“Education also involves getting people’s attention. But so does electroshock therapy. No one makes a living saying nonsense like ‘Marketing, at it’s core, is electroshock therapy.'”
(via doc)
One Reply to “Howling!”
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A weblog by Christopher Carfi, since 2004.
I love the quote… it’s pretty. But I think Scott may be getting a wee bit reductionist. Marketing is like any other discipline… there are many approaches and they don’t all boil down to the same thing in the end.
I mean, hey, most of the formal education I was subjected to utterly failed to get my attention… sort of why I dropped out of college and went for a gonzo, exciting education in the real world. There were days in class when I might have prefered electroshock just to spice things up.
For that matter, unfiltered truth can be a gnarly beast with gnashing teeth and scathing claws… the uncritical mind just kind of goes into shock when cornered by it. Is that any kinder than education, torture or advertising? Those who would shoot at the messenger, or decry that marketing is some unfair attempt at mind control are missing the point entirely.
Scott says “I just don’t think marketing is the problem. I’m not sure what exactly the problem is, but I think marketing is just a symptom.” I can tell him what the problem is— It’s people who want easy answers, don’t do their own research, fail to evaluate the data and then blame someone else for pointing them down a road that didn’t satisfy. I’m interested in solutions, not problems. I’m even less interested in people who think there might be a problem but aren’t sure what it is.
It’s still a pretty quote, mind you. It’s just that blame-shifting for decisions made without educating yourself as to all the available options is not the kind of failing that can be laid at the feet of anyone but the consumer themselves.
/end rant/