3 ms·

Is marketing evil?

11 points by bdfh42 18y ago

mdasen 18y ago
Great article, but the problem that I have with marketing is that it can blur what would otherwise be a more logical situation. It isn't that marketing can be used for good or evil, but that marketing makes it hard to distinguish between the two. Good marketing of a good product will often look the same as good marketing of a bad product. Take Enzyte as an example. Their ads are slick and have the polish and convincing ability of ads for good products. Yet, they're selling nothing real. In fact, the company's owner was convicted of 93 counts of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering connected to Enzyte. And this is a $500M company! It's not like they had small sales to a few gullible individuals. People saw the ads, they were professional, had the same look/feel as legit ads and bought into it based on the image. Marketing obscures our ability to differentiate between good and bad. It's not that people are convincing us to do bad things, it's that they're impairing our ability to figure out what is good and bad. That's what makes marketing evil. Whether we end up making a good decision or not becomes more random than without marketing because we are less able to differentiate. Conning people into doing something good is still conning them into doing it. Wouldn't it be better for people to make decisions based off of evidence than marketing?
- josefresco 18y ago
  Nothing evil about Enzyte that I can see. Unless they weren't sending people their weener pills or processing refunds. The real evil is when marketing is done without our direct knowledge. Product placement, marketing to kids/toddlers, preferential media treatment, sponsored 'research' etc.
thras 18y ago
The Devil speaking in the 1967 film Bedazzled: "There was a time when I used to get lots of ideas... I thought up the Seven Deadly Sins in one afternoon. The only thing I've come up with recently is advertising."
10ren 18y ago
He means "advertising". If we define marketing as doing something that people want, it's harder for it to be evil.

11 points by bdfh42 18y ago

Great article, but the problem that I have with marketing is that it can blur what would otherwise be a more logical situation. It isn't that marketing can be used for good or evil, but that marketing makes it hard to distinguish between the two. Good marketing of a good product will often look the same as good marketing of a bad product. Take Enzyte as an example. Their ads are slick and have the polish and convincing ability of ads for good products. Yet, they're selling nothing real. In fact, the company's owner was convicted of 93 counts of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering connected to Enzyte. And this is a $500M company! It's not like they had small sales to a few gullible individuals. People saw the ads, they were professional, had the same look/feel as legit ads and bought into it based on the image. Marketing obscures our ability to differentiate between good and bad. It's not that people are convincing us to do bad things, it's that they're impairing our ability to figure out what is good and bad. That's what makes marketing evil. Whether we end up making a good decision or not becomes more random than without marketing because we are less able to differentiate. Conning people into doing something good is still conning them into doing it. Wouldn't it be better for people to make decisions based off of evidence than marketing?

josefresco 18y ago
Nothing evil about Enzyte that I can see. Unless they weren't sending people their weener pills or processing refunds. The real evil is when marketing is done without our direct knowledge. Product placement, marketing to kids/toddlers, preferential media treatment, sponsored 'research' etc.

thras 18y ago

The Devil speaking in the 1967 film Bedazzled: "There was a time when I used to get lots of ideas... I thought up the Seven Deadly Sins in one afternoon. The only thing I've come up with recently is advertising."

10ren 18y ago

He means "advertising". If we define marketing as doing something that people want, it's harder for it to be evil.