Once Proud…

“When Nations grow Old,

The Arts grow Cold

And Commerce settles on every tree.” ­

–William Blake

I was thinking the other day about how I once saw marketing chops as something to be proud of. Sure, it’s good to be good at what you do and I am content to be a marketer, as I believe it is my path. But, to be proud of being capable of selling things to people…as a concept, in the abstract. Hmmmm.

My imagination had run to China, and the concern I’ve heard voiced by friends and in the media that America is a nation in decline and China’s really where it’s at (or it may turn out to be Brazil). My position is…Who cares? Maybe not

being a so-called “Super Power” will turn out to be a blessing for America. Not that’s its a competition…But, I digress.

Anyway. I was thinking about how just a few years ago several smart marketers I worked with picked up and moved to places like China and India looking for opportunities to wield their marketing expertise in places where the demand for sophisticated marketing was growing with the demand for goods. The rising middle class in China deserves better ads! That was the idea. We need to be more like America, where the marketers have figured out the ins and outs of seducing a savvy audience suddenly holding the power of purchase in their hands.

At the time, I thought about my own skills: so honed, so refined. And I considered doing the same thing. Wouldn’t it be fun to teach another culture how to mine for insights and convert those insights into sales pitches?

Looking back I am struck by how naïve I was and how much my opinion on the matter has changed.

America’s position as the most sophisticated marketing environment in the world might be exciting from the inside of the marketing industry, but it is a large, LARGE, part of what’s wrong with this culture and what’s starting to be wrong with those cultures striving to achieve the same.

We’re surrounded by advertising on all 6 sides: up, down, side, side, front, back. We absorb it without trying.

What to do about it? For a few years I have been asking myself this question on a daily basis. I have brought this question into my work, asked it of myself and clients, and finally I think I am coming to some big conclusions. I won’t go into them yet, but I do believe there is hope. I do believe there is hope for commercialism, capitalism, and consumption. I do believe all ads are not created equal and moving forward enlightened corporations are going to start reducing the amount of noise they put out into the world.

In a future post, I will discuss the solution that is coming to light for me. And it’s not to stop advertising altogether (your job is safe for now). It is a solution that will change the way we think and behave in a post-advertising world.