We all probably like to pride ourselves for being independent thinkers and doers – thinking and doing outside of the box that society has tried to put us, and confine us, in. Dream on. Nearly all of us conform to the norm and rest comfortably within that box because ultimately it’s too much effort to really be an outsider, a free thinker and doer due in part to the social consequences of being, well, different. Let’s face reality; most of us are sheep most of the time.
Continued from yesterday’s blog…
Marketing Those Fads & Fashions: Since you were knee-high to a grasshopper, you’ve been exposed to hundreds of thousands of marketing gimmicks* designed to make you think you need something you probably don’t, at a higher price than you should pay, all for the sake of the almighty profit of thousands of for-profit companies. You’re bombarded with ads on the telly, on the radio, in the movie theatre, in the baseball park, on billboards, skywriting, on the sides of buses, on buildings, in magazines and newspapers, on the Internet, email spam, junk mail spam, even the layout of goods in the shops is designed to get you to part with your money. Neon signs flash out their messages of ‘must haves’. You get bombarded constantly with symbols, jingles, too good to be true images, sex appeal that sells, appeals to the good life, promoting being forever young, etc. Hype, hype and more hype is the order of the day. Is there any product in existence that hasn’t been ‘new and improved’ dozens of times over? What does ‘whiter than white’ or ‘fresher than fresh’ or ‘flavour you can see’ really mean? Then there’s ‘certified organic’ food, or ‘real food’ (as if to suggest some foods aren’t real or aren’t organic – maybe they mean those plastic apples and bananas, etc. that decorate some living room bowls). If there were really such a thing as truth in advertising we wouldn’t need any agency dealing with consumer affairs. Where does it all get you? As the song lyrics go, “another day older and deeper in debt”, and a lot unhealthier too since a lot of that marketing goes into foods that contribute more calories than nutrition, alcohol products often abused, tobacco products which help keep the medical profession fully employed and a profitable one. The bottom line is that such gimmicks work; otherwise ads would have proved to be more expensive than the profits they brought in and cut from the company’s bottom line. Actually it doesn’t always have to be a for-profit motive. ‘Join the Navy and see the world’ or ‘vote for me’ are non-profit marketing exercises. Still, Madison Avenue and associated equivalents not only think you’re sheep, they know you are. Baa!
There’s A Sucker Born Every Minute: There’s a sucker born every minute so it doesn’t take all that long therefore to gather together a flock of suckers. For example, why would anyone spend their dollars on bottled water when tap water is nearly free in comparison – unless of course there’s something seriously wrong with the tap water but that’s rare in most advanced countries today. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the tap water where I live. It tastes A-OK and I haven’t gotten ill from using it yet, yet bottled water is a big seller locally. It nearly flies off the supermarket shelves so it’s a flock of suckers buying it. Why? Well, there’s a sucker born every minute, that’s why. Baa!
Walking Billboards: Many of us, probably all of us if truth be known, own items of clothing, usually tee-shirts, which ‘advertises’ or promotes something or other. Perhaps that lettering or image reflects a product like a soft drink, or perhaps a band tour, the name of a company, your alma mater, a favourite sports team, an entertainment figure or image, your holiday destination; the range is just about limitless. No doubt that reflects some personal parts of your, well, personality, something that’s your favourite something. Akin to that, you drive a certain brand of automobile that probably has a nearly irremovable sticker of the automobile dealer you bought the car from. Those items of clothing, that brand of car, that dealer’s sticker, and a lot more besides, are all free advertising donated by you to whatever agency owns that image or brand name. When you buy a home the real estate agency slaps a big “SOLD” sign with their logo in front for all to see. If you have some sort of renovations to the home’s exterior, the company doing the work will place a sign in front letting all who pass by who did that fine bit of reconstruction, It’s pretty hard to avoid advertising someone else’s product or business, but you do it and boy-oh-boy, don’t those outsiders just love you for it since it doesn’t cost them a cent. They are just ROTFLTAO at how they get extra mileage out of you at no additional deficit to their profit margin; in fact you are contributing to additional profits for them without anyone helping out your economic bottom line. Baa!
Reviews: The point of an independent and neutral ‘Review’ of say restaurants, books, films, CDs, etc. is to inform. Your reaction to such reviews is a go/no-go depending on what the reviewer says. So in fact, the reviewer is leading you around by the nose. Around the water cooler at work, you don’t want to be caught out not having read this week’s ‘must read’ (or vice versa, having read something some ‘expert’ bucketed), or admit not to have dined out at this new five star eatery (or again vice versa if you had and the review suggested that not even a cockroach would be seen dining there). Reviews and reviewers may have their place, but the implication is that you’re a sheep that needs them to do your thinking for you. Baa!
Keeping up with the Jones Family: Who hasn’t heard of that expression? But isn’t it really way more than just an expression? Your fellow co-worker just moves into a new four bedroom home while you are still in a old three bedroom resident. Is this a motivation to move on up in the world? Your neighbour buys a new deluxe 4WD automobile while you still putt-putt-putt around in a Model-T by comparison. Is a trip to the automobile dealer on the agenda next weekend? Your second cousin just upgraded to this new and improved wireless PC while your landline tabletop computer is within months of a hard disk crash it’s that old. 99% of all those around you seem to have this tablet, that smart phone, this iPod, while you are still a relatively technological Neanderthal. But you’ll show them!!! Your wife complains that you earn twice as much as her best friend’s husband, yet his wife dresses twice as well as your wife does. What are you going to do about that? Have you been told today? Consider yourself told and act accordingly. Baa!
Not an overly pretty or flattering picture, is it?
*I’m surprised some marketing guru hasn’t yet come up with “buy our new and improved Manna Bread, the bread that God Himself endorses, and atheists can enjoy Manna Bread as well”!
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