Marketing = Eeeeeeevil
Do we have it coming? (marketers, I mean)
After so many years of being bombarded by messages - some underhanded, most invasive - many people are outraged. Egad, this profession is all about shoving crap down people's throats. The evil is rooted in an overpopulated, heavily polluted marketplace, where we have more junk than we need or desire. Marketing has been the 'science' of making people believe they need and desire particular junk...without regard for their own well-being (in the various examples of consumerism, shopaholism, keeping up with the Joneses at the expense of people's well-being, etc.).
Man, I so get that. I've spent my entire marketing life railing against such practices. I am a 'consumer' first and a marketer second. I have suffered the stress of the credit card statement, overdue bills, overspending, helplessness, feeling disempowered by the social pressures. I bloody hate the way we value crap like designer labels and fancy cars and big houses, etc. I try to live simply, but find myself constantly crippled by the shame of not having accoutraments of 'success'. As a woman, I'm constantly comparing myself to the perfect, airbrushed, flat-stomached, unblemished models on the Gucci billboards. I commute 4 hours per workday to work for 10+ hours to make just enough to pay for my overpriced Haight apartment (where I long for furniture) and feel constantly like I'm spinning my wheels. I've been to those parties where everyone is dripping with the latest fashions and just returned from their seasonal vacation at one of those amazingly brochured places and I envy them (but know I shouldn't). It's bullshit. The vicious circle we find ourselves in is perpetuated by marketing messages. I know that.
And yet, I'm a marketer.
I guess I have this pipe dream of wanting to change things from within. I could whine and cry and say, "I'm different! Please don't point your arrows at me! I'm a good person who wants to change this!" But in reality, I'm -right now- creating tools that could be used for evil.
Yes, Attaboy, Pinko Marketing could be pure evil (and you aren't the only one who has asserted this). Anyone could take what is totally well-intentioned and (perhaps a little naive and) hopeful and create another level of deception. The Cluetrain taught big brands to 'converse' with us like they are our friends...like they care. Pinko now could help them enlist us to do their evil bidding.
I wrote the following in Shelley Powers comments section:
My greatest fear is that someone with less ethical intentions takes what someone with a pure heart is trying to build and exploits it to fuck with people’s heads. Yep, they will sell a bunch of crap. Probably make billions. And then they’ll publish a book to say it works and make another billion off of that and many other unethical marketers will jump on board to do the same until we end up in the predicament I described above.
I sometimes feel like I’m part of a machine who is that guy in the Terminator movie who found the Terminator’s robot hand and figures out the secret to A.I. which leads to eventually robots nuking the planet and waging war on humans. And Linda whatsherface and Arnie have to kill him to stop it from happening, but he’s a good guy. He has good intentions. He has no idea about what he’s contributing to.
Okay, so that’s, like, giving myself way to much credit (and, dammit, I like robots), but am I right in assuming that’s what we are saying here?
“Sorry, you are part of something very evil, however well intentioned, so you have to die in order to prevent it.”
But remember how they had to throw the robot hand into the molten lava at the end because even though that guy died, someone else may come along who could figure out that chip…and then what do you do?
I hear everyone's concerns. I don't know. Do I change my career to make it better? Or, do I continue to face the criticism and hope to someday help implode the current garbage that takes place in my chosen profession?Well, probably neither.
I guess I could just re-assert my belief that if it ain't ethical, it ain't Pinko. If that isn't enough, it isn't enough.
And really, I'd like to redirect that anger into truly taking down the disempowering structures that have led to that anger. We don't do any good fighting one another.
13 Comments:
Nice piece Tara. Heres the good news. The tides are turning. Companies are learning they need to change their behavior if they want to stay in business. If they continue to employ deception to win customers they will begin to suffer. The future (of marketing) belongs to the pure of heart. Companies will learn to be transparnet, honest and high integrity - not because they want to, or think it's just a good idea. They will learn it for the most powerful reason of all - It will yield the highest profits.
