Over the course of my life so far I’ve become fascinated by how the majority of us are controlled by marketing and advertising. Most of us aren’t aware of how much our lives are directed, themed, and puppeteered in this manner; Even those who claim to be independent and rebellious are caught up in the swarm of marketing. Easy examples are the grunge movement of the 90s (flannel, Doc Martens, etc.), hip hop culture and its “bling”, Apple…it’s an endless list, of course, and it reaches its tendrils out to every socioeconomic level of society.
I worked in advertising for seven years and saw it from the inside. Marketing and advertising are, on a base level, simply trying to sell us things. More often than not these are things that we either don’t need or that we are guided into spending obscene amounts of money for. Naturally, businesses want and need to sell product; there is nothing wrong with this in the least. What is wrong is the kind of culture that it can create: a culture we’re in now where image and material goods are mistakenly seen as gauges of success, individuality, and that ever-elusive happiness.
Think about your favorite person in the world and why you like them so much. Is it because they wear D & G sunglasses? Is it because they have an iPad? Is it because they paid $200 for a pair of cotton jeans with the word Seven embroidered on the back? I would venture to say that an immense majority of people would not list any of these. Why? Because they don’t matter. What marketing does is convince you that in order to achieve happiness, wonderful friendships and relationships, and most other characteristics of never-never land, you need to buy certain products.
I am here to show you specifically how marketing works by citing prime examples that you might see every day. It’s humbling when you really become aware of its control on you, so beware — these posts might make you uncomfortable.
I want to be clear and say that I am in no way claiming that advertising and marketing should not exist, or that you shouldn’t buy anything — life is short, might as well enjoy it. What I am saying is that in my ideal world marketing should not enforce wasteful, shallow, and unhealthy cultural gluttony.
