"By the way, if anyone here is in marketing or advertising...kill yourself. Thank you. Just planting seeds, planting seeds is all I'm doing. No joke here, really. Seriously, kill yourself, you have no rationalisation for what you do, you are Satan's little helpers. Kill yourself, kill yourself, kill yourself now. Now, back to the show. Seriously, I know the marketing people: 'There's gonna be a joke comin' up.' There's no fuckin' joke. Suck a tail pipe, hang yourself...borrow a pistol from an NRA buddy, do something...rid the world of your evil fuckin' presence."
This is a quote from the stage performance of a hero of mine, one Mr Bill Hicks (A thousand brownie points to anyone who knew who it was).
Advertising is simply a way for the rich to try and pilfer more money from our comparatvely threadbare pockets. These companies make obscene amounts of money every year and still they infiltrate our media trying to get us, put simply, to buy more stuff. Why does coca-cola need to advertise? I'm currently drinking a diet coke, is it because of fancy ad campaigns that suggest that drinking their product would make my life immeasurably better? Hell no! I drink diet coke because i've always drank diet coke. These companies are already established, people know their products well and buy it on the strength of their merits. So why on earth spend this amount of money on advertising? in 2006 coca-cola alone spent $2.6 billion on advertising. Think about that for just a second.
Two
Point
Six
Billion
Dollars.
Could that money not be used for other things? We could feed the hungry, home the homeless, give everyone in the world a free can of coke! Of course, I am aware that advertising pays for commercial television, but guess what? These companies could just give the stations the money. Also, in the age where everyone and their nan have access to the internet, why don't companies just resort to good new-fashioned guerilla marketing? Get a bunch of creative minds together, plan a funny youtube video, film it and see what happens. Be sure to involve the words 'fail', 'kitten' or any celebrity's name to get people interested. Just show the logo at the end of the damn video. This way you aren't shoving your corporate-branded nonsense in everyone's face, they're making an active choice to click on a link. As long as your video lives up to the the expectations implied by the title, you're sound. To get around the celebrity names, whatch the Kenny Vs Spenny episode entitled "Who can make the best viral video"
In summary, I don't want to be faced with adverts from rich companies every fifteen minutes telling me to buy things I don't need. We're all aware your products exist. If we don't know, we'll find out eventually and choose for ourselves.
Ollie
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I see what you're doing - you're buying into the anti-marketing and righteous indignation market - yeah good market - quite strong...
ReplyDeleteSocrates was wont to say 'They are most happy and nearest the Gods those that needed nothing.' And coming once up into the exchange at Athens, where they traded, merchants asked him: 'what will you buy, what do you lack?' He walked gravely, spreading forth his hands and turning about. 'Good Gods', saith he, 'who would have thought there were so many things in the world which I do not want!' And so he left the place.
[Try telling your misses that anecdote during the new year sales.]
'Happiness', said Socrates, 'consisted not in having many, but in needing the fewest things.'