Well said, Tara. I feel your pain, both as a consumer tired of being "marketed at", and as someone trying to "tak[e] down the disempowering structures" from the inside. What I do isn't marketing, but it affects the customer and our relationship with them, so really...it's all the same thing in the end.
Hang in there!
I would actually take Don's comments a step further. There is a power shift occuring. Marketing, traditional marketing, is going the way of the Dodo. Consumers are getting pissed off at Marketing. Collegues are getting pissed off at Marketing.
As a designer (collegue catagory) I have watched Marketing act like a bunch of school yard morons snatching peoples lunch money for far too long. The problem now being that they are all still in the power seat.
Maybe your PM is a revolution and I just don't see it. But, for me, it reads too much like the Emporer's New Clothes.
Attaboy had some severely misplaced angst in his post but he sure as hell tapped into what I feel when I think about the current state of Marketing.
I have to say, that I was on the verge of deleting HPC from my aggregator. This posting has kept me coming back for a while more. Not sure if it is because I am watching something revolutionary, or a train wreck.
Well said, Tara. I work for a market research corporation and there are days when I feel slightly eeevil then I just try to channel the emotion elsewhere.
I agree fully, Tara. My hope is that we consumers will eventually be able to share enough of our experience about products and companies that we define the brand. I call branding based on consumer experinece rather than marketing messages "inside-out branding." See http://www.fispace.org/home/2006/01/branding_inside.html
Well put, Tara. I think one of the traps many companies fall into is thinking that marketing is not only a necessary evil, but *necessarily* evil. I constantly hear from folks who dread the idea of being on of those "marketing types." But like Don said in an earlier comment, companies are beginning to learn.
I have friends in big business marketing departments who are starting to understand the Cluetrain thing, although it's taken them a few years. Many of our small business clients got it right away. To me it's akin to agile development versus old school development methods. The smaller orgs are agile by nature, so can implement new ideas fast.
Small Business = Recon Team, Bug Business = Full Deployment
First comes the recon then the deployment.
God, Tara, I completely know where you're coming from.
Here's my take -- I think you should hold on to this unease of yours. This fear of doing evil. Nurture it even. I think it's probably one of your greatest strengths. In fact, I think it's the hallmark of a good Pinko marketer.
And that's good news -- I don't think Pinko tactics can really work without this sense of unease about being a marketer. Customers are smart. They can smell evil. And they can smell sincerity, too. So maybe you don't need to worry so much about your ideas being used for evil.
I hope so, anyways.
Rather presumptuous. Bolting along with packaged clichés, drawing absurd conclusions and naming it, like who are you trying to please? 'If it ain't ethical it ain't pinko." Hello. Doctor in the house? Rather a case of web2 addicto personality. Try shopping is good for you. Try there are more intelligent people than exist in the mists of SF Bay. Try marketing is just marketing, like politics is just politics, but no matter how smart you think you are, or are the clintonians of the world, people are smarter. You think we're stupid?
Tara,
I got mad when i saw that my art was used as a background for a infomercial without my permission taht was being shown publicly.
No one asked for my permission.
I got irate when I saw that there were corporate logos in the video, and links to riya.com and others.
I got furious when I heard you speak of creative commons and ethics, when my art which was used without my permission and saw a link to my site,
which inferred that i endorsed your Pinko Marketing, the companies and links mentioned. I found this hypocritical. and as my legal friends and every artist i spoke to said: against the law.
It also taps into the
the assumption that any promotion is good promotion for work that i created and that i didnt have control of the context i wanted my very personal art shown in a piece promoting someone else.
I created my art pieces as a daily journal entry for personal reasons.I showed it not in a very public place, but an indoor gallery.
This is important: I did not know you, what you were about, what you were saying, who you were endorsed by or friends with. And that shouldnt have mattered. If you were craigslist or Ghandi I still would have been upset for not being asked, good intentons or not.
That being said:
-I find out that Eddie Codel shot the video, that his
intentions were good and that he does great things.
