Everywhere you go in America people are grotesquely fat and grotesquely tattooed. They wear grotesque clothing that more often than not reveals some grotesque nether region of their body that you wish you hadn't seen.
But all over adville, people are thin, beautiful and well-dressed. They are adorned with megawatt smiles that helped fuel the wealth and well-being of thousands of orthodontists and botox provisioners.
All over the world, oil companies have fouled the air, land and sea. They have anointed tyrants to lead millions for billions of profits for the few.
Yet all over adville, oil companies are building greener futures. They are supporting the arts and education. They are helping shrimp fishermen and electrifying backwards third-world communities.
There are days when I see something so heinous, so embarrassingly bad (like the Sheraton shit above, or a Shell ad I saw in today's "New York Times") that I am ashamed to be in the business.
There are days when I feel like throwing bricks.
5 comments:
happy to read that you do get upset sometimes! many more people who are responsible for these shenanigans should. they would do the client, societies and themselves a favor. this might sound naive. but its actually quite the opposite. but then, reality isnt exactly what sells. especially if reality is ugly.
ps unlucky wording there. i wasnt blaming you personally for this kind of work.
MARKETING RIGOR MORTIS
There are people who are perfect.
They have perfect hair and beautiful bodies. Their clothes fit nicely and look brand new. They always smile with their perfect teeth, looking into laptop screens, their mugs of coffee steaming. They shake hands. Like a golden retriever they are full of joy, vitality and grace. Their habitats are the spacious, sun-lit, modern offices, where the time has stopped at 11:15 AM. One of them is ALWAYS black.
You never, ever meet these people, but you see them every day. You see them on billboards, buses, magazines and newspapers, on posters and on city-lights, but mostly - on corporate websites.
They smile at you from flyers, leaflets, brochures, annual reports, and all kinds of corporate literature the business calls "Direct Marketing".
You call it "spam".
These people don't exist in real life. They live in fictional places known as Image Banks, where they offer their perfect skin, perfect teeth and nice complexion, but most importantly - they offer a "model release".
I have a special name for them.
I call them Marketing Rigor Mortis.
The people in this business who I respect the most are the most disturbed by what our industry does sometimes. Way more disturbed than most other people I know.
I'll throw bricks with you.
Thing is, I'd rather see a beautiful, perfectly curved woman in an advertisement than an ugly and sweaty woman. I know what I see everyday and most of the time, I don't like it. Advertisements offer a visual escape. They're like abbreviated movies. They allow people to see something different and get away from reality.
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