The "Toy-i-zation" of everything.

Everything today is a toy, especially in marketing.

We no longer do the hard work of discerning what makes our product or service special, unique and different. We no longer synthesize that difference down to a set of compelling words and images. We claim, instead, that we are post marketing, that none of that matters anymore.

Instead we cavort in the fields of the mindless.

We create decks and use social media. We spend our time on things no one will see. We come up with phony data that proves little more than the malleability of statistics.

There is no accountability.

Three years ago we were all galloping headlong toward the idea of getting Facebook likes. Groupon was going to be the new new thing. And getting your client a Pinterest page was all the rage.

Does anyone have a successful case study they can share? Can anyone show me long-term-value created? Or short-term-value? Or one red cent earned?

Even the mother-fucking healthcare roll out in the United States.

What if there were a single sheet of paper you could tear off a pad in the Post Office. Three or four fields of information beyond your name, address and social.

I make this much...fill in the blank.

I want to pay this much on healthcare....fill in the blank.

Is it really that hard?

To create a form and fill it out?

But the dilettantes got ahold of it and made it complicated.

New York's site is down this morning. When you go there it says: "We apologize for the inconvenience. The Marketplace is currently undergoing regularly scheduled maintenance. It is scheduled to be available at 8am EST."

The site doesn't work but the mechanism to like it on Facebook, or follow it on Twitter or connect with it on Google+ is operational.
Toys trump tools.
Fun trumps functionality.

Marketers should grow up.
Not dumb down.