Are
we doomed to be at the mercy of marketers, like the marketing system is a form
of cultural dictatorship, or do we actually have the freedom to escape it (or
at least remain outside of its grip)?
Persuaders
is a Frontline documentary film by ‘David’ Rushkoff’. In this film, he talks
about how marketers are trying to grab the attention of the consumers through
new and innovative ways, so they can avoid the clutter of advertisements that
they have created. This film also talks about how we have moved from marketing
inter-product differences to marketing of identities and beliefs.
After watching the Frontline
documentary ‘The Persuaders’, this question is something that comes very
naturally to the mind. We live in a world where we are attacked with advertisements
from all sides. We have become part of a system where we are being wooed
constantly; whether we know it or not. Sometimes, we are just so fed up of it,
that we just want to escape it. But can we escape this bombardment if we really
want to – altogether?
It is important to first understand the
concept of ‘Advertising’. Wikipedia defines Advertising as a form of communication
for marketing
and is used to encourage, persuade,
or manipulate an audience. Some
of the common marketing mediums today include TV and Radio commercials, print
ads, poster and banners, Internet advertisements, product placement, media and
our own peers. Today with techniques like media marketing, product placements
and especially informal social marketing, advertising is nearly impossible to
avoid.
In an article by Dan Hersam, about ‘How
to avoid Marketing’, he talks about how we can avoid a lot of commercial ads by
avoiding elements of mass media such as TV and radio. But in reality, the TV and Radio contribute
to a relatively smaller portion of advertising. There is a huge chunk of
advertising that we are affected by beyond these traditional methods. In
today’s capitalist economy, we can merely reduce the exposure to advertising,
but it’s nearly impossible to avoid it completely.
But does not being able to avoid
advertisements mean that we are being subjected to a form of cultural
dictatorship? It is important to understand the concept of dictatorship before
going on further. Wikipedia says, “in contemporary usage, dictatorship refers
to an autocratic form of absolute rule by leadership unrestricted by law, constitutions, or other social and political factors
within the state.” So in layman’s terms, we can say that it is when the people
being affected have no say in what is happening around them.
Let us see how this can apply to
advertising and marketing. Although marketing is a fairly new concept
introduced only in the 1900s (Wikipedia), advertising has been in practice ever
since man started trading. It thus means, that we are being wooed to buy things
for as long as we have had the capacity to buy. Every time we interact with one
another, we are selling each other different kinds of ideas and ideologies. Thus,
advertising and marketing are extensions of the basic concept – “Man is a social animal”. Communication is
necessary for us humans as it is a part of our inherent behavior, and
advertising, like defined earlier, is a form of communication.
Today, the concept of advertising has
been largely commercialized and so we can consciously see that it has become
unavoidable. It is because of this that we feel that we are being dictated by
its terms. But the truth is that advertising at its very basic form is –
communication; and that has always been a part of us humans at an
individualistic level. It is true that we don’t really have the freedom to
escape this, but the truth is that we have never had and we have never wanted
to have. Not because we are being dictated by some bunch of commercial kings
and we have no choice; but because it originates from within us.
Sources
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