The Absurdity Series ● Bryan Kest
What’s the difference between advertising and marketing. To me it feels like there is a big difference although there may be no difference at all. It seems like a long time ago businesses or other entities would use advertising to let people know that they are there and that they have these products and services available. It was a simple as that. For example, when I was 20 years old, I rented a room behind the grocery store where I could teach Yoga to people. This room was behind the grocery store not on the main street and not visible to anybody even if there was a sign nobody would see it. So, I took a little ad out and a local magazine to let people know that there was a yoga class in this location at these particular times. And I believe it worked as one person showed up for my first class. You could say that I “advertised” my yoga class at this location. Now it may be semantics, but I see marketing as something different. I see marketing as the evolution of advertising. Marketing may do all of the above that I was trying to do but it goes a step further a big step further. Marketing is the implementation of a multiplicity of well thought out methods to convince people they should purchase a product or service. Marketing takes into consideration that people may have no need or desire for these products and services and attempts to convince people that do not have a need or desire for these products to need and desire these products. It seems that there is no limitations to what these marketers will do to convince people other than to not be obvious that they are trying to manipulate people. The Pandora’s box of harm that ensues is so damaging to the individual, society and planet that addressing this is a big step towards healing.
It’s not uncommon for marketers to implement psychological tactics to make perspective customers feel so inadequate about themselves they have an urge to purchase their products. Trying to convince them that there is something wrong with them or something wrong with what they are experiencing and what’s being sold will make everything better or fix the problem.
Capitalizing on peoples’ fears, insecurities and desires. Using sex, youthfulness, happiness and even particular colors that arouse feelings and emotions that are pleasant or unpleasant depending on whether they want to push you towards something or away from something. With the objective being the customer buying the product or service being marketed. Morals and ethics are not a consideration other than to not be obvious about the fact that morals and ethics are not a consideration. The long-term harm, psychological harm, society to harm and planetary harm is not a consideration it’s someone else’s problem. Like a horse with blinders on there is only one objective which is the consumer purchasing their product or service. Or I guess you could simplify it by saying “making money”. As a marketer there is not a greater success than getting people to purchase something they didn’t need.
The purpose of this article is to bring awareness to what’s happening so people have a choice, so people can see that businesses and corporations are trying to manipulate us and they’re doing this out of fear and greed. They don’t care if they hurt us, they don’t care about the health and vibrancy of our people, our culture and our planet. They only care about money because they’ve been brainwashed by the marketing that they have been subjected to that has them convinced that happiness and success lies within money and materialism instead of integrity, morality, ethics, family and community. I wrote this article not only so people could see that they are being manipulated but also that they could see the harm and when they go to advertise and market their own businesses that they are aware of the consequences to their actions so to hopefully choose a more benevolent approach to marketing.
sincerely, bryan