Quote:
Originally posted by ellipsys
marketing and advertising has been around since the first man attempted to trade whatever it was he had for something he needed. whats the difference between a commercial on your tv and a mesopotamian farmer shouting his wares out in the marketplace. without marketing/advertising, nobody would trade anything. we'd all be forced into the lives of subsistance farmers and foragers, surviving but never thriving, because we all depend on other people for a service or skill to further our own cause.
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I agree; I go to the local farmer's market a lot, and the inheritors of that Mesopotamian farmer are out there hustling, shouting, and pushing free samples all day. Marketing at its finest.
I see the real issue as this: mass media is a medium for advertising, because it is advertising that pays for the "free" programming. I guess the real question is, wouldn't it be nice to have advertiser-free media. The answer is, yes; but _somebody_ would have to pay for it. In England, every TV owner kicks over a couple of hundred bucks every couple of years (my figures are foggy) to pay for the commercial-free BBC. We'd have to have something like that, or true pay-on-demand broadcasting on a show-by-show basis. And I'm not even covering what would have to happen to remove ads from the print media, etc.
I don't see advertising and marketing as inherently evil, but in our consumer society they're almost the tail that wags the dog now.