In a fast-moving world we all like to think, regardless of what profession we’re in, that we are leading edge, that we are moving with the times and emulating the Olympic mantra of ‘faster, higher, stronger’. We commend ourselves for accepting or initiating change, we applaud innovation and those who are first to try something new.
But it’s all a smoke screen because nothing has really changed.
Politicians still lie, we will never grow tired of denim jeans and sex still sells. Now herein lies my quandary. I’ve accepted dishonest politicians and I don’t see myself ever parting with my super comfy jeans but the fact that sex sells bothers me. Whichever way I look at it, it just feels like a cop-out, like ad agencies are cheating.
You can see it now. It’s been a long day for the marketing team in the boardroom, drawing coloured charts, playing tiddly winks with M&Ms and catchy with the koosh ball. It’s getting close to five o’clock and they all have cocktail parties to attend but they haven’t even made a start on the new campaign. “Hey guys we can’t come up with anything remotely intelligent, catchy, witty or thoughtful. Let’s just show them some cleavage and call it a day eh?” Meeting adjourned. For me, that’s the same as giving up on trying to reason with your little brother to get out of your room, and just giving him 50 cents instead. It works but it’s a cop-out.
I doubt this approach will change anytime soon. As long as men like women, men have money and men don’t mind being manipulated, advertising executives will continue to thrust images of semi-naked women, gorgeous women, in our way for us to blindly trip over and lose our wallets in the process.
So don’t feel bad guys when you feel yourself strangely compelled to buy a second chainsaw just because you see a 2-page spread of Megan Fox holding one – it’s a universal power beyond our control and advertisers both know it, and exploit it.
Of course you could argue I’ve done exactly the same thing with this blog post (in a weird ‘reverse psychology’ kind of way). Maybe I have. Maybe I haven’t. But now that I have you under this strange, hypnotic marketing spell, I will say you need this amazing product for the low, low price of your dignity. I’m joking of course. We’re above that kind of nonsense. Not above being fooled by a pretty girl but definitely advanced beyond shuffling every square inch of our polished floors in our $10 dusting slippers. It’s a cruel, cruel world.