[lbo-talk] advertising [was: The postmodern prince]

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

Doug:
> As I wrote you yesterday, at my reading at Bluestockings on Thursday
> night, an MCI product manager who'd heard our interview came up to me
> and said that most marketing sucks and doesn't work. His guess, which
> I suppose was just a guess and not backed up by elaborate research,
> was that 80% of marketing budgets are wasted. He said people are too
> savvy to fall for the bullshit they see in ads. I'm reminded of Harry
> Cleaver's critique of the Frankfurters - the old glomsters thought
> that the masses were far more passive & manipulable than they really
> are. From reading the biz press, it seems that marketers are
> constantly frustrated by how difficult their job is - tastes are
> fickle, and it's hard to keep up with them. Companies that market to
> young people are especially frustrated - they spend lots of time
> trying to figure out what kids think is cool, and once they do, the
> definition of cool has changed. So aren't you overestimating the
> success of all the targeting?

That is consistent with much of the media impact studies - most show
that there is no direct brainwashing effect some people suggest.  The
effects that can be demonstrated are those of the "agenda setting" i.e.
the media telling people what to think about (instead what to think),
"uses and gratification" i.e. the media providing material that feeds
into and reinforces people's preconceived notions and needs, or "gate
keeping"  i.e. media defining "legitimate" subjects and opinions.

I think marketing serves all those functions plus an additional one -
keeping the media in line.  Advertising is the main source of media
revenue, and that is an effective way of keeping the media not just
business-friendly, but also particular-product-friendly.  Buying opinion
forums to crowd out and marginalize potential dissenters seems to be the
main modus operandi of the business propaganda in the US.

Wojtek