Marketing and the Media: The Sirens of consumerism

"Yes, I sell people things they don't need. I can't, however, sell them something they don't want. Even with advertising. Even if I were of a mind to."
John O'Toole

In the West all but the very few are fortunate to have their basic needs for food, shelter, warmth and safety met. We are consequently pre-occupied not by what we need but by what we want and what we want, is predominately influenced by marketing and the media. Both have been proven to very effective in moderating both our desires and behaviours. This in and of itself is not a bad thing; in times of great hardship when a collective effort has been required both have played a major part in mobilising people toward a common cause. For this reason my concern does not lie with either activities but with the predominate purpose to which they are being applied. The vast majority of marketing and media effort is directed at increasing our desire to purchase things and therefore to consume more natural resources over and above what we actually need.

One could see the media as simply a vehicle for the marketing messages but the media industry is massive and it uses marketing to perpetuate itself and as such is just as malignant. Everywhere you go in the world you will notice their footprints to a greater of lesser extent. If one pays attention to almost every type of advert underlying it is a message which attempts to get people to identify themselves with the product, they are really attempting to sell to your ego and not your rational mind. This is the case for almost everything from automobiles to toilet tissue. The people who are doing this are really very, very good at what they do and if we ever decided that we need to get the global community to change the way they view themselves in relation to the world at large, such people and practices would be vital to the cause.

Of all the current vehicles for the distribution of the current consumerist propaganda today, television must be the most potent. In many countries a license fee to own one still exists, it amuses me to see signs on people's doors requesting door to door salespeople not to call, whilst the inhabitants spend ever increasing hours, paying to watch the best salesperson of all, in not only their living room but now in many other rooms in the house. It is not just the adverts on commercial television enticing us to consume more but also the myriad of lifestyle programmes encouraging us to revamp our living spaces, wardrobes, gardens and just about everything else one could imagine. Furthermore with the advent of digital TV, marketeers can now target groups based on specific areas of interest which is proven to deliver a higher sales conversion rates.

Celebrities also concerns me deeply, not only because they are used as paragons of virtue, to convince us that if we only looked like them or bought the things they did, that we too would be better people but also because it is a sign of what we currently value as a society. The plethora of celebrity based magazines herald these people as idols, people to aspire to be like. If we all lived a celebrity lifestyle things would be many, many times worse than they are today and our demise would be absolutely unavoidable. Who we see as celebrities indicate what we truly value as a culture and contentious though it may be, I believe that suggests that what the majority of people really value, is money, and I find this incredibly sad. If we are to change, we must address this issue and I hope marketing and the media will one day play it's part in furthering this cause and in helping people become aware of the non-financial richness of life.