That you didnt choose the location, he did. and that both of you seem to be decent people. I shouldnt have had to research the people who used my work without permission tho. and i think you guys might be in an insular virtual community where everyone knows your goals, ethics, and intentions. I did not and shouldnt have to know. You guys certaintly didnt research me or asked me what i wanted. and thats wrong.
-I still dont agree that pinko marketing is anything but marketing in nice guy clothing. I still believe that marketers shouldnt run companies. but thats me. an besides the point.
I will not bother with this stuff any longer.
I will not sue or even do a cease and desist. I just want my links taken off for something i dont endorse, and a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich from Eddie and all will be forgiven.
Atta
Don't feel too indicted as a marketer (pinko or otherwise), the whole system is a balancing loop, and as others have pointed out things are shifting back toward transparency and authenticity.
In the beginning, people trusted organizations, and when the organizations purported claims, customers bought goods and all was good. Then a few took advantage of the trust and pushed the edges, and thus down the slippery slop we slid.
Now there is less trust of organizations and the old style marketing is less effective and customers are not buying it. This is leading to the current trend of openness, conversation, etc. which if done well will build trust once again...and so the cycle continues.
I believe that marketing is necessary but not evil in and of itself (like they say "guns don't kill people..."). There will always be a need for a way producers and consumers to connect. We just need to be carefull how we do it and try to remember that trust in the relationship is always the core message.
The evil that marketing can do is proportional to the lack of real foundations any individual character has. If one is grounded and understands the difference between who they are and what they have, many of the most evil manipulations are moot.
So the most important thing that I can add to this well written piece is that it is up to each of us to become clear about ourselves, our insecurities and know what our trip is.
When we are grounded, the winds of social pressure are just hot air. The envy for stuff or brochure vacations is just envy- not something to get all up in our heads about.
Tara articulates her values here pretty well, and the suffering she creates for herself equally well.
We all choose. Do we understand that we have choosen? Does Tara (or any of us) have a throrough list of our options at hand when she is experiencing the ironic urges that this maya of marketing has created?
When the conversation is totally among the well grounded, and self examined honest, then there might be some real traction on how we avoid evil in this technology of creating desire.
The evil that marketing can do is proportional to the lack of real foundations any individual character has. If one is grounded and understands the difference between who they are and what they have, many of the most evil manipulations are moot.
So the most important thing that I can add to this well written piece is that it is up to each of us to become clear about ourselves, our insecurities and know what our trip is.
When we are grounded, the winds of social pressure are just hot air. The envy for stuff or brochure vacations is just envy- not something to get all up in our heads about.
Tara articulates her values here pretty well, and the suffering she creates for herself equally well.
We all choose. Do we understand that we have choosen? Does Tara (or any of us) have a throrough list of our options at hand when she is experiencing the ironic urges that this maya of marketing has created?
When the conversation is totally among the well grounded, and self examined honest, then there might be some real traction on how we avoid evil in this technology of creating desire.
I agree in general with the spirit behind two of the comments so far: that people aren't stupid and that marketing is a way of bringing producers and consumers together. Yes, I've felt "inferior" or "not cool" myself as I have viewed certain promotional messages--but like the average person, I'm not as dumb as I look. I know hype when I see it, and I don't buy something just because it's heavily advertised. Hell, I probably do just the opposite...
And advertising is just part of promotions which is just a part of marketing. Marketing includes product, distribution, and price as well. This is my own pet peeve: that people equate "advertising" and "marketing." They are not the same. Marketing is the process of connecting buyers and sellers. Advertising as we've know it in this consumerist society is one--and only one--way to do that. It's a very visible way, and often an offensive way, but it's only one way. And neither marketing nor its component part called advertising is inherently evil. They're just tools that can be used for good or evil. I often call sleazy sales people and deceptive advertising "the dark side" of marketing. But there's a huge "good" side, too: connecting buyers and sellers to the enrichment of both. That's a good thing...
My job? Marketer--and proud of it!
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