I Wonder If There's a Market for Telemarketer Stew..
First, let's kill all the marketing professionals....
Doesn't have the same ring as Shakespeare's comment about the legal profession, but one wonders how he'd feel about the constant flood of stuff trying to sell him things today. From the relatively innocuous study of how to place merchandise advantageously on store shelves to the sinister, but unproven, practice of placing products subliminally, these guys are everywhere in our lives. Like Tom Cruise in Minority Report, we will soon be submersed in targeted ads that will follow us wherever we go, through our cell phones, our computers, our cars.
I don't think I'm alone when I think they have gone way too far.
Even now, there are marketing flyers in with my credit card bills and every business I have a relationship with thinks they have a right to fill my email with spam.
I don't like spam.
I am sure there are folks out there that are so lonely that any semblance of human contact is welcome, even if that contact is only a spammer or a telemarketer. I am not one of those people. I have specific sources I go to when looking for information on sales or just browsing for bargains. They do not have to seek me out to target me; I will find them. (The Sunday paper is one source; I find it relaxing browsing the thick stack of ads that come with it.) I understand that there are valid relationships between media and marketers--such as those between radio programmers and the folks that buy and sell the commercials, and the television stations that need to sell ads to provide content. There are also websites that have ads that I must view in order to use content. I understand this relationship; it's relatively straightforward--you want content, you get ads.
Where I rebel is when they get sneaky and obnoxious, or where I am paying for a service and they continue to market to me.
Is it really going to break a movie theater to not show paid ads before a screening of a film I went out to see? Is it really necessary to bend art to position product within that film? Would Bond really drive a BMW?
Is it really necessary to pelt my computer with spyware that tracks my surfing preferences so it can rat me off to a supplier of pop-up ads? Or plant a beautiful woman in a bar to spread buzz about some lame product?
Is it necessary for every company I do business with to have a 10-page privacy policy with tons of fine print informing me that unless I take certain steps to "opt-out" they will "share" my personal infomation with whoever they can sell it to?
Marketing, in short, has gone from being merely crass and intrusive to downright rude and intrusive.
This is a profession that, at best, feeds off of gentle misrepresentation of product, to, at worst, complete thievery and fraud. This is a profession that needs to police itself in its ethics and methods in the worst way, before others do it for them. The national "no call" list is only a beginning to what needs be done.
Laws are needed holding companies responsible for the content of their ads. If a company wants to advertise a product, that ad should contain statements about the product that are demonstrably true, without disclaimers in tiny print that anyone without training in speed reading will not be able to read as they scroll by. If a product is being advertised to brighten and whiten teeth, we should not need to read tiny print to find "side effects may include syphilis, flatulence and green tongue."
Speaking of side effects, we should not be inundated with ads for drugs that we cannot go down to the store and buy. If your doctor, as your health advisor, does not recommend a prescription drug, companies should not market to us to pressure them to prescribe it.
Laws need to be amended to cast real penalties on virus and spyware writers. Spammers need to be bankrupted rather than slapped on the wrist with small fines. Perhaps the idea of spending 10 years in a prison cell with a bodybuilder with an appetite for forced anal sex will deter some. Perhaps the reality will change others.
Perhaps businesspeople of good will will realize that the best way to market a product is to find a true need, and design effective, fairly-priced honest solutions for those needs. Perhaps.
About that time, I fear, Satan will be fielding a Major-League Hockey team because hell will have frozen over. Until then, the rude rip-off will continue unabated.
Doesn't have the same ring as Shakespeare's comment about the legal profession, but one wonders how he'd feel about the constant flood of stuff trying to sell him things today. From the relatively innocuous study of how to place merchandise advantageously on store shelves to the sinister, but unproven, practice of placing products subliminally, these guys are everywhere in our lives. Like Tom Cruise in Minority Report, we will soon be submersed in targeted ads that will follow us wherever we go, through our cell phones, our computers, our cars.
I don't think I'm alone when I think they have gone way too far.
Even now, there are marketing flyers in with my credit card bills and every business I have a relationship with thinks they have a right to fill my email with spam.
I don't like spam.
I am sure there are folks out there that are so lonely that any semblance of human contact is welcome, even if that contact is only a spammer or a telemarketer. I am not one of those people. I have specific sources I go to when looking for information on sales or just browsing for bargains. They do not have to seek me out to target me; I will find them. (The Sunday paper is one source; I find it relaxing browsing the thick stack of ads that come with it.) I understand that there are valid relationships between media and marketers--such as those between radio programmers and the folks that buy and sell the commercials, and the television stations that need to sell ads to provide content. There are also websites that have ads that I must view in order to use content. I understand this relationship; it's relatively straightforward--you want content, you get ads.
Where I rebel is when they get sneaky and obnoxious, or where I am paying for a service and they continue to market to me.
Is it really going to break a movie theater to not show paid ads before a screening of a film I went out to see? Is it really necessary to bend art to position product within that film? Would Bond really drive a BMW?
Is it really necessary to pelt my computer with spyware that tracks my surfing preferences so it can rat me off to a supplier of pop-up ads? Or plant a beautiful woman in a bar to spread buzz about some lame product?
Is it necessary for every company I do business with to have a 10-page privacy policy with tons of fine print informing me that unless I take certain steps to "opt-out" they will "share" my personal infomation with whoever they can sell it to?
Marketing, in short, has gone from being merely crass and intrusive to downright rude and intrusive.
This is a profession that, at best, feeds off of gentle misrepresentation of product, to, at worst, complete thievery and fraud. This is a profession that needs to police itself in its ethics and methods in the worst way, before others do it for them. The national "no call" list is only a beginning to what needs be done.
Laws are needed holding companies responsible for the content of their ads. If a company wants to advertise a product, that ad should contain statements about the product that are demonstrably true, without disclaimers in tiny print that anyone without training in speed reading will not be able to read as they scroll by. If a product is being advertised to brighten and whiten teeth, we should not need to read tiny print to find "side effects may include syphilis, flatulence and green tongue."
Speaking of side effects, we should not be inundated with ads for drugs that we cannot go down to the store and buy. If your doctor, as your health advisor, does not recommend a prescription drug, companies should not market to us to pressure them to prescribe it.
Laws need to be amended to cast real penalties on virus and spyware writers. Spammers need to be bankrupted rather than slapped on the wrist with small fines. Perhaps the idea of spending 10 years in a prison cell with a bodybuilder with an appetite for forced anal sex will deter some. Perhaps the reality will change others.
Perhaps businesspeople of good will will realize that the best way to market a product is to find a true need, and design effective, fairly-priced honest solutions for those needs. Perhaps.
About that time, I fear, Satan will be fielding a Major-League Hockey team because hell will have frozen over. Until then, the rude rip-off will continue unabated.
posted by Drunkenrantz at 10:34 PM
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