Marketing Dilemma For anyone paying attention, it is extremely obvious that marketing pervades American society and it also has a heavy bearing on what people buy, why they buy them and even who they vote for. Whether it be cars, watches, clothes or other things, people are very much influenced or perhaps even coerced by the marketing that they are exposed to. Then there is the motley crew of celebrities that hock the wares in question, with some of them being of questionable moral character. At the same time, there is such a thing as self-responsibility, self-restraint and self-accountability. While advertising can make a product alluring and attractive, the responsibility to shop and buy wisely ultimately falls on the consumer and not the marketer.

Marketing's Influence on Society

There is a reason why people gravitate to brand names like Cadillac, Gucci and Coach. Not only are the products shown to be attractive and flashy, they are also seen and portrayed as status symbols. Beyond that, there are the dynamics of peer pressure, envy and the general concept of "keeping up with the Joneses." Whether it be the bigger house, the nicer car and so forth, there are entirely too many people that are spending money they do not have to give off the appearance of wealth, status and popularity. Indeed, the author of this report has personally seen a Cadillac Escalade (albeit an older one) that had a vanity plate that said "ENVY ME." While marketing is indeed a tad unethical and push at times, the bigger problem that exists are the societal trends that are leading to this glomming onto marketing and some of the people that are the face of these advertising campaigns.

The author of this report is personally a bit put off by the fact that people like Miley Cyrus and the Kardashians are some of the more prominent faces of our generation. When the author of this report casts aspersions about moral character, the author is not saying that lightly. The author means precisely that. Let us look at the Kardashians as an example. Kim got famous due to a sex tape (not unlike Paris Hilton, another figure in the marketing sphere) and is married to a rampant narcissist with no manners, that being Kanye West. Kourtney has had two kids with a man she has never married. Beyond that, the man in question (Scott Disick) continues to go party, get drunk a lot and otherwise act like a cad despite his status as a father. Then there is Khloe and her horrible taste in men, which has included a crack addict and a man with an affinity for randomly toting assault weapons in Instagram pictures. Kris Jenner, the mother of those three (not to mention Kendall and Kylie) is worse than all of them and actually celebrates her depravity in addition to her wealth. While all of this idiocy and behavior that is less than preferential when it comes to people that are supposedly role models is bad enough, the fact that they are the face of many advertising campaigns is extremely concerning. Whether it be their own products or those of others, there are entirely too many people in this country that actively adore and froth at the mouth over these people and it is rather concerning to say the least.

This is what leads the author of this report to suggest that society is the underlying issue when it comes to people buying things based on impulse and what others will think of them rather than the utility of the item, whether it can be afforded in the first place and whether the person buying the product is doing so because what they think of it rather than what their friends might or will think of the same. While marketers take active advantage of this condition, they did not create it. As such, fixing the "problem" of advertisers doing what they do is making it pointless for advertisers to do it in the first place. To be fair, not all advertisers use these shoddy spokespeople or methods. Indeed, some focus on important and noble things like safety, durability and improving people's lives. As for those that are more devious and unethical, outlawing what they do will not really solve the problem at hand. Thus, any sabre rattling about doing such a thing should be eliminated.

That being said, there are some advertisers that cross the line and they should absolutely be dealt with....

Any company that makes a misleading (or outright false) claim should be called out on it. This should go double for anything that could impact the health and safety of the person or people involved. Even so, some of the nanny state people of the United States and other countries would go entirely too far when it comes to "protecting" the public. The public, instead of doing that, needs to be made to wise up and understand that they are responsible for their own life and certain decisions should be made for certain reasons. Similarly, certain decisions should not be made for certain reasons. One of the main activities that this all pertains to, of course, is the buying of merchandise. Marketing can indeed be informative and worth reviewing. However, advertising is always positioned in favor of the company and the product it sells. Any negatives about a product or service will either be glossed over, put in fine print or not mentioned at all. For example, an auction/resale company hocking refurbished items will center on how much cheaper they are than a normal new item. However, the reason they are cheaper is because they took the presumably good parts from bad units and made a lesser amount of good ones with what was left over. As such, the item is technically used and is cheaper for a reason. A consumer, whether the seller states that or not, has to know that and keep that in mind. Indeed, it may make a lot more sense to spend a bit more and get a brand new item with a full warranty.
Even with the assertions made by the author of this report, there should be at least some consideration about the alternative perspectives. One major person that offers such a perspective is a man by the name of Stuart Ewen. One of the major observations Ewen gives is that the consumers of society have often been in the "driver's seat" in many ways. For example, some firms in the early 20th century were doing some rather nasty and "unscrupulous" things and the people of that day were less than happy about it. Even so, public relations and advertising firms have always exerted some amount of "spin" and manipulation to their advertising. Indeed, the ads that tout Cadillacs as a status symbol always gloss over the fact that the gas mileage of their SUV's are quite low and the demand for their product inflates the price as compared to competing brands like Infiniti and Lincoln, just to name two (Insite, 2015).

Ewen also makes mention of the fact that the old days of advertising and other discourse having to be in person is gone. So often, a lot of marketing and public relations is done online and via digital means. As stated by Ewen himself, he says "the town square has changed, is no longer a distinct physical space, and anyone interested in progressive political change can't ignore this fact" (Bailes, 2015). Ewen's mention of politics is no accident because he clearly notes that the pandering and "marketing" by politicians has reached a fever pitch over the years. He himself is quite disturbed about some of the messages that are conveyed as part of these messages and he asserts that the only way to deal with that is a counteroffensive that counteracts and nullifies the misinformation and manipulation that is occurring. Actually, Ewen is much closer to the author of this report in many ways in that he says that denouncing and squelching the medium in general is not the solution. Rather, he says that the correct information needs to be put out there and the people of this country need to seek it out. When going through conventional media, it is hard to figure that out at times because even they are involved with the game of picking winners and who to listen to, at least a lot of the time (Bailes, 2015).

Final Analysis

In the end, the people of this country are being wielded like pawns. They are being coerced into being consumer slaves. The jealousy, envy and greed that consumers feel and see is being used against them by many of the people that market to them. Beyond that, much the same thing is happening in the political sphere. One would hope that demagoguery and cherry-picking of information would be the exceptions. However, they are actually the normal coin of the realm a lot of the time. Many people deride cable networks as being cesspools of entertainment…