ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” story. It is an editorial by the editor.
“Is there anybody here who’s in marketing or advertising? Good. I want you to go out and kill yourselves… Suck a tailpipe… whatever it takes to rid the world of your evil machinations.” — Comedian Bill Hicks
After reading “Culture Jam” by Kalle Lasn and viewing the landmark documentary series “Century of the Self” by Adam Curtis, I conclude that the deterioration and approaching demise of our democracy or republic, whichever you prefer, can be laid at the feet of marketing and advertising.
The two, which Bill Hicks referred to as “Satan’s Little Helpers,” have been with us in some form or other for a long time, but their role in society has taken on a particularly powerful and sinister significance over the past 100 years. The reason why they are sinister is that they have no respect for the truth, but have a sole purpose to make money.
Purveyors of marketing and advertising are really good at what they do, they are pros. They have used social science and plenty of scientific techniques (B.F. Skinner?) to get to the bottom of what pushes our irrational buttons in the search for getting the unwashed and unwary masses to open their wallets to buy what they don’t need, and sometimes don’t even want.
You didn’t even need to watch “Mad Men” to figure out that the sole purpose of the industry is to use the power of persuasion on the unsuspecting victim, who doesn’t even need to be feeble minded, but rather easily misled.
It was marketing and advertising that persuaded so many everyday working stiffs a century ago to start smoking, most of them in their teen or formative years.
It was marketing and advertising that has conned us into buying bottled water rather than a much less expensive liquid that comes out of our kitchen tap.
It was marketing and advertising that misled us into buying computer applications to fight against a non-existent millenium bug.
It was marketing and advertising that extolled the virtues 60 years ago of hexachlorophene in children’s toothpaste.
It was marketing and advertising that pooh-poohed the warnings about the health hazards of smoking cigarettes in the 1960s and 1970s.
It was marketing and advertising for the auto industry that fought tooth and nail against seat belts and air bags.
It was marketing and advertising that has created wants and desires we didn’t even know we had, using such basic instincts as sex and gluttony.
All of these few examples were done in the service of making money by preying on consumers’ personal and emotional weaknesses through manipulation, spin and stretching the truth.
“Did you ever get the feeling that the truth is less revealing than a downright lie?” — Neil Innes, “Shangri-La.”
Then in 2010, along came the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of a free-for-all in campaign finance spending for candidates and issues, turning our hallowed election system into legalized bribery. He who spends money on the best marketing and advertising campaigns, not he who has the best ideas, comes out the winner. It’s the perfect antidote to the only real power we have — voting.
If this insidious industry can persuade us to buy bottled water and smoke cigarettes, it can get us to elect Mephistopheles.
Too many campaigns use fear and anger rather than logic to win. I’ve rarely seen a candidate for judge say he or she promises to be fair. Instead, I see judicial candidates say they’re going to “git tuff on crime.” And all candidates present themselves as wholesome “family values” people though they aren’t.
It’s like the successful Florida congressional candidate about a half century ago who claimed his opponent’s sister was “a known thespian.” Not a lie, but world class in misleading, a hallmark of the advertising industry.
Many of my brethren in the media are playing along nicely with this growing cancer. Too often their stories are about so-and-so’s latest televised advertisement, and don’t forget the visual media rakes in a lot of dough from these ads. It’s the ads and name recognition, not the issues, that matter.
And now virtually every time you see political events, you have to understand just how choreographed and scripted they are. For example, Trump meeting Kim in Singapore was about as staged as any event I’ve ever seen.
When these kinds of things happen, it’s the triumph of marketing and advertising and the penchant for politicians controlling what you get to see and hear. Then it becomes difficult for us unwashed masses to determine what is real and what is just propaganda presented to us.
In the words of 1992 and 1996 president candidate Ross Perot: “Now y’see. That’s what’s wrong with this country… There’s the problem right there.”
Truer words were never written. Nice piece, David.