Pearl of Wisdom: Let's Talk About Advertising.

The sickest I have ever felt in a lecture theatre has either been because I was hungover or because someone else was loudly vomiting out their insobriety, after sprinting out the door, or because the subject being covered was something I found morally outrageous. For example, a Psychology lecture on children who grew up in dungeons and a Marketing lecture in which the lecturer blindly preached about how wonderful and amazing Advertising. Both were very difficult to sit through. Both were equally revolting to me.

There are leading marketing academics who argue that the whole discipline of Marketing is for the consumer's own good. Harvard professor, Theodore Levitt, claims that it fulfils our basic human need for art and embellishment of an otherwise dreary existence. Advertising is "the poetry of capitalism" in the eyes of many. Naturally, to be a Marketer, you've got to believe in the field, or why would you be doing it at all? But there is a core sickness as the centre of the subject that needs to be evicted, for the sake of everyone.

To an extent, I agree with the idea that Marketing is essential and Advertising is an artform that benefits the consumer. I'm not even remotely against the whole field of Marketing (of which Advertising is merely a single element in a much larger subject), because it's what I want to do when I grow up and it's just as much my passion as Classical Studies is to an Arts student majoring in it. There is undoubtedly value, and art, in Advertising and you only really truly understand the world we live in if you have a grasp on the sheer power of Marketing.

However, I'm not studying Marketing because I think it's amazing and consumer-centric. I'm studying it because I think modern Marketing is a dreadful influence on our society, and that's obvious through the immense amount of study modern Business/Commerce students have to do on How To Not Become Corrupt & Amoral Tycoons, as a reaction to the corrupt state of Capitalism.

Cigarette advertising is the ultimate immoral practice.

B.O. was invented by Marketers. Before a company decided people should smell nice, there was no need for a product that would eliminate our natural scent. Why do most of us girls shave our legs obsessively? Because someone wanted to sell us something, so that someone created a Need and fulfilled it. It's just ridiculous, really. Clever, brilliant and ingenius, yes, but I don't think it can be argued that Advertising is "for the consumer's own good" when it spends so much time telling us we're terrible, oh, and buy this product that will make you less terrible.

BO smells better than BO mixed with Deo, to be honest.

So much of our daily ritual can be traced back to those very businesses who took our hard-earned cash and used it to pollute our planet, bribe politicians and otherwise make our world a little bit shittier a place. Why do you do what you do? Because Marketing. Marketing is just what happens when someone profits from an idea, a social attitude, a formation of cultural practices. It's pervasive and the all-powerful force behind our civilization.

Of course, there is some great Advertising and it does do good things a lot of the time. Free-to-air television is backboned by Advertising, communities are created around brands and products, and real art and healthy messages are displayed on large-scale platforms. As a Marketing student, I love what it can do. As a consumer and a member of society, I'm not going to stand for the negative aspect being ignored.

Dove is a tricky subject. One on hand, they have amazingly positive advertising, but is that really for OUR benefit?

We like to chat about larger issues in the field of Consumerism here on Absolootely, so expect more of these heftier posts and please tell us your thoughts on the matters at hand!

Personally, I think that Brands add value to our lives by turning commodities into experiences, which is one of the key ethical beliefs Absolootely holds, and by bringing people together. But I also find the sheer power of the Brand a little abhorant and unnerving, especially when Advertisers target kids and people with low self-esteem, and when my nation demands that I vote in an election based solely on how well marketed a Politician is ("Yes We Can" is Marketing, not Politics). I think it's super important to discuss the morality of Marketing, because it has the capacity to do real damage to people and our world in general. With that in mind, the next person who accuses me of 'studying the art of manipulation' will get punched...... in the mind, by a furious rant (I'm a pacifist)!

 Overall, do you think your life would be improved if there was an absence of Advertising? What is your general, nonspecific stance on the subject?