The Sister of Gaslighting: Slow Drip

What abusers and Instagram ads have in common

Photo is a close-up of a light-skinned person’s face as yellow paint drips from their bottom lip. The person is only visible from their nostrils (top) to the base of their neck (bottom) and from the right side of their neck (left) to the left side (right), so much of their face is not pictured. The person is wearing makeup, especially vibrant purple and orange lip makeup. Photo by Oleg Magni from Pexels.

You’re on Instagram (again, of course). You see the same company advertising to you (again, of course). You’ve seen this company’s ads dozens of times over the past three years. You’ve never been tempted to click one of the ads — until today. Today, they got you. Their new product has exactly what you felt the old product…