The insidious effects of advertising’s fundamental practice of mendacity
Someone else wrote a blog post far better than 99% of the crap I sling up here.
Interesting how it chimes with the ‘unintended consequences’ angle of yesterday’s post.
Also, about six months ago I wrote a post that touched on some of those ‘pretending not to be an arsehole’ points. The Foster Wallace quote seems particularly apposite:
“An ad that pretends to be art is – at absolute best – like somebody who smiles warmly at you only because he wants something from you.
“This is dishonest,” he goes on, “but what’s sinister is the cumulative effect that such dishonesty has on us: since it offers a perfect facsimile or simulacrum of goodwill without goodwill’s real spirit, it messes with our heads and eventually starts upping our defences even in cases of genuine smiles and real art and true goodwill. It makes us feel confused and lonely and impotent and angry and scared. It causes despair.”
That is pretty depressing, but for me it’s the last paragraph that really twists the knife into our collective souls:
Perhaps capitalism that makes no attempt to conceal its intentions is the best we can hope for because at least in that climate the distinction between life and advertising can be felt. It’s not ideal, but when the alternative is a form of marketing masquerading as a piece of hand-painted earthenware on the bric-a-brac stall of a local fête, it’s got to be an improvement.
Well, I hate being lied to as I find it pushes my buttons in all the wrong places, so I’d prefer the lack of subterfuge, but if it’s the ‘best we can hope for’ I might just go and find a scalpel, a bottle of Hendricks and a warm bath (semi colon, hyphen, close parentheses).
Fantastic article, though pretty depressing for those of us who chow down on Satan’s fiery appendage for a living. I’m nearly there, I just need the courage to make that final push and leave that nice salary and free bar behind.
I can’t subscribe to the misery in the article. It’s resigned to everyone being pushed to the psychopathic inability to accept genuine empathy by advertising’s ‘hidden’ capitalist motives.
People aren’t that stupid, they know they’re being sold to. And there’s a million reasons to feel shit about everything every day. Advertising is one of the more known, commonly understood and inert.
Those who don’t know they’re being sold to don’t care and have no cynicism as a result of it. Those who do have known for a long time who’s after something and who isn’t. It’s fairly easy to tell: people who want something generally ask for money.
I agree that there is a complete lack of political inertia at the moment, but I don’t agree that it’s advertising that has paralysed us. The various other things cited in the article like lack of social mobility, population growth, financial fuckdom etc. have a much more pernicious effect on our ability to give a shit about anything other than short-term, self-distracting pleasure than the easily identifiable act of being sold something.
Advertising might cater to that need to be distracted by shiny things or expensive coffee, but I disagree that it’s anything other than symptomatic. And the method in which people are marketed to is bound to reflect the climate; everyone’s hard-up and feeling like shit, so how about being a bit warm and friendly and recognising that at the moment most people don’t give a shit about dominating the world with new trainers or shaving with titanium.
I’m not an apologist. I don’t even work in advertising. I just don’t think people are so easily manipulated. If they were everyone in advertising would be filthy fucking rich. (And I don’t think you are, are you?)
You mean to tell me that most advertising out there is dishonest? Blimey.
It’s a great article, I do wonder if we give advertising a bit too much credit sometimes though – is it not a reflection of life?
Whilst capitalism exists (until there is a credible alternative), I see it a bit like stealth taxes. It’s all about perception. I don’t really mind paying more tax if I don’t notice. In the mean time I’d rather be killed in my sleep by a falling Ikea bed than smacked repeatedly around the head by a morbidly obese opera singer.
*momentum not inertia – para 3
so the best way is the american way? sales message at the beginning without any of the lateral genius that we (London) have been so good at perfecting in the last 60 years. All those black pencils of the past (surfers, gorilla, double life) are doing precisely what Mr Foster hates. Annoyingly he does have a point (sigh…)
That lateral genius left town a long time ago.
I don’t understand much of what he’s on about. I wish he’d written it more clearly.
Ben, are you saying everyone still in London advertising is shit?
No. I’m saying that London’s advertising scene hasn’t produced an ad like Gorilla, Double Life or Surfer for over six years.
That doesn’t mean London’s advertising creatives are shit; it means the standard seems to have dropped on a long-term basis.
But I also think that drop is not confined to London.
I tend to agree with Ed.
I think people – punters – in general know that advertising is trying to sell to them.
I think advertising people would be a lot happier (and make better work) if they themselves accepted this – wait not just accept it, but realise and celebrate that that is the business they’re in.
A large part of the mess that the ad business finds itself in is rooted in the denial that we are in the business of selling things to people. Once you accept that – and then seek to find honest, truthful and interesting ways to get people to consider your client’s products, the business, and life seems a lot better, and your work will become better.
To the last point about talent. I think there’s still a pool of very talented people in London, but they’re largely crushed and frustrated within poor and counter-productive agency systems and processes.
I prefer selling to be clear.
Ads in ad breaks are fine, but manipulation that you’re not supposed to notice is a bit shitty.
Then again, product placement has been around for years and who knows what that’s sold us?
I’m with you on that Ben.
Weirdly, to me product placement somehow feels more acceptable than so-called ‘native advertising’ the latter I find disingenuous.
Yes, it’s the disingenuousness that annoys/reduces trust.
“And now for a message from our sponsors…” There’s definitely something less sneaky about the old ways of here comes an ad that’s going to sell you something v. chat shows all about plugging stuff
Disingenuity?
The David Foster Wallace quotes are devastating.
If all you have to bitch about is something written on a chalkboard you’re a fucking nob jockey.