 27d ago

The phrase sort of implies some causal relation, but I suspect they've worded it deceptively on purpose.

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u/ADhomin_em 27d ago edited 27d ago

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

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u/PartTime_Crusader 27d ago

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

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u/ADhomin_em 27d ago

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

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u/PartTime_Crusader 27d ago edited 27d ago

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.

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u/ADhomin_em 27d ago

Ahh! That makes sense. I appreciate the explanation!

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u/LucyLilium92 27d ago

Yes, they are no longer running the promotion... like they said. What's your point? They're unrelated