4 ms·

I know its just a joke, but Bill Hicks also constantly marketed himself and branded himself as an anti-marketing comedian. In his mind it was okay to promote yo

by cm2012 4mo ago

I know its just a joke, but Bill Hicks also constantly marketed himself and branded himself as an anti-marketing comedian. In his mind it was okay to promote yourself as a comedian but not promote your own business.

bandofthehawk 4mo ago
I don't think this is true, do you have a source for this? What does it even mean that he constantly marketed himself, is doing lots of shows considered "marketing yourself"?
- cm2012 4mo ago
  Comedy is about putting butts in seats. No comedian can be successful without promoting themselves to get attendees at their shows, and Bill Hicks was no exception. Bill Hicks clearly did the normal career-promotion work of a comedian: he auditioned, performed constantly, toured, did TV spots, recorded specials/albums, cultivated UK audiences, and made repeated appearances on shows like Letterman. He opened for Jay Leno, appeared on Late Night with David Letterman, recorded an HBO special, played Just for Laughs, etc. And for context he worked really hard to get those comedy specials recorded. Those specials are basically a business product, right? It's a way for him to scale his own comedy time and make more money. He partnered with big corporations to do it and they promoted those comedy specials with marketing. All of that is part of a pretty standard self promotion/touring package of building a comedy career.
  - margalabargala 4mo ago
    That's performing, not marketing. The analogy would be if whatever company releases a product that people see out in the wild and it's so good at what it does that they want more of it based on word of mouth.
    - cm2012 4mo ago
      Performing is just showing up at comedy shows and doing your bit. That alone would not have made him successful. He aggressively promoted and marketed himself! Biggest example: Going on Letterman and other corporate talk shows / interviews (he went on Letterman 12 times to promote himself, not making much money, purely for driving awareness - classic pr marketing technique that he used repeatedly) He also went far beyond live acts when he started monetizing his recorded acts that were playing/distributing through corporate partners. Those recordings and specials were heavily marketed and he benefited from it because it created scale.
red-iron-pine 4mo ago
he's a comedian; his entire job is standing up in front of people and saying shit and having a message. thats... the point. it's not nameless widgets or whitelabel switches where you can just ignore it.
- cm2012 4mo ago
  I promised you every single individual business could say the same thing. No product has any value if people don't know about it.
- newaccountman2 4mo ago
  > having a message I don't think most comedians really have any cogent "message", nor do I think that's part of the job
  - picofarad 4mo ago
    Yes, people who have worked with Paul Feig are not comedians, that's possibly where you're having contextual issues.
  - Forgeties79 4mo ago
    Then I don’t think you really understand comedy to be honest. That’s a very reductive view of comedy, essentially “just a joke with no relevant context or layers allowed,” which rubs against the entire history of the art form. No working comic would agree with you. Put another way: Not everyone is looking to do revolutionary commentary, but good luck finding a comic with no commentary at all.
gaiagraphia 4mo ago
There's a different between 'promotion' and 'bait and switch'. There's also the matter of the externalities of the products you're promoting. If Hicks marketed his shows as life-changing experiences which'll give you a bigger dick, then just ran normal stand-up, it'd be right to criticise him. Just as it's right to criticise companies who claim to sell 'food', show ads of nice happy, healthy families, and throw buzzwords around to manipulate customers at the detriment of their own health and lives. The hijacking of language by megacorps is sad. Words have meaning, backed by history, tradition, and culture, and shouldn't be used as marketing tools to get consumers addicted to slop.
- cm2012 4mo ago
  I didn't recall Hicks saying that people who do bait-and-switch tactics (which i also agree are bad) should kill themselves. I recall him saying all marketers and advertisers should kill themselves.
  - rayiner 4mo ago
    Most marketing these days is that kind of pernicious Mad Men style feelings-based marketing. If ads were informational, like “here is a new product you might like from the makers of this other product you already use,” that would be different.
    - deleted 4mo ago
      [deleted]
- thesmtsolver2 4mo ago
  You are doing a bait and switch now comparing all ads to bait and switch.
thinkingtoilet 4mo ago
He didn't take out ads or anything. He lived his life the way he wanted to and spoke his mind. That's not 'marketing'.
- cm2012 4mo ago
  If you think buying ads is the only form of marketing, sure but advertising is probably 10% of marketing. See my other comments to see why he was a natural marketer and used some key tactics that he specifically chose for promoting himself.
- Forgeties79 4mo ago
  I respect the hell out of Bill Hicks but the dude absolutely sat around thinking about marketing and getting his name out there. You have to if you want to be a working comic. Hell it’s not like he didn’t have an agent.

