The Norwegian Consumer Council launched a satirical ad campaign featuring a Nordic mascot named the Enshittificator partnering with Death. Created through the Breaking Free initiative with author Cory Doctorow, the videos use dark humor to expose corporate exploitation, planned obsolescence, and predatory subscription models.
The Genesis of Corporate Degrade-Ware
Coined originally by author and activist Cory Doctorow in 2022 and cemented into Merriam-Webster’s lexicon last year, the term enshittification describes a precise, predatory business cycle. Companies lure users in with high-quality products or services, foster total dependency, and then systematically pull the rug out. Basic features disappear behind paywalls, quality plummets, and consumers are squeezed for maximum extraction.
To visualize this macro-market decay, the Norwegian Consumer Council introduced a fictional partner-in-crime for the digital age: a handsome, bearded Nordic man who proudly introduces himself as the Enshittificator, joined later by a scythe-wielding manifestation of Death.
From Broken Brakes to Digital Hostage Situations
The campaign’s narrative arc moves from physical hardware to digital storage lock-in. In the initial rollout from February, the Enshittificator cheerfully crashes his car because he neglected to pay a recurring monthly subscription fee for his braking system.
Together, they target long-lasting engineering, pointing out how products designed to endure—such as the famously indestructible Nokia 3310 cameo appearance in the campaign—generate revenue only once. To guarantee continuous profit, modern firms deliberately deploy low-quality materials, enforce unrepairability, and abandon software updates.
“Look at all the companies that used to make solid products,” the Enshittificator notes in the sketch. “Where are they now?”
“Dead,” Death replies with a shared smile.
Real-World Echoes: From Batters to Paywalled Photos
The campaign’s dark humor hits close to home because it mirrors documented corporate behavior across the technology sector. In 2020, Apple agreed to pay up to $500 million to settle the landmark “batterygate” class action lawsuit regarding software updates that secretly throttled older iPhone models. Meanwhile, major technology and automotive conglomerates routinely lobby against right-to-repair legislation, legally shielding their monopolies over device maintenance.
Digital services receive an equally sharp critique. In one poignant scene, the Enshittificator taunts an employee over lost memories: “The 1,000 pictures of your deceased mother are mine, and you’re going to pay for them.” It is a direct condemnation of Google Photos’ 2021 policy shift ending free unlimited storage and capping accounts at 15GB, which forced users onto subscription tiers just to keep already uploaded archives.
Cory Doctorow emphasized the cultural resonance of the campaign in an email exchange, noting that combining corporate market power with blunt terminology has provided a vital outlet for public frustration.
The Road Ahead for Consumer Advocacy
As automakers attempt to sell basic vehicle functionality as add-on cloud subscriptions and device manufacturers intentionally design components to fail, the Norwegian Consumer Council’s Breaking Free initiative offers a stark reminder of systemic market failure. The campaign exposes how planned obsolescence and deliberate quality degradation do not just empty consumer wallets—they quietly accelerate environmental depletion across the global supply chain.
