advertising
Explanation
The Joke
A person holds up their phone showing "stupid old advertisements" and mocks how past generations didn't even know basic science -- people were drinking beer and didn't expect it to harm them. Another person counters that modern social media accounts display a comparable lack of scientific literacy, just with a better sense of humor. The first person then pivots and claims that older generations were "suckered in by the promise of products," noting that advertising used to work by making grand claims. The punchline comes when the second person points out that the first person has "ruined your Twitter account promoting a pyramid scheme" -- revealing that the person mocking old-timey gullibility is themselves a victim of a modern-day advertising scam.
The Humor
The comic satirizes generational smugness -- the tendency for people to look at old advertisements (like vintage cigarette or alcohol ads) and feel superior to past generations for falling for such obvious marketing. Weinersmith punctures this self-congratulation by showing that modern people are just as susceptible to manipulation; the formats have simply changed from magazine ads to social media pyramid schemes and influencer marketing. The irony is sharp: the person ridiculing their ancestors' gullibility is literally promoting a pyramid scheme on Twitter, which is arguably an even more embarrassing form of being duped by advertising. The joke underscores that human susceptibility to persuasion and bad reasoning is a constant across generations, even as the medium evolves.