by cm2012 4mo ago

bandofthehawk 4mo ago

I don't think this is true, do you have a source for this? What does it even mean that he constantly marketed himself, is doing lots of shows considered "marketing yourself"?

cm2012 4mo ago
Comedy is about putting butts in seats. No comedian can be successful without promoting themselves to get attendees at their shows, and Bill Hicks was no exception. Bill Hicks clearly did the normal career-promotion work of a comedian: he auditioned, performed constantly, toured, did TV spots, recorded specials/albums, cultivated UK audiences, and made repeated appearances on shows like Letterman. He opened for Jay Leno, appeared on Late Night with David Letterman, recorded an HBO special, played Just for Laughs, etc. And for context he worked really hard to get those comedy specials recorded. Those specials are basically a business product, right? It's a way for him to scale his own comedy time and make more money. He partnered with big corporations to do it and they promoted those comedy specials with marketing. All of that is part of a pretty standard self promotion/touring package of building a comedy career.
- margalabargala 4mo ago
  That's performing, not marketing. The analogy would be if whatever company releases a product that people see out in the wild and it's so good at what it does that they want more of it based on word of mouth.
  - cm2012 4mo ago
    Performing is just showing up at comedy shows and doing your bit. That alone would not have made him successful. He aggressively promoted and marketed himself! Biggest example: Going on Letterman and other corporate talk shows / interviews (he went on Letterman 12 times to promote himself, not making much money, purely for driving awareness - classic pr marketing technique that he used repeatedly) He also went far beyond live acts when he started monetizing his recorded acts that were playing/distributing through corporate partners. Those recordings and specials were heavily marketed and he benefited from it because it created scale.

red-iron-pine 4mo ago

he's a comedian; his entire job is standing up in front of people and saying shit and having a message. thats... the point. it's not nameless widgets or whitelabel switches where you can just ignore it.

cm2012 4mo ago
I promised you every single individual business could say the same thing. No product has any value if people don't know about it.
newaccountman2 4mo ago
> having a message I don't think most comedians really have any cogent "message", nor do I think that's part of the job
- picofarad 4mo ago
  Yes, people who have worked with Paul Feig are not comedians, that's possibly where you're having contextual issues.
- Forgeties79 4mo ago
  Then I don’t think you really understand comedy to be honest. That’s a very reductive view of comedy, essentially “just a joke with no relevant context or layers allowed,” which rubs against the entire history of the art form. No working comic would agree with you. Put another way: Not everyone is looking to do revolutionary commentary, but good luck finding a comic with no commentary at all.

gaiagraphia 4mo ago

There's a different between 'promotion' and 'bait and switch'. There's also the matter of the externalities of the products you're promoting. If Hicks marketed his shows as life-changing experiences which'll give you a bigger dick, then just ran normal stand-up, it'd be right to criticise him. Just as it's right to criticise companies who claim to sell 'food', show ads of nice happy, healthy families, and throw buzzwords around to manipulate customers at the detriment of their own health and lives. The hijacking of language by megacorps is sad. Words have meaning, backed by history, tradition, and culture, and shouldn't be used as marketing tools to get consumers addicted to slop.

cm2012 4mo ago
I didn't recall Hicks saying that people who do bait-and-switch tactics (which i also agree are bad) should kill themselves. I recall him saying all marketers and advertisers should kill themselves.
- rayiner 4mo ago
  Most marketing these days is that kind of pernicious Mad Men style feelings-based marketing. If ads were informational, like “here is a new product you might like from the makers of this other product you already use,” that would be different.
  - deleted 4mo ago
    [deleted]
thesmtsolver2 4mo ago
You are doing a bait and switch now comparing all ads to bait and switch.

thinkingtoilet 4mo ago

He didn't take out ads or anything. He lived his life the way he wanted to and spoke his mind. That's not 'marketing'.

cm2012 4mo ago
If you think buying ads is the only form of marketing, sure but advertising is probably 10% of marketing. See my other comments to see why he was a natural marketer and used some key tactics that he specifically chose for promoting himself.
Forgeties79 4mo ago
I respect the hell out of Bill Hicks but the dude absolutely sat around thinking about marketing and getting his name out there. You have to if you want to be a working comic. Hell it’s not like he didn’t have an agent.