Required qualities for job in Marketing - ability to bend and stretch truth
Having spent long minutes typing this, and getting angrier and angrier as I did, I feel I should alert you to the fact that this post contains ranting...

To quote the awesome Bill Hicks,

"By the way, if anyone here is in advertising or marketing, kill yourself. No, this is not a joke: kill yourself . . . I know what the marketing people are thinking now too: 'Oh. He's going for that anti-marketing dollar. That's a good market.' Oh man, I am not doing that, you fucking evil scumbags."

Am I going to get sued for saying that marketing is an industry laced with spin, which is a euphemism for lying? It sucks people in, makes people think that their life won't be complete without that next acquisition, that new thing, the latest whatever. Happiness is not achieved by buying ever more stuff - but still the ad men preach their gospel of inadequacy, and they gain converts every day. My Dad, god love him, a clever educated man, went out and bought a Carol Vorderman 28 day detox... because the adverts told him to. Think about that - people are buying stuff because a box in the corner of their room tells then they have to have this gizmo/gadget/bag/dress/moisturiser/whatever the fuck they are selling because without it, they'll be ugly, ill and miserable for the rest of their lives.

Seriously, who does marketing work for? Who decided that Carol Vorderman knew more about detoxing than our liver and kidneys, which have evolved pretty well to do the job? Marketing is not there to not to make yours or my life better, but to sell their stuff. '84% of women polled reported bloating' according to one poncey yoghurt company. Did they? And how many did they ask, and where were they, and how representative were they? If they asked outside McDonalds, no wonder. I bet they didn't ask at a gym or a green grocers shop. There's a name for the way the persuade you to - it's called (If I remember correctly) survival anxiety. The concept goes such... introduce a problem to the victim/consumer. Get them all worried about their life with said problem. Then tell them you can fix it with your product. Tactics are developed and taught to 'persuade' us to believe companies over doctors. It's obscene.

Before I get any marketing types out there respond and tell me they are nice people - I'm sure you are. And I know that companies tend to get found out and rapped across the knuckles gently if they out and out lie - but how many of them bend the truth so far it's nearly snapping?

Turn on, tune in, drop out....
( ancrenne doesn't eat anything that can play video games, Wed 5 Dec 2007, 13:53, closed)

I used to work in ad sales
We would say practically anything the client wanted to hear, regardless of truth, to get them to spend money with us.

I no longer work in ad sales, thank god. Money good, morals bad.
(The Empress it seems you CAN polish a turd!, Wed 5 Dec 2007, 13:55, closed)

BobFossil
exactly...
( ancrenne doesn't eat anything that can play video games, Wed 5 Dec 2007, 13:57, closed)

Marketing works for me...
I'm employed in the sector!
(kintore_homeboy tenuous links since 1986!, Wed 5 Dec 2007, 14:02, closed)

Ancrenne
You sound a little riled today!

But I quite agree with you. The one that annoys me most is companies phoning me about upgrading my mobile phone.

"Yes sir, we'll give you a phone with x, y and z features, blah, blah, all for £20 a month", etc etc.

I want a mobile which gets a good signal, has decent battery life and clear call quality. I don't give a shit about whether it has a camera, radio, photon torpedo launcher or a deep fat fryer built in (although I dare say I could find a use for the photon torpedo launcher from time to time). But I've yet to find a phone which is as good at making calls as my sadly missed Nokia 6310i.
( K2k6 is having Christmas issues, Wed 5 Dec 2007, 14:04, closed)

I'll do anything to make more money
Vivisection, arms dealing, PR for oil companies. I've been idealistic and I almost ended up on the street.
(frankspencer, Wed 5 Dec 2007, 14:04, closed)

Hello!
I think someone needs to buy a huggy lavender pillow for those times when your stressed and angry. Only £10 and its advertised by Carol Vorderman and she should know - right!
( big-girl's-baubles fixed her cat flap, Wed 5 Dec 2007, 14:12, closed)

Haha
I'm immune. I'm 31, yet can fit everything I own into a backpack.

The only thing I think will make my life better is 2 kilos of finest buds, and no advert ever told me that.
( Edenmonster, Wed 5 Dec 2007, 15:48, closed)

.
I'm in Marketing, and as long as people are going to spend their money cos I tell them to, who am I to argue?! I've sold my soul, reaping the rewards.
(drain_bamaged, Wed 5 Dec 2007, 15:49, closed)

Marketing bollocks
God love it! Or not, as the case might well be. Sometimes I'm immune, sometimes I'm not. But you have to wonder with coming up to Christmas the only things I want are a laptop (to replace the ailing desktop) and a holiday to somewhere as far away as possible.
( jingle_bob, jingle_bob, jingle all the way... is a waterproof rapist. Apparently., Wed 5 Dec 2007, 19:39, closed)