I hate advertising. Not advertising in general, but advertising as it is done.
Among my friends (ok, among one friend), I am notorious for asking someone's roommate in college, who was majoring in marketing, why she wanted to make it her profession to try to trick people into doing what they didn't want to do. It was crass, to be sure, but entirely representative of me back then (and still?). But, I still don't really disagree with the sentiment.
In theory, advertising is a noble and necessary part of a free market. If someone wants to offer a product or service, you, the consumer, want to hear about it if you are interested in that product or service.
It's that "if" part that is tricky. No company can know which of our 300 million U.S. citizens (or 6.8 billion world citizens) is interested in some product. That's where the art and science of marketing come in. I'm on board.
But what effective advertising is, unfortunately, is not just a way to let interested consumers know about an offering that's up their alley. It has become a way to manipulate and trick people to make decisions based on sub- or un-conscious psychological "laws" that we are largely unaware of, but that we nevertheless respond to. Sex, peer pressure, greed, ego, etc.
We're not "rational" consumers, and marketers are hard pressed not to take advantage of our irrationality.
So, I'm torn. On the one hand, I hate advertising, but on the other hand, it wouldn't be so bad if it didn't work. Who's to blame, advertisers or us?
Among my friends (ok, among one friend), I am notorious for asking someone's roommate in college, who was majoring in marketing, why she wanted to make it her profession to try to trick people into doing what they didn't want to do. It was crass, to be sure, but entirely representative of me back then (and still?). But, I still don't really disagree with the sentiment.
In theory, advertising is a noble and necessary part of a free market. If someone wants to offer a product or service, you, the consumer, want to hear about it if you are interested in that product or service.
It's that "if" part that is tricky. No company can know which of our 300 million U.S. citizens (or 6.8 billion world citizens) is interested in some product. That's where the art and science of marketing come in. I'm on board.
But what effective advertising is, unfortunately, is not just a way to let interested consumers know about an offering that's up their alley. It has become a way to manipulate and trick people to make decisions based on sub- or un-conscious psychological "laws" that we are largely unaware of, but that we nevertheless respond to. Sex, peer pressure, greed, ego, etc.
We're not "rational" consumers, and marketers are hard pressed not to take advantage of our irrationality.
So, I'm torn. On the one hand, I hate advertising, but on the other hand, it wouldn't be so bad if it didn't work. Who's to blame, advertisers or us